United States 1984 Olympic Stamp Collection

The 1984 Olympics were a young stamp collector's dream.

In 1896, the year of the first Olympiad, the host country Greece released commemorative postage stamps. This set a precedent, and other countries, some not even hosting the Olympics, would release stamps over the years. Before the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, the United States had issued 22 stamps to honor the games. But for the 1984 Games, they decided to go big (like most things in those games) and release 12 stamps as part of the United States 1984 Olympic Stamp Collection. This joined 12 stamps released for the Winter Olympics for a total of 24 Olympic stamps that year. This was more Olympic stamps than had been released in the entire history of U.S. Olympic stamps up to that point.

For many young people, this would be a colorful and exciting introduction to the world of stamp collecting. The surrounding hype started at least the year before the games, when there was an unveiling of the plans in print media and on television. The optimism around the release is demonstrated well in this commercial they ran in 1983 featuring Hardy Rawls. In it, you get to see what you would have spotted going to a post office that year: a giant display about the stamps, but also a premium offering you could get from the post office as part of the Olympic Challenge, a full-color poster and collector folder.

The poster was 32 inches (ca. 81 cm) tall by 21 inches (53.34 cm) wide and featured colorful images of the stamps with a little section in the corner where you could place the stamps you had collected. It was a clever way to inspire kids to want to “collect them all,” and I am sure it graced the walls of thousands of kids (and adults) across America.

Collect ‘em all!

While the poster was cool and eye-catching, and on the surface might be the more compelling of the two offerings, the folder had a feature that was hard to beat. It had a listing of every event in the Games that year and a place for you to record who won the gold medal in that event and a place for records broken. Not only did it have all the Summer Olympics, but it also had a smaller section for the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.

These were not the only things you could get from your post office at the time. You could order other useful postal-related items like postcards, stationery, and aerograms. Below are some samples they included in the folder.

They also had a book that they claimed would “become a valuable keepsake,” The 1984 Olympics: Sarajevo and Los Angeles. They estimated the cost of the book at about $10, which is about the same as what you will pay for a copy today. Stamps could be purchased at your post office, or you could order them through the mail.

An unusual bit of ephemera was a printed newsletter called the “Olympic Outlook.” Each one was printed on one sheet of paper, both sides, and featured news about the Olympics. The folder came with one, but it looks like you could read and pick up new ones at your local post office. I find it charming that the post offices were attempting to be a hub for Olympic activity in communities across the country. And, in a pre-internet world, this would have been a solid source of Olympic information for many communities. We might not need things like this anymore, but I wouldn’t mind if we did.

Finally, there were the stamps. They would start being issued on July 28, 1983, and according to what I read online, they made so many that they lingered for a while afterward. Each set of stamps consisted of 12 stamps that colorfully captured an Olympic sport, all of them with an athlete in motion. The denomination of these stamps varied, starting at 13 cents, which was a denomination that met the mailing rate for postcards at the time, and moving into airmail denominations of 28 and 40 cents.

These stamps featured artwork by Robert Peak. Peak also designed stamps for the Winter Olympics that year, and the design carries through both series. He added what were called “flowing strikes,” which are colored stripes that add a sense of movement to the work. The sports featured were:

1. Shot put

2. Rings

3. Weightlifting

4. Swimming

5. Discus

6. Archery

7. Boxing

8. High Jump

9. Gymnastics

10. Hurdles

11. Basketball

12. Soccer

Here are all the stamps in my collection:

Overall, the 1984 Olympic stamp collection was more than just a set of postage stamps; it was a piece of history and a gateway into the world of philately for many young collectors. It captured the excitement of the games and brought a slice of Olympic spirit to communities across America. Whether you were collecting stamps, filling out the poster, or keeping track of events in the folder, there was something magical about it all. It’s a reminder of a time when something as simple as a trip to the post office could connect you to a global event and ignite a lifelong passion. So, if you ever come across one of those old stamps or posters, take a moment to appreciate their history and the Olympic dreams they inspired.