The U.S. Postal Service will issue a new Forever stamp Sept. 12 honoring the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, continuing a postal tradition of commemorating the nation’s military service institutions.
The U.S. Coast Guard Academy stamp will be unveiled during a free public first-day-of-issue ceremony at 10 a.m. at the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival at Custom House Pier in New London, Connecticut. Marc McCrery, USPS customer experience vice president, will serve as the dedicating official.
The stamp will go on sale nationwide the same day in panes of 20 and will be sold at the First-Class Mail Forever rate. USPS said the stamp must not be sold or canceled before Sept. 12.
The design features photographs of two Coast Guard vessels closely tied to the service’s past and present: USCGC Eagle, the Academy’s primary training vessel since 1946, and USCGC Bertholf, the first Legend-class national security cutter.
Antonio Alcalá, an art director for USPS, designed the stamp using photographs supplied by the U.S. Coast Guard. Postal Service records identify the contributing Coast Guard photographers as Petty Officer 3rd Class Matthew Thieme and Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier.
The stamp marks 150 years since the predecessor of the Coast Guard Academy was established in 1876. According to the Coast Guard Historian’s Office, Congress approved legislation that year creating the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service School of Instruction.
The first class consisted of nine cadets. Early instruction was built around a combination of academics and practical training at sea, a model that remains part of the Academy’s identity today. The institution ultimately became the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and is now based in New London.
Eagle reflects that maritime training tradition. The 295-foot, three-masted barque is used to train future Coast Guard officers and is the largest tall ship flying the Stars and Stripes as well as the only active square-rigger in U.S. government service.
Built in Germany in 1936 and originally commissioned as Horst Wessel, the vessel was taken by the United States as a war reparation after World War II and recommissioned as a Coast Guard cutter. New London became its permanent homeport.
The Academy says Eagle has 23 sails, more than 22,000 square feet of sail area and six miles of rigging. Its primary mission is training cadets and officer candidates, though it also represents the Coast Guard during public port visits in the United States and abroad.
The second vessel pictured on the stamp, Bertholf, represents the modern operational Coast Guard.
Commissioned in 2008, Bertholf was the service’s first Legend-class national security cutter. The 418-foot cutter is homeported in Alameda, California, and is designed for long-range missions that can include law enforcement, homeland security, national defense and maritime operations.
During a 130-day Bering Sea deployment that ended in February 2025, Bertholf operated as far north as the Arctic Circle, conducted commercial fishing-vessel boardings, supported search-and-rescue coverage and worked with other federal and state agencies. The cutter also strengthened U.S. presence along the maritime boundary with Russia, according to the Coast Guard.
The pairing of Eagle and Bertholf gives the stamp a visual connection between the Academy’s historic training mission and the operational service its graduates may later join.
The Coast Guard Academy traces its origins to July 1876, when Congress established the School of Instruction for the Revenue Cutter Service. The school’s founders designed a program that combined classroom education with practical maritime training aboard sailing vessels.
The Academy later moved to New London, where cadets first occupied the newly constructed campus in 1932. It remains one of the nation’s federal service academies and prepares officers for service in the U.S. Coast Guard.
The Sept. 12 unveiling is scheduled as part of the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival. The ceremony is free and open to the public, and attendees are encouraged to register in advance through the Postal Service.
Collectors who cannot attend the ceremony will still be able to purchase the stamp nationwide beginning Sept. 12. USPS also offers first-day-of-issue postmarks by mail for a limited period following the release. Requests must be postmarked by Jan. 12, 2027.
The Postal Service is promoting the issue using the hashtag #USCoastGuardStamp.
Registration information for the ceremony is available at https://www.usps.com/uscoastguardstamp/.
