There have only ever been a handful of Global Forever designs. USPS issues perhaps one a year, sometimes none, so the entire history fits in one article — which is not true of any other category of US stamp.
Here is the whole run, with what each one is and what it cost when it appeared.
First, what a Global Forever is
A Global Forever stamp is round — the only round US stamps in ordinary circulation — and carries the words Global and Forever instead of a number. That shape is deliberate: you can identify one across a room, which matters when the penalty for grabbing the wrong stamp is a letter returned from another continent.
It pays for a one-ounce letter or a postcard to any country First-Class Mail International reaches. The year printed on it is irrelevant to what it is worth — like every Forever issue, it is valid at the current rate, whenever you use it.
2013 — Earth
The first one, issued 28 January 2013, six years after the domestic Forever stamp arrived in 2007. Face value at launch: $1.10.
The design is a painting by USPS art director Antonio Alcalá — the planet ringed by fine green lines, worked in gouache, an opaque watercolour, on watercolour paper. Painted rather than photographed, which nothing since has repeated.
2013 — Evergreen Wreath
Issued 24 October the same year, also at $1.10. Evergreen branches, pine cones, nandina berries and a red ribbon, designed by Alan Talley.
This established the pattern that shaped the whole series: a round stamp wants a round subject, and a wreath is the most obvious round thing in the seasonal vocabulary. Almost every issue since has been a wreath, a flower or a sphere.
2014 — Sea Surface Temperatures
Issued 22 April 2014, on Earth Day, and the most unusual design in the set: a NOAA climate model of the Earth's oceans rendered as data. Joshua Colin, then a vice president at USPS, described it as standing for the part science plays in understanding the planet and its climate.
A stamp whose image is a scientific visualisation rather than a picture of something. There is no other US issue quite like it.
2014 — Silver Bells Wreath
The holiday issue for that year, following 2013's wreath. Tightly packed silver bells forming a ring against deep green, red bow at the top.
No stamp image survives in our archive for this one, which is its own small comment on how quickly these issues disappear.
2016 — The Moon
Issued 22 February 2016. A high-detail photograph of the lunar surface — the one subject that is genuinely round, genuinely universal, and recognisable to a recipient in any country on the routing list.
For a stamp whose only job is to cross borders, the moon is close to a perfect brief.
2017 — Green Succulent
Issued 28 April 2017: a photograph of an echeveria, a succulent native to the Americas, shot from directly above so the rosette fills the circle.
2018 — Poinsettia
The plant reached American gardeners in 1829, shown at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's first exhibition — the event that became the Philadelphia Flower Show — and attached itself to the winter holidays soon after.
2020 — Chrysanthemum
A pink chrysanthemum from directly overhead, the whole structure of the flower visible. Known as the queen of autumn flowers, it is among the most-grown garden, cut and potted plants in the country, and is brewed as a tea in several culinary traditions. Blooming as the year turns cold, it carries associations of cheerfulness heading into winter.
2022 — African Daisy
An orange African daisy from above. The central disk is made of hundreds of tiny tubular flowers, ringed by the petal-like ray florets — the structure that makes a daisy a daisy.
One correction worth making, since it circulates: the African daisy is not a chrysanthemum. Both sit in the daisy family, which is why the disk-and-ray construction looks so similar in the two stamps, but they are different plants.
What it costs now
The Global Forever launched at $1.10 and stood at $1.40 as of 2022. Anyone who bought at the launch price and still has them is mailing at the newer rate for the older money — which is the entire mechanism of a Forever stamp, just at a higher unit price than the domestic version.
Using them, and not using them
One Global Forever covers a one-ounce letter or postcard anywhere. Heavier than that, or outside letter dimensions, and different rates apply — use the rate calculator on usps.com rather than guessing.
You can put a Global Forever on domestic mail; it is valid postage. You will just be overpaying substantially, so do not.
The reverse trap is more common: making up international postage out of domestic Forever stamps. It is legal — in fact almost every US stamp issued since the Civil War remains valid at face value — but you cannot make exact change with them, so you end up paying more than the Global would have cost, with a cluttered envelope as a bonus.
Anything that is not a plain letter may need a customs declaration, and international mail is not trackable on the basic service. Tracking means Registered Mail, Priority Mail International or Express — all considerably more expensive.
Best deals on Forever stamps
Retired Global issues are the best case for buying below face in the whole catalogue, because the unit price is high — a discount on a $1.40 stamp is worth more than the same percentage on a domestic one, and the stamp is just as valid.
Where to buy
Current issues from USPS. Retired designs from a verified surplus channel such as Forever Stamp Center at www.foreverstampcenter.com — see the Global range or the full catalogue.
The short version
Nine designs in a decade: a painted Earth, two wreaths, a climate model, the moon, a succulent, a poinsettia, a chrysanthemum and an African daisy. Round, $1.10 at launch and $1.40 as of 2022, one per one-ounce letter anywhere.
More on buying Forever stamps
- 👉 A Global Forever Does Not Cover a Package
- 👉 The 2022 Release Calendar, Month by Month
- 👉 You Can No Longer Put Your Face on a US Stamp
USPS specialist based in Los Angeles with extensive experience in postal operations and customer service. Certified in mail management and trained at the USPS Business Mail Academy, she offers reliable guidance on Forever Stamps and practical mailing solutions.
