Halloween is one of the largest consumer holidays in the United States — around a quarter of all the candy sold in the country each year is bought for it. USPS has marked it, in the entire history of the stamp programme, four times.
Here is the complete list. It is short enough to be worth knowing by heart if you collect seasonal issues.
1974 — The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
The first, a 10¢ commemorative catalogued as Scott 1548, timed for use on Halloween mail.
It shows the scene from Washington Irving's tale: Ichabod Crane, the nervous schoolmaster, being run down by the Headless Horseman. Note what USPS did here — it did not issue a Halloween stamp, it issued an American literature stamp that happens to be terrifying. That framing is the reason it exists.
1997 — Classic Movie Monsters
Frankenstein's monster, the Mummy, the Wolf Man, Dracula and the Phantom of the Opera. Again not nominally a Halloween set — it is a film-history set — but it is the one people actually buy in October, because these five faces are the source material for a large share of the costumes on any given street.
2016 — Jack-o'-Lanterns
The first issue that is openly, unambiguously about Halloween. Four different photographs on a sheet of 20, released at Anoka City Hall Plaza in Minnesota — Anoka bills itself as the Halloween Capital of the World, so the first-day location is doing the same work it always does.
The pumpkins were carved by Paul Montanari and photographed by Sally Andersen-Bruce, with Derry Noyes as art director. Real carved pumpkins, photographed lit, rather than illustration.
2019 — Spooky Silhouettes
Four Forever stamps, digital illustrations of black silhouettes in lit windows — the view from the street of a house that has committed to the occasion.
The four: a cat with an arched back and a raven on a bare branch, against yellowish green; two ghosts against orange; a spider in its web against red; three bats against purple.
Design-wise this is the most coherent of the four issues, because the window frame gives every stamp the same structure and lets the colour do the differentiating.
Why the list is so short
Two reasons worth understanding if you are waiting for the next one.
Seasonal stamp capacity goes overwhelmingly to the winter holidays, which generate a volume of mail Halloween does not — people send Christmas cards by the hundred and Halloween cards by the handful.
And the subject matter is awkward for a national postal service. Skulls, witches and the occult are a harder sell through a government approval process than snow and wreaths. It is not a coincidence that the first two entries on this list were framed as literature and cinema rather than as holiday stamps.
The holiday itself
Halloween falls on 31 October, the eve of All Saints' Day — All Hallows — which opens the season of Allhallowtide. Pope Gregory III fixed 1 November as the day to honour all the saints in the eighth century, and All Saints' Day absorbed elements of the older Celtic festival of Samhain (said sow-in), when bonfires were lit and costumes worn to drive off spirits.
The eve became All Hallows' Eve, then Halloween. By the twentieth century it had become one of the major American holidays, particularly for children — and it now carries parades, corn mazes, haunted houses, school and neighbourhood festivals, pumpkin festivals, and in some places pumpkin catapults.
Other countries issue Halloween stamps more freely than the US does. Canada, France, Belgium and Austria have all produced them, generally as cartoon treatments of skulls, jack-o'-lanterns, witches, potion bottles and bats.
A note on using them
Both the 2016 and 2019 issues are Forever stamps, which means they are not seasonal in any postal sense. Buy a sheet in October and the leftovers carry Christmas cards in December at the same rate. There is no expiry and no penalty for sending a bat in February.
They also frame well. A full sheet of twenty jack-o'-lanterns behind glass is a genuinely good piece of seasonal decoration, and cheaper than most of what gets sold as one.
Best deals on Forever stamps
All four issues above are off official sale. The two Forever ones remain full postage at the current rate, which is what makes them worth buying below face rather than at collector prices — you are buying postage that happens to be seasonal, not a collectible that happens to be valid.
Where to buy
Current issues from USPS. Retired Halloween and seasonal designs from a verified surplus channel such as Forever Stamp Center — see the holiday range.
The short version
Sleepy Hollow in 1974, Classic Movie Monsters in 1997, Jack-o'-Lanterns in 2016, Spooky Silhouettes in 2019. That is every Halloween stamp the US has issued. The last two are Forever stamps, so they work perfectly well in December.
More on buying Forever stamps
- 👉 USPS Issues Two Kinds of Christmas Stamp Every Year
- 👉 Every First-Day City Is Chosen for a Reason
- 👉 The 2022 Release Calendar, Month by Month
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.
