The world's first Winter Olympics commemorative stamp was issued by the United States on 25 January 1932, ahead of the third Winter Games at Lake Placid, New York.
It also contains a well-known technical error, which is part of why collectors still discuss it.
Why the third Games and not the first
The International Olympic Committee decided at its 1925 Prague session to hold winter competitions every four years. The International Sports Week held at Chamonix in 1924 was then recognised retroactively as the first Winter Olympics.
Neither Chamonix nor the second Games at St. Moritz in 1928 produced commemorative postage. Lake Placid in 1932 was the first host to issue any — which is how a US stamp came to be the first Winter Olympics stamp in the world.
The stamp itself
Lithographed on unwatermarked paper, perforated 11, in rose, with a face value of 2 cents. The design shows a ski jumper against a snow-covered mountain background, with "Lake Placid New York" and the dates 4–13 February 1932.
The production figures are unusually well documented. Plate numbers ran from 20,815 to 20,826 — twelve plates in total. Each full press sheet was divided into four panes of 100, so 400 stamps to the sheet, and the total print run was 51,102,800.
That last number is worth sitting with. Fifty-one million of a stamp issued for a single sporting event, at a time when the country was in the depths of the Depression.
The error
Philatelists and skiers criticised the design almost immediately. The figure is shown in what should be a jump, but positioned as though sliding along the ground rather than airborne — a stance from which, as the complaint went, an athlete would land badly enough to break both legs.
The designer, Alvin Meissner, was accused of not understanding the sport he was depicting. The criticism stuck, and the stamp is now collected partly because of the flaw rather than in spite of it.
The Games it commemorated
Lake Placid was organised in the immediate aftermath of the crash, and money was the central problem. Godfrey Dewey, who chaired the organising committee, donated family land for the bobsleigh run.
252 athletes from 17 countries competed for 14 gold medals across bobsleigh, ice hockey, speed skating, figure skating, cross-country skiing, ski jumping and the Nordic combined.
The weather did not cooperate either: the two- and four-man bobsleigh events scheduled for 8 and 9 February were pushed back to the 14th and 15th, running past the dates printed on the stamp.
Best deals on Forever stamps
Historic commemoratives like this one are collector items rather than usable postage — a 2-cent denominated stamp from 1932 covers 2 cents of postage, not a letter. For mailing, current Forever stamps are what you want; for collecting, condition and provenance are what determine value.
Where to buy
Historic issues come from established philatelic dealers and stamp shows, where you can examine condition. For current postage, the USPS official store or a verified surplus channel such as Forever Stamp Center.
On any older stamp, authenticity and condition both matter, and both are easier to judge in person than from a listing photograph.
The short version
The 1932 Lake Placid issue was the first Winter Olympics stamp anywhere, printed 51 million times, and it depicts a ski jump that could not be landed. Collectors want it for the mistake as much as for the milestone.
More on buying Forever stamps
- 👉 You Have to Be Dead to Get on a US Stamp
- 👉 International Stamps: A Commemorative Issue
- 👉 Global Forever Stamps and World Stamps Are Different
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