Download this report as an MP3 sound file.


For broadcast on CBS Radio Stations 
May 12-13, 2001:


Get 'em while they're hot.


The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries.
 
The news this past week that the U-S Postal Service will 
raise some postage rates July first could create some 
interesting rarities. While the basic letter rate isn't 
changing, others are -- and the Postal Service just issued
new stamps to meet the rates that went into effect in 
January. How many were actually used?


Take postcards, for example. They're going to 21 cents in 
July. There have been four 20-cent cards issued this year, 
THREE in the last month. Will anyone actually use them 
before the rate goes up?


Two-ounce letters will cost 57 cents....there are two new 
55-cent stamps, one specifically for wedding invitations 
and the like.


It's hard enough to find an Express Mail stamp actually USED 
to carry Express Mail. The twelve-twenty-five stamp issued 
in January will be 20 cents short in July.


Collecting entire envelopes that show usages like this is 
called Postal History. Finding these stamps and cards used is 
called...a challenge.


And that's stamp collecting this week. 

I'm Lloyd de Vries, CBS News.


----------------------------------------------------------
Go to Previous Report
Go to Next Report 

Go to Report Index
 
Return to Virtual Stamp Club Home Page