In this electronic era, there are some luddites (and I’m one) who still prefer the hand-written letter. I love to get out one of my trusted fountain pens, a bottle of ink, and write away. I prefer to print and mail my checks, as opposed to using online banking. I’m also a stamp collector, although I no longer keep my collection up to date. Thus, I have a number of reasons to be interested in the upcoming postal rate change that takes effect on Sunday.
For those don’t know about it, our postal rates rise on Sunday to 39¢ for First Class Mail (up 2¢), and 24¢ for each subsequent ounce and for postcards (up 1¢). Priority mail and international mail is also becoming more expensive. This is the first increase since 2002. In conjunction with the increase, a non-denominated stamp (“Lady Liberty”) is being issued. This is something that started in 1978 when the first non-denominated stamp was issued in response to a rate change.
Non-denominated stamps are interesting. First, I’ve never seen the point of them. After all, it doesn’t take that long to get a stamp engraved and printed. So why not just print the new postage, if you are going to trouble to print the stamp. Second, they are not universally accepted—you can only use them for domestic postage. However, the USPS Domestic Mail Manual states explicitly that all non-denominated stamps are valid on international mail.
The first non-denominated stamps made us computer folks happy, for they were variables (i.e., lettered). The “A” stamp was issued in 1979; the last lettered stamp was “H” in 1999. There were also bizarre stamps, such as the one that stated “This US stamp, along with 25¢ of additional U.S. postage, is equivalent to the “F” stamp rate”. You can see pictures of all the non-denominated stamps here.
So, why don’t I collect stamps anymore? Simply, it’s gotten too expensive and isn’t worth it. Nowadays, single stamps (especially cancelled ones) have little value because the print quantities are so large. Even “blocks of four” are of little value, especially in this day of self-adhesive stamps. You need to collect entire panes, which are typically 20 or 40 stamps. With the large number of stamp issues over the year, this starts to really add up.
By the way, did you know that you can design your own postage stamp, with your own images on it? Stamps.Com offers a service where you can put (almost) any image on a stamp. However, there is a price, with personalized 37¢ stamps costing 85¢. Zazzle is another vendor that provides this service.
