Can USPS Imperforate Stamps Be Used For Postage?

I have a question about modern USPS press sheets without die cuts.

Are individual stamps cut from these press sheets valid for postage on regular mail?

I noticed that some USPS product descriptions state "Collectible item only (not eligible for mail use)", even though these are genuine USPS-issued stamps.

Here are a few examples from the official USPS Postal Store:

2026 American Bison:
https://store.usps.com/store/produc...uts-S_488808

2026 Bruce Lee:
https://store.usps.com/store/produc...uts-S_488008

2023 Ruth Bader Ginsburg:
https://store.usps.com/store/produc...uts-S_483308

Does anyone know whether this restriction applies only to the intact press sheet or also to individual stamps carefully cut from it?

Has anyone actually used these stamps for postage, particularly in recent years?

I've used imperf press sheet singles as postage for a long time and no one has ever said anything. AFAIK, they are valid for postage.

By the way, when I go to the links you provided, I do not see "Collectible item only (not eligible for mail use)" anywhere on the page.

Thanks for sharing your experience! It's good to hear that you've been using imperforate stamps for postage without any issues.

Regarding the USPS description, here's a screenshot from the Bruce Lee Press Sheet Without Die Cuts product page. Under "How it works", it explicitly states:

"Purpose: Collectible item only (not eligible for mail use)."

I'm curious whether USPS means the intact press sheet isn't intended for mailing, or whether they've introduced a restriction on using individual stamps cut from these sheets.

I see that now. Interestingly that this same admonition is also included on the press sheets WITH die cuts... but how would anyone know if a die cut stamp came from retail sheets or a die cut press sheet?

I have no idea why that statement is there. It makes no sense.

That's a very good point! If USPS uses the same statement for press sheets WITH die cuts, it makes even less sense, since those stamps should be identical to the ones sold in regular panes.

I also wanted to share this photo of an actual envelope I received through USPS. It has a 2022 Eugenie Clark imperforate stamp alongside a regular die-cut stamp. Interestingly, the sender even included a note stating, "This no die cuts stamp is valid, official postage."



I'm personally about 99% convinced these stamps are valid for postage. I suspect the USPS wording refers to the press sheet as a collectible product rather than the individual stamps.

By the way, have you or anyone ever experienced any issues when using imperforate stamps for postage, such as postal employees questioning their validity or refusing to accept them? Have you ever needed to include a similar note or take any special precautions?

I've also emailed USPS for an official clarification and will share their response here when I hear back.

I get questioning looks at the post office with a lot of the vintage postage that I use. "Are those real stamps?" So it's not surprising if they scrutinize the modern forever imperfs. The printing quality of some of the genuine stamps is so poor, it looks like they could have been printed with an ink jet printer.
If only they were able to identify high quality genuine fakes and mark them RTS or postage due, but I digress.

I don't know what "not eligible for mail use" means. Maybe "For collectors, not intended for postal use" makes sense, but "not eligible" is strange.

I think the wording is to keep people who want them for postage from buying them. A stamp not valid for postage would by definition not be a postage stamp and thus not collectible as such.

That makes no sense to me. Why would the USPS intentionally try to keep people from buying them? Their goal is to sell as many as possible.

If the press sheets somehow are NOT valid for postage, that needs to be apparent on the item's face, e.g., mark them as precancelled or remove the word "FOREVER" from the design. A statement on a website shop somewhere does not automagically make them invalid for postage. Further, if they were somehow invalid, I would expect this to be covered in the DMM or some other officially published document, not a transient web page that can be altered/edited at any time without notice.

To original poster: Do you have a Scott catalog, or other way to quickly peruse several decades of U.S. stamps issued between say 1930s and early 1990s? Every souvenir sheet issued (usu with imperforate stamps) has had its stamps cut out and used on mail (validly), but in some instances somewhere across tens of thousands of Post Offices, they have been marked as Invalid for Postage. So, nothing new here, except the misguided wording some (newbie?) USPS employee (or maybe contractor!) used on the website, which should have said something like "not suitable for mail use, as difficult to remove individual stamps" only for the sans-die-cut sheets.

As for the sender of that modern postal history ("ruined" as looking very hobby-contrived), if they were mailing that to an office that would likely shred it (e.g., a bill payment), OK, they want to make sure it gets through. But in that case, they are "wasting" a few-qtys-exist "collectible" (unless they are deliberately reducing the supply to increase future value, LOL). On other hand, if they were mailing it to a hobby friend (like you) or as "controlled mail" (i.e., to family or friend arranged beforehand to SAVE for return to the mailer), having a sticker like that, they might as well as start hand-drawing arrows to nice stamps on all their mail with notation "Save me!" But maybe this sender doesn't care about "intact covers" but only the stamps themselves (like countless "stamp collectors" across the century+) and want only to recover the covers to cut the stamps apart, to trade/collect "stamps" and not "covers."

By the way, speaking of future value, I wonder what "used" format will bring the highest "return" for future collectors? (Just peruse the "on cover" Scott catalog values for pre-1940s issues for a clue.)

I have always assumed that the modern imperfs are valid postage. While I cannot speak definitively as to the legality of the practice, I have, on several occasions, used modern imperfs on envelopes/packages. Most of this usage occurred about 10 years ago although I did recently use an imperf pair of the coastal birds stamps from 2015 that I found in my aging postage-to-be-used pile. Never has the USPS returned a single item as undeliverable due to a lack of valid postage. In one instance where I presented an item at my local postal branch, I did have the postal clerk question whether imperf stamps were valid ... at the time, I convinced her that they were.
On the other hand, almost 20 years ago, I did have an envelope returned for this exact reason. It was accompanied with a written admonition to use U.S. postage. I now wish that I had kept the item. It was an interesting instance of a misstep by U.S. postal employees. The stamp in question was the 2008 Jamestown commemorative triangle (Scott 4136). Although American triangular stamps were (and still are) uncommon at best, Jamestown was not even the first such triangular issue.