Many countries have issued postage stamps and other postal items (stamped envelopes, postal cards, and postal cancels) that display various aspects of the metric system. Most of those stamps have been issued either to commemorate early adoption of the metric system, or to generate publicity for more recent conversion to the metric system. This page contains a few examples of these items. More complete information is available in the references at the bottom of this page.
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A U.S. postal cover (stamped and postmarked envelope) celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 (and the 25th anniversary of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)).
To order the cover, send $4, which includes shipping/handling with a request to:
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When Australia converted to the metric system in 1973, it issued the following set of 4 postage stamps to help publicize the metric conversion process:
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Another postal item, this First Day Cover, was issued by South Africa on the 10th anniversary of the appointment of a Metrication Advisory Board to plan and co-ordinate the change-over to the metric system in South Africa. The stamp on this cover was first issued 1977 September 15, the date on the postmark, in connection with the completion of metrication in South Africa.
The following link includes images of many of the postage stamps issued by various countires to commemorate their introduction of the metric system:
http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/hillger/metric-system.htm
The following link includes images of many of the postage stamps issued by various countires to honor those after whom SI-metric units are named:
http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/hillger/metric-names.htm
Those interested in the topic of postage stamps are invited to look up the following articles in the published literature. These articles are not available from USMA:
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