American Bison 2026 (Sheet of 16) National Mammal of the United States First-Class Mail Forever Postage Stamps

The American Bison stamp from the U.S. Postal Service pays tribute to our national mammal. The species Bison bison is commonly called the buffalo, and is uniquely tied to American history. For millennia, the ways of the Native Great Plains peoples were intertwined with the buffalo's. Tribes crafted hides into clothing and tipis and bones and horns into tools. As settlers pressed westward throughout the 1800s, millions of buffalo were reduced to hundreds. Since the early 20th century, passionate efforts have replenished herds at Yellowstone National Park and other parks and refuges, and tribal nations are also restoring wild herds. The engraved 1923 American Buffalo stamp served as a starting point for art director Greg Breeding, who adapted the artwork of the vintage 30-cent stamp to reflect today's Forever rate. Breeding sought a contemporary buffalo photograph to accompany the engraved design. Finding just the right image proved trickier than expected. "Tom Murphy's photo has the kind of reproducible detail that so many other photos lack," says Breeding. Murphy's photograph captures a bull bison at Yellowstone National Park, where the largest wild buffalo herd flourishes today. The photo, says Breeding, "also happens to have a background of clean sky and pretty magnificent grass," elements that echo the 1923 stamp image. "Bleeding the image over the edges of the stamp instead of putting a border around the photo," says Breeding, "helps the buffalo feel more out in the open, less constrained. This also creates a better background for the vintage artwork." Seamless blending of the prairie grass between the stamps serves another of the designer’s goals - for the grass to flow in a continuous pattern across each row of the 16-stamp pane. The inset is Breeding's intaglio-printed adaptation of the 1923 American Buffalo stamp, originally designed for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP).

• Honor the national mammal of the United States with the American Bison Forever stamps. The stamps are available in sheets of 16.
• The American Bison Forever stamps combine a photograph of a wild buffalo in profile with artwork recalling a 1923 stamp issued when the species Bison bison was rebounding from near extinction.
• Forever Stamp: Always valid for the rate of sending one ounce of mail, regardless of future rate increases.
• Pane of 16: Provides enough stamps for multiple mailings.
• Self-Adhesive: Easy to use, simply peel and stick.
• Made in the USA: High-quality, detailed stamp artwork made and printed domestically.
• The American Bison stamp is being issued as a Forever stamp. This Forever stamp will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce rate.