USPS Love stamps pair stylised birds with hidden hearts

USPS released its 2026 Love stamps on 13 January, presenting four colourful scenes in which pairs of stylised birds encounter hearts in different forms. One pair examines branches carrying small white hearts, another scene shows a blue bird offering a heart-shaped flower to a red bird, two white birds rest beneath a heart-shaped moon, and a fourth pair moves through falling orange and yellow hearts.

Artist James Yang drew on mid-century American design and Japanese children's-book illustration. He began with pencil sketches on tracing paper before scanning and refining the work digitally. USPS issued the four Forever designs in panes of 20; official product specifications identify offset printing by Banknote Corporation of America and a print quantity of 75 million stamps.

The Love series has long served wedding invitations, greetings and personal correspondence while creating an annual collecting field of its own. The four-design format makes complete used sets and correctly dated commercial covers worth retaining. The bird imagery also gives the issue crossover appeal for thematic collectors of birds, affection, weddings, graphic design and contemporary illustration.