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For broadcast on CBS Radio Network stations February 25-26,. 2006:

Good to the last drop.

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

Still got some thirty-seven cent stamps lying around? You can still use them, you know: 
U-S postage stamps almost never go bad -- they're always valid for postage. Some countries DO "de-monetize" stamps after awhile, but the last time the U-S did that was in eighteen-sixty-one, 
at the start of the Civil War -- to keep Confederates from using U-S Mail. Stamps at that time 
also were sometimes used as currency, something else the Union wanted to keep out of Southern 
hands.

Other than that and one or two special delivery issues -- that service is no longer offered -- you 
can use any stamps from the last hundred forty-five years. You could even use the twenty-four cent inverted airplane stamp from nineteen-eighteen for a postcard. It would be incredibly stupid, but 
you could do it. They're worth six figures each!

By the way, three thirty-seven cent stamps pay the rate for a four-ounce envelope -- something to 
keep in mind for tax time.

And that's Stamp Collecting this week. 

I'm Lloyd de Vries, CBS News. 

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