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Delaying Tactics

The first thing you notice about next year's U-S stamp program is...there's not much 
going on at the beginning of the year. The only commemoratives in the first four months 
are Oklahoma Statehood, Ella Fitzgerald and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

That's because the Postal Service expects a rate increase sometime in May or June, says 
Stamp Services executive director Dave Failor.

"We're kind of reluctant to really issue stamps, say, two months before the rate changes, 
because, really, once the rate changes, people just don't want to buy stamps that have 
the old denomination."
RUNS :09

The Oklahoma centennial commission wanted the stamp issued early, Ella Fitzgerald is the 
Black Heritage Series subject, and that stamp always comes out in January or February in 
time for Black History Month, and Longfellow will be issued at a Postal Service-sponsored 
stamp show in March. His bicentennial is in late February.

Two other issues, James Stewart and the Jamestown Settlement, are tied to anniversaries 
in May. It's likely they'll be issued at the new rate, before it takes effect.

"We hope to go to press immediately after we know what that rate is, and have them 
available for Jamestown."
RUNS :06

But Failor warns it may take a little longer for the Jamestown stamps to reach other parts 
of the country.

I'm Lloyd de Vries of The Virtual Stamp Club. For more about stamps and stamp collecting, 
visit virtual-stamp-club-dot-com	

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