The Postal Service’s new 250 Years of Delivering stamps are se-tenant.
Do you know what that means?
As the new Stamps Forever website explains, se-tenant stamps work together as a single panoramic scene or as individual images.
Stamps of two or more designs on the same pane — or in the same booklet — are described as se-tenant, which is French for “joined together” (Americanized pronunciation: say-TEN-unt).
The 250 Years of Delivering stamps are also considered continuous-design stamps, which are se-tenants that go further: A single design continues across the boundary of one stamp onto another, or multiple others.
Once a novelty, se-tenant stamps are now released regularly. The recent Goodnight Moon, Baby Wild Animals and Battlefields of the American Revolution are all considered se-tenant stamps.
