Mystic Stamp Learning Hub

Learn more about stamp collecting, take a dive into the history of stamps, or get any questions answered.

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Learn About Stamp Collecting

  • United States Stamps

    Because of its familiarity to most American philatelists, we tend not to appreciate just how difficult collecting United States stamps is compared to collecting the stamps of most other countries.
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  • The First United States Postage Stamp

    The issuance of postage stamps was one of the great technological and commercial innovations of the nineteenth century.
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  • USPS Unveils Barbara Bush Stamp

    At the White House on May 8, the US Postal Service revealed the artwork of a commemorative Forever stamp to celebrate the centennial year of former first lady Barbara Bush’s birth.
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  • Hermes and the Stamps of Greece

    There is no more appropriate stamp design than the portrait of Hermes, the messenger god in his winged helmet, on the first stamps of Greece.
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  • U.S. Postal Service Announces Stamps Celebrating Its 250th Anniversary

    On July 26, 1775, the Second Continental Congress established a postal system for the United Colonies and appointed Benjamin Franklin as the first postmaster general.
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  • Check Letters

    Check letters are simple a way of indicating where in the sheet a stamp was printed.
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  • Trans-Mississippi Issue of 1898

    Despite the unpopularity of its first commemorative set, the Columbian Exposition issue of 1893, the United States Post Office commemorated the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition with their own set of commemorative stamps in 1898.
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  • Columbian Exposition Issue of 1893

    The Columbian Exposition set of 1893 (Scott #230-245) was the world’s first commemorative set and it has become one of the most popular sets not only in United States philately but in the world. But this was not always so.
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  • Stamp Survival

    The problem of what quantities exist of different classic stamps has been one of the great difficulties of philatelic research. Counts of stamps such as United States 5¢ and 10¢ 1847 tend to be little more than guesses.
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Frequently Asked Questions

Got a question that needs to be answered? You’ll find what you’re looking for here in our FAQ.

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This Day in History

Learn about the history of US stamps with a daily snapshot of this day in US stamp history.

Browse This Day in History
  • May 15, 2025

    First US Airmail Flight 
    On May 15, 1918, America’s airmail service began when two Curtiss Jennys departed New York and Washington, DC. In the months that followed, pioneering aviators expanded airmail service over the treacherous Allegheny Mountains to Chicago and eventually the west coast.
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