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For broadcast on CBS Radio Network stations May 31-June 1, 2003:


That's fool's gold.


The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries.


For a mere sixty-nine dollars each, Hallmark will sell you 25 stamp
replicas, gold-layered silver ingots. That's more than 17-hundred dollars
for the collection, whose theme is "United We Stand."


The problem is....when you or your heirs try to cash them in, you'll get the
bullion value for them, if that much -- well below what you paid. Stamp
collectors have little interest in reproductions, paper OR silver.


We've seen these offers before, but this one is made worse by the
endorsement of the man who used to run the stamps department at the Postal
Service.


Now, a fool and his money, and what happens next, generally aren't any of my
business. But when someone tries to cash in one of these collections, which
are often touted as good investments, they'll be disappointed...angry,
actually, and they'll blame STAMP COLLECTING.


The USPS will license almost anything, including its designs -- and,
apparently, its endorsement.


And that, unfortunately, is stamp collecting this week. 


I'm Lloyd de Vries, CBS News.


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