Letter Writers Alliance

Don't Eat the Postage (No Joke!)

These lovely and delicious looking stamps from Belgium aren't just a pretty picture. Following a healthy tradition of making chocolate postage extra special, these stamps are both scented like chocolate AND flavored like chocolate in the gum. There's even a video from the BBC about how they were made.

This is a big week for U.S.P.S. stamp releases, but they didn't bother to make their flower stamps scented. Too bad for us. Of course, if they're going to scent a stamp, I'd want a chocolate one in any case. Quick, to the stamp suggestion board!  Thanks to Member Pat for the tip! 

 

50 Years of Holiday Postage Stamps

This year marks the 50th year that the U. S. Post Office has been producing special stamps for the holiday season. I have a soft spot for the first Christmas stamp, the 4-cent Wreath and Candles. It is a simple red and green stamp with a wreath, two candles, and the words "Christmas 1962". I still come across unused stamps from this issue and happily affix them to my outgoing holiday cards.

You might think that the first stamp of something might be rare, but the demand for the stamp was so high that the Bureau of Engraving and Print­ing printed 350 million of them to start which was the most ever printed for a specialty stamp at the time. It wasn't enough. They went back to press and by the end of 1962, they had produced 1 billion of these wreathed beauties.

Every year since, the Postal Service has issued two holiday stamps; a "Holiday Contemporary" stamp (the Santa and Sleigh for this year) and the "Holiday Traditional" stamp (the Holy Family for this year). In 1996, the first Hanukkah stamp was produced, followed by a Kwanzaa stamp in 1997 and an Eid stamp in 2001. While there aren't any new designs this year, they are still selling the inventory of the designs from past years.

You can find a detailed listing of all the U.S. holiday stamps here.  You can see all the holiday issues from around the world over on Stamp News. Lastly, for those of you who love Christmas stamps more than anything, there is a stamp club for you.

Halloween Stamp Checklist and Crossword

Will Cochrane and the Philatellic Database has teamed up with the American Topical Association to bring you this Halloween/stamp themed crossword.  The American Topical Association is a society for stamp collectors who organize and/or focus their collections around certain "topics", hence the name. Topics in stamps are wide ranging. you could collect all fish stamps, all space stamps, all stamps featuring chocolate, and so on. The ATA has also released a Halloween stamp checklist which is seven pages long! Both are available as free downloads on their site through October 31st. It's a perfect blend of National Stamp Collecting month and Halloween.

National Stamp Collecting Month

October, in addition to being the month with the best holiday, is also National Stamp Collecting Month. The USPS has been celebrating the world-wide hobby of stamp collecting with special ceremonies and stamp issues since 1981. This year's special issue is the Earthscapes set released on October 1st. Officially, the idea is to get kids interested in the pasttime of philately. It's also an excuse for stamp collectors to party. Ha, listen to me. Like stamp collectors need an excuse!

{A still from the performance of "Snowfall Mail Art-Fluxus Score with Stamps" as seen at the Gina Lotta Post Artistamp Museum.}

How are you going to celebrate? Got any great ideas for getting people interested in stamp collecting? Let us know in the comments. If you need tips or a refresher? The National Postal Museum has a handy run-down on the basics.

What Happens to Unsold Stamps?

There was recently a bunch of news stories invovling the overproduction of the Simpsons commemorative issue stamps. Basically, anticipated demand did not reach the level that the U.S.P.S. thought it would and there are a bunch (688 million) left from the initial printing. L.W.A. member Lisa M. saw these stories and sent me a question as to why the stamps, if there are so many left unsold, aren't for sale on the U.S.P.S. website. She said that she had sent emails to the Postmaster and their Customer Service, but she was reaching out to me too; so I put on my journalist cap and went a questioning.

Now, I've heard rumors of stamps being burned if they aren't sold. I have no idea if this is true or not, but I suppose it makes a twisted sort of sense. The U.S. Mint "de-trashes" their unsold commemorative issues, but you can't melt down and remold a stamp. Personally, I'm uncomfortable with the idea that as-yet-unpurchased stamps are destroyed; so I sent out tweets to my contacts and did a bit of Internet hunting while I waited for their responses.

Turns out there are multiple methods that different countries use to deal with their surplus postage stamps. Indeed, sometimes they do outright destroy them. Sometimes, they use overprinting to reissue an older stamp in a new denomination. There's also a technique known as CTO or "Cancelled to Order". These stamps are cancelled by the P.O. in large numbers and then issued to stamp dealers and other wholesalers at a discount. The Stamp Collecting Blog explains it very well.

"By producing 'collector quality' copies en masse, the postal services have managed to achieve several goals with one move. The collectors became happy as they received the stamps with light and unobtrusive cancel without any damages caused by real postage. The postal office services were happy as they didn’t have to do manual cancelling and hear collector complaints of poor job. And above all, the postal ministry managed to create new income channel…If the above sounds familiar, then take a look of the 'new issue' services of any country. These are the spawns of CTO." -The Stamp Collecting Blog, "Demystifying CTO"

So what happened to the 688 million extra Simpsons stamps? This clip from NBC states they were, indeed, destroyed. However, the reason given is that the "price had changed." Now, I don't know about you, but I know how to use an additional 1 cent stamp to mail a letter. I suppose the arguement is that customers wouldn't want the "hassle" of using the extra stamp, but couldn't they have put together a package for sale online that contained a Simpsons booklet and the appropriate number of 1 cent stamps? I guess, in the end, it wasn't worth the effort or the storage costs.

Moral of this sad stamp tale, if you love a stamp, buy as many of that stamp as you can, when you can. There's no guarantee as to how long they'll last.

P.S. Come see us tomorrow and Sunday at the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago. We're booth 210!

The Postal Love at the London Olympics

I'm still a bit bummed out that Chicago didn't get picked as a host for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Of course, if we had, there's no guarantee we'd have as many neat postal tie-ins that the London games have. For example, Cadbury's, that quintessential British chocolate company had a campaign going where you could buy a special bar with also came with a postcard to send encouragement to the athletes. Our member Anna sent one over the pond for me.

I follow the British Postal Museum & Archive on Twitter, and they posted a link to this awesome gate in the equestrian competition which is Royal Mail themed. See the Penny Black there in the center? Lovely.
{from this article in The Telegraph}

There are always Olympic stamp issues from EVERYBODY, and typically, I find them all sort of boring, but I was suprised to see the Royal Mail so on top of current events that they are issuing stamps in honor of their gold medal winners within 24 hours of their win. That is amazing. They are also painting a post box gold in the hometowns of the winners, which is the first color change to a Royal Mail box in recent history.

Way to go Royal Mail! You medal in the Postal Olympics for certain. You can see all the current Gold Medal stamps on the British Postal Museum and Archive's Pinterest page.

 

Stamps We Love: U.K. Edition

The Letter Writers Alliance is a world wide organization. While we focus on the U.S.P.S., we don't want you to think that we're only concerned about American mail. To that end, here's a guest post by L.W.A. member Sally about some recent, upcoming and favorite stamps released by the Royal Mail:

Hi I’m Sally from Queenie and the Dew and I’m thrilled to be writing a guest post for the Letter Writers Alliance on British stamps.

Being British and a keen mail artist and letter writer, I am proud to also be a stamp lover. England was, after all, the home of the first ever adhesive postage stamp, the Penny Black, which was issued in 1840. And in the 172 years since then, the Royal Mail has delighted letter writers and stamp collectors alike with their creative designs.

When posting a letter, it’s all too simple to go for the simple option – a regular (albeit iconic) Machin stamp bearing the Queen’s head. However, British letter writers are currently mourning the hefty stamp price rise that came into effect at the end of April. From now on, a 1^st class stamp will cost 60p (around 95 cents), a rise of 14p (22 cents) in just one year. So, if I’m going to spend that much on a stamp, it may as well be a pretty one. And I’m pleased to say there are plenty of pretty ones to be had.

Britain has some iconic events coming up this year: namely the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the Olympics (27 July to 12 August) and the Paralympics (29 August to 9 September), so I thought this would be a good place to start.

To mark 60 years since her ascension to the throne, six commemorative stamps were released in February, depicting the Queen’s profile from various stamps and coins over the past six decades. My favourite, on the far left, uses a portrait of the Queen taken in 1952 by society photographer Dorothy Wilding, which was used on the first stamp of her reign.

Three sets of 10 stamps were issued in 2009, 2010 and 2011 to mark the run-up to the Olympic Games. These colourful stamps, each one designed by a different artist, feature each of the different Olympic and Paralympic sports. A set of ‘definitive’ stamps for the Olympic Games have also been released, marking the first time a commercial logo has been used on this kind of stamp, which usually features a picture of the Queen.

I was also impressed to learn that the Royal Mail are doing something truly innovative this year. To honour their achievements stamps featuring every British Olympic gold medal winner will be released from lunchtime the next day.  This will be the first time the Royal Mail has ever issued next-day stamps.

In 2012, Britain also celebrates another significant landmark: the 200^th birthday of Charles Dickens. In honour of his incredible literary legacy, Royal Mail will issue a set of 10 stamps on 19 June depicting characters from his various novels.

It’s hard to choose just a couple of stamp sets to showcase, because the range over the past couple of years has been fantastic. So I’ll leave you with some of my favourites.

50 years of the Royal Shakespeare Company - April 2011

150^th Anniversary of William Morris & Co – May 2011

Roald Dahl – January 2012

Great British Fashion – May 2012

So, while we may not have the same quantity of stamp releases in Britain, I hope you agree the quality speaks for itself. Happy letter writing!

-Sally
Queenie & the Dew
www.queenieandthedew.com

Thanks for the post, Sally!

Are you an international member of the Letter Writers Alliance with a passion for stamps? Please let us know if you'd like to do a guest post here. We pay in Inklings!

 

 

 

Katherine's Stamp Story -or- I Have Awesome Pen Pals

You might recall these lovely weathervane stamps that were released earlier this year. At the time of issue, they were only available as coils of 3,000 and 10,000 stamps. That's $1,350.00 or $4,500.00 if you're counting. I was resigned to admire them from afar. Even at the rate I write letters, 3,000 stamps at a go is a bit much for me.

Enter my superb and astouding pen pal Katherine. Katherine is one of those pen pals who always writes a satisfying letter and who often sends little surprises on a postal whim. Her joy truly lies in sending rather than receiving and I'm more than happy to be on the receiving end, although I do try to keep up. She sent me a package of beans from her garden once. Simple and meaningful and beautifully packaged things end up at my mail slot via Katherine's hand.

It turns out that Katherine lives near  the Shelburne Museum that displays these weathervanes. Her post office was granted a special privilege to break open two of the coils to sell to local residents. Unfortunately, Katherine was on vacation during the release and by the time she got there, the office was all sold out. They only had one coil left and they were not allowed to break any more than two. She had no choice. She bought the coil. Katherine is my hero.

She told me that she was concerned at what her husband might say when she told him how much money she'd just spent on stamps, but there was no need. She says he was just happy that they made her happy and that he knew she'd use them. Then, she sent some to me along with her sweet story. I asked her if I could share it and she agreed so now we all know how cool Katherine is and how mad she is for stamps.

Do you have an awesome pen pal? Show them you think they're swell by nominating them for our Perfect Pen Pal award! Log in to the Members Only site and go to the "downloads" section for the nomination form.

P.S. Katherine's story takes place prior to the U.S.P.S. realizing that these stamps were too great not to sell in smaller lots. You can now get a strip of 25 from the U.S.P.S. website.

World Stamp News

Regular readers will know that we try to inform you of every new U.S.P.S. stamp release, but there are a lot of countries out there, and a lot of stamp releases that we never mention. When I need to know what's going on in the world-wide stamp scene, I go to World Stamp News. Sometimes there will be a stamp that, even though I can't use it for postage, I just cannot live without it. I think that the round kiwi stamps from New Zealand may fit that equation.

U.S. Stamp Rate Increase and Stamp Releases

On January 22nd, it will cost one whole penny more to mail letters to any location in the United States. That's right, a mere 45 cents to send something anwhere in the U.S. It's still a great deal.

Highlights of the new single-piece First-Class Mail pricing, effective Jan. 22, 2012, include:

• Letters (1 oz.): 1-cent increase to 45 cents
• Letters additional ounces: unchanged at 20 cents
• Postcards: 3-cent increase to 32 cents
• Letters to Canada or Mexico (1 oz.): 5-cent increase to 85 cents.
• Letters to other international destinations: 7-cent increase to $1.05

Look at that, it's still less than a dollar to send things to Canada and Mexico and just a dollar and a nickel to send a letter anywhere in the world! Anywhere! In! The! World! It's just amazing.

Also amazing are the stamps released today and this year so far. That's one good thing about a rate increase; you seem to get a lot of new stamps along with it.

The Spectrum Eagle

New Mexico Statehood

Aloha Shirts

Glacier National Park

Wedding Cake {re-release with new pricing}

Weather Vanes

Baltimore Checkerspot

Birds of Prey

Dogs at Work

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Click on the stamp names to be taken to Beyond the Perf, the official blog of U.S. stamp releases, for more information about each stamp.