For broadcast on CBS Radio Network stations
5/29-30/99:
Oops.
The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries.
Much is being made about a geographical mistake on an
upcoming U-S stamp: It put the Grand Canyon in Colorado,
not Arizona. More than a hundred million of the new
international rate stamps had been printed, and are now
being destroyed.
The good news -- at least for the Postal Service -- is
that the stamp hadn't been issued yet. In fact, the
Grand Canyon stamp now isn't being released until early
next year. There's no word yet on who's going to pay for
the new printing.
Factual errors on stamps that ARE issued aren't that
uncommon. A note in the margin of the Hubert Humphrey
stamp several years ago had the dates of his term as
Vice President wrong. There were two mistakes in the
Civil War postcards a few years later, and the name of
the jet that broke the sound barrier is wrong on that
1997 stamp.
Other countries make mistakes on their stamps, too,
some of them much more often.
Errors in stamp design aren't especially valuable, but
they do make an interesting specialty.
And that's stamp collecting this week.
I'm Lloyd de Vries, CBS News
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