Five new U.S. stamped envelopes packaged in three sets of 10

The United States Postal Service is offering five new stamped envelopes with wintry stamp designs.

The envelopes, all No. 10 size, have an Oct. 1 issue date. They are forever envelopes, meaning they are always valid for the first-class 1-ounce letter rate, regardless of any future rate increases.

The envelopes are being sold in three different packs of 10 envelopes each.

One pack has two different Snowflake imprinted stamp designs.

A second pack has two different Winter Fun imprinted stamp designs: one showing a male cardinal on a decorated branch, the other depicting a young girl affixing a carrot nose on a snowman.

The third pack has 10 envelopes using a single poinsettia stamp design.

Each pack comes with seals (the design of which are not known at this time) and sell for $9.95.

The envelopes are not sold individually by the Postal Service.

No first-day ceremony is planned for this issue. The Postal Service will provide first-day cancels from Washington, D.C. Details for obtaining the cancels are still under review and will be published in Linn’s when they are made available by the Postal Service.

A first-day canceled set of five envelopes will be sold by the Postal Service through its Stamp Fulfillment Services division and, presumably, online at https://store.usps.com.

Three of the envelope stamp designs borrow from the designs of previously issued postage stamps, and two show designs that will appear again on U.S. stamps within the next few weeks.

Those two designs — on the Winter Fun envelopes — will be seen again when the Winter Fun forever postage stamps are issued in a set of four Oct. 23. (The other two Winter Fun designs, not used on the new envelope set, show a child making a snow angel and a couple ice skating together.)

Two other new envelopes reproduce snowflake images that were shown previously on the 2013 nondenominated (10¢) Snowflakes nonprofit coil stamp set (Scott 4808-4812).

Each shows a single snowflake as photographed by Kenneth G. Libbrecht, chairman of the physics department at the California Institute of Technology. One imprinted stamp has a green background, and the other has a blue background.

The snowflakes pictured on the envelopes are those that appear on the stamps listed as Scott 4810 and 4811 in the 2013 set.

The fifth and final envelope reproduces the central design of the 2013 Poinsettia forever stamp issued Oct. 10, 2013. That design shows an illustration by William Low of the popular Christmas plant’s broad red leaves.

The No. 10-size envelopes (about 9½ inches long by 41/8 inches high) appear to be designed to encourage mailing Christmas letters and other winter messages to friends and family.

The stamps are offset-printed with self-adhesive flaps by Ashton Potter in Williamsville, N.Y.

The USPS order numbers for these sets are 688634 for the Poinsettia pack, 789834 for the Snowflakes pack, and 689834 for the Winter Fun pack.