The first time Mickey Mouse was placed on a postage stamp

Mickey Mouse made his debut on Nov. 18, 1928, and received many accolades over time, being included in the Encyclopedia Britannica, receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and is in the Smithsonian Institute. But it took 76 years for Mickey to get his own postage stamp.

While Mickey had appeared on other country stamps, such as the Maldives in 1985,  Gambia in 1989,  Antiqua and Barbuda in 1999 and Portugal in 2001.

But it wasn’t until 2004 when the U.S. Postal Service decided to create a series of stamps called The Art of Disney: Friendship that Mickey was placed on a stamp. He shared the 37-cent self-adhesive stamp with Goofy and Donald Duck. 

Walt Disney Company Chief Executive Officer Michael Eisner said at the time,  “The rare honor of being featured on a United States postage stamp is truly special for Disney. We are pleased that millions will have a chance to brighten their correspondence with Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck and other Disney friends.”

Disney’s relationship with the Postal Service started in 1933 when Mickey Mouse starred in the animated short “Mail Pilot.” Walt Disney’s achievements were first recognized on a stamp in 1968 when a parade of children, hand-in-hand, emerged from a tiny castle to surround a portrait of Walt Disney.

In 1998, a Snow White stamp was issued as part of the Postal Service’s “Celebrate the Century” stamp series that highlighted the most memorable and significant people, places, events, and trends of each decade of the 20th Century.  The 1937 “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” premiered as the nation’s first feature-length animated film and won a special Academy Award for Walt Disney.

Since 2004, Mickey has appeared on numerous other U.S. stamps.