The Postal Service issued 39-cent Lunar New Year commemorative stamps in twelve designs on January 29, 2006, in Washington, DC. Clarence Lee of Honolulu, Hawaii, created intricate paper-cut designs for the twelve animals associated with the Chinese lunar calendar.
Lau Bun, also of Honolulu, drew the calligraphic characters used for this souvenir sheet. The characters in the individual stamps identify the Year of the Dog, Rat, Tiger, and so on. The characters on the selvage to the left of the souvenir sheet may be translated as "Happy New Year!" The same greeting appears in English at the top of the sheet. The Banknote Corporation of America, Inc. printed sixty million stamps in the offset process.