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(Edited 3-10-19)

Backstory  

Learn something new every day.  It’s advice I try to follow.  Sometimes it leads to unexpected or colorful new knowledge.  That’s what happened here.  A discovery led me to explore something I would normally take for granted.  My curious nature always “wants to know the story.”  This time it led me to stamps.

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Hodgepodge of Stamps –  #192

When an elderly relative passed on, I was helping sort through her belongings.  Someone gave me a box of stamps to inventory.

There was a treasure of stamps worth 15 cents and 23 cents and 10 cents . . . a nickel . . . even 1 cent.  There were dozens of different designs and colors, each a miniature masterpiece of graphic art.

Some stamps had no denomination on them. The United States Post Office website has a place that shows how to determine their value.

That led me to the new FOREVER stamps. You purchase them at the going rate and they retain their value, even if mail rates go up in the future.

I also found that you can have customized stamps created, bearing your own image or message.  How cool is that?

I asked who from the family wanted the box of lick-able old stamps.  After all, they have a monetary value.  But no one wanted to play with small denomination stamps that were not self-sticking.  They invited me to keep them.

Well friends and relatives have been fascinated receiving my correspondence and cards with as many as ten different stamps on the envelope.  I let them decide for themselves why the conglomeration.  It sure has become a conversation piece.

P.S.   

The U.S. Postal Service will release new stamps this year in honor of military working dogs. Four designs feature a German shepherd, Labrador retriever, Belgian Malinois and Dutch shepherd. The illustrations are in red, white, blue and gold to represent the American flag and patriotism. Also later this year, watch for stamps featuring a painting of tennis champion Maureen Connolly Brinker, designs from artist Ellsworth Kelly and engines from the Transcontinental Railroad,

[Show #192]