There are some instances where a stamp set that is marketed toward the U.S. English-speaking market contains one or more words in another language.
- We enter these sentiments exactly as shown on the stamp, as published in the U.S. market, including any non-English words.
- Some examples are Hebrew phrases such as "Bat Mitzvah" or French phrases that are commonly used in English such as "Bon Voyage." There may also be cases where a different language is used to create a pun or add a bit of wordplay to the products.
- In most cases, we provide an English translation in the "full text" view. In some cases, words may have multiple translations and we try to include as many as possible. These are listed in parentheses.
- We do recognize that some translations of words may not respect the original intention of the native language. Without being outright offensive, we do try to include all commonly accepted translations, even ones that some people consider incorrect, for the sake of making our search tool as useful as possible. In cases where there is a significant translation issue, we will attempt to add a note to help educate others about the correct use of a non-English word or phrase. Our goal here is to educate while not getting too involved with the nuances of language.
- If you find a translation that's incorrect (whether it's outright incorrect or viewed by some as being incorrect) we encourage you to let us know. We are always open to learning more about non-English words or phrases and balancing a line between being respectful.
- Our search tool looks at both the display and full text of each stamp, so searching for a specific word will typically match it even if the word is not actually shown on the stamp. This includes translations, so searching for "friend," for example, could match a stamp that contains the word "amigo."
Oct 15, 2025