Add nostalgic flair to your holiday letters with these vintage unused "Currier's Winter Pastime" postage stamps! This nostalgic holiday design is perfect for adding a touch of class to your holiday cards and letters or winter save-the-dates and wedding invitations. In pristine mint condition and valid for current postage use, each stamp holds a face value of 10-cents. These USPS postage stamps are suitable for current mailing when used with the total required postage based on the weight of your correspondence. Embrace the charm of winter with this enchanting postage stamp!

Purchase includes a total of TWENTY (20) mint condition 10-cent "Currier's Winter Pastime" vintage postage stamps shown in the product listing photos.

COMPLEMENTARY WINTER HOLIDAY STAMPS:

"Currier and Ives Winter Road" Postage Stamps | Christmas Issue | Unused USPS Postage 10c | Pack of 20

"Christmas Tree and White House" Postage Stamps | Christmas Issue | Unused USPS Postage 5c | Pack of 20

"Winter Sunday in Norway, Maine" Postage Stamps | Christmas Issue Series | Unused USPS Postage 6c | Pack of 20

STAMP INFORMATION:

• Name: Currier's "Winter Pastime"
• Series: Contemporary Christmas
• Year Issued: 1976
• Face Value: 13-cents (USD) per stamp
• Topic(s): Holidays, Winter Scene, Snow, Ice Skating, Artist Nathaniel Currier
• Color(s): Multicolored
• Printing Method: Photogravure
• Scott Number: 1702
• Adhesion Type: Gummed (see adhesion instructions below)
• Condition: Genuine Unused USPS Postage Stamps, Ready to Use for USPS Mailings, Mint Condition

GENUINE USPS POSTAGE: These unused vintage postage stamps are perfectly valid for use as current postage for mailing with USPS as long as you use an adequate amount of additional postage to achieve standard postage rates according to the weight of your mailing. Check current postage rates on the USPS website.

STAMP HISTORY: The 1976 13¢ “Currier’s Winter Pastime” Christmas stamp was issued on October 27, 1976 in Boston, Massachusetts as the year’s Contemporary (secular) Christmas design. Its image is adapted from Nathaniel Currier’s 1855 hand-colored lithograph Winter Pastime, an ice-skating scene created two years before Currier partnered with James Merritt Ives (the Currier & Ives firm began in 1857). The skating-pond motif fit the program’s goal of offering a welcoming, nonreligious holiday image, and it was released the same day as the Traditional (religious) Christmas stamp, a Nativity adapted from John Singleton Copley’s 1776 painting at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Together, the pair exemplified the USPS practice of issuing both secular and sacred Christmas designs each year.

STAMP MEANING & SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE: The “Currier’s Winter Pastime” stamp captures the sacred joy of community, movement, and harmony with nature—a vision of life lived in graceful rhythm with the seasons. Though secular in imagery, depicting 19th-century skaters gliding across a frozen pond, the stamp radiates a quiet spirituality rooted in peace, balance, and shared delight—values at the heart of the Christmas season.

The scene, adapted from Nathaniel Currier’s 1855 lithograph "Winter Pastime", shows men, women, and children skating together under a clear winter sky, their figures poised in flowing motion. Spiritually, this act of skating becomes a metaphor for life’s dance upon uncertain ground: the ice may be fragile, yet the skaters move forward in trust and grace. It evokes the faith required to move through life’s cold and still places with poise and joy, a reminder that stability often comes not from stillness, but from motion guided by inner balance.

The winter landscape—bare trees, pale light, and the reflective surface of ice—symbolizes both quietude and renewal. Winter in spiritual tradition is the season of contemplation, when nature withdraws so that life may be renewed beneath the surface. Within this setting, human joy—expressed through skating—becomes a declaration of warmth and hope amid the stillness, mirroring the spiritual light of Christmas that shines brightest during the year’s darkest days.

At a deeper level, the communal nature of the scene speaks to unity and shared grace. Each figure finds balance not alone, but within a community—moving in harmony, laughter, and fellowship. This reflects one of the central spiritual truths of the season: that joy is magnified when it is shared, and that human connection is itself divine.

The “Currier’s Winter Pastime” stamp is a meditation on grace in motion—the beauty of life lived joyfully within nature’s cycles, and the sacredness of simple moments shared in peace. It transforms an image of 19th-century leisure into a timeless reminder that spirituality is not only found in worship or solemnity, but also in the pure, effortless joy of being alive, balanced, and together beneath the wide, quiet sky.

GUMMED STAMPS: These postage stamps have a traditional moisture-activated gum on the back. These stamps require licking or wetting to adhere to envelopes or other surfaces. To ensure good adhesion, apply vintage gummed stamps to your mailings with a glue stick (we recommend using Elmer's "Re-Stick" glue sticks).

PROCESSING & SHIPPING: Orders are typically processed and shipped within 1-3 business days of placing your order. All orders are shipped from California — please allow additional time for transit.

QUESTIONS? We love hearing from our customers and replies to inquires are usually answered the same day. Need more of this stamp? Looking for a particular stamp not found on our website? Want a curated postage set for your special event? Contact us with questions about vintage postage stamps and our services…

VISIT MY MINTED STORE: https://www.minted.com/store/heritageposthouse

TELL YOUR STORY IN STAMPS: We’ve worked with hundreds of couples and their stationers to custom design highly stylized personalized postage sets based on our customer’s life stories. We can help you curate personalized vintage postage sets to commemorate your save-the-date, wedding, shower, announcement, and other special occasions in a truly unique fashion. Drawing on our encyclopedic knowledge of every stamp ever issued by the USPS, and sourcing from our extensive inventory of collectable unused vintage stamps, we’ll help you tell your unique story in stamps!

ABOUT HERITAGE POST HOUSE: Jennifer Kramer is the founder of Heritage Post House, a boutique vintage postage house located in Northern California. Jennifer sources the most beautiful unused vintage postage stamps ever issued by USPS and artfully arranges them into curated postage sets that are sure to add a special touch to your invitations, announcements, and special mailings. In addition to creating pre-arranged postage sets, Jennifer also works with couples (and their stationers) to create one-of-a-kind custom postage arrangements for wedding invitations, save the dates, and other special occasions.


Product Specifications

Length: 0.98 in.
Height: 0.01 in.
Width: 1.57 in.
Weight: 0.01 lbs.