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Signed, Sealed & Delivered

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Postage stamps have their own line on my monthly budget.  So I wasn’t thrilled when I saw the notice that the price of the forever first class stamp is going up this summer.

I use a lot of stamps, most likely more than your average joe/jane.  Between birthdays and anniversaries and holidays, I probably mail out 20-24 cards a month.  My mom called me last week and during the call she was excited to tell me all about her new toaster (her old toaster was older than YA).  You guessed it, I made her a “congrats on your new toaster card”.  Cuz I could.

I’m not complaining about the price of stamps going up.  I will have to update my budget spreadsheet but when you think about it, it is still the cheapest way to get something from one side of the country to another.

So it was a pleasant intersection of my worlds when I read in yesterday’s “This Day in History” that the Penny Black, the first adhesive postage stamp used by a public postal system was introduced in Great Britain in 1840.  Prior to this, postage was paid upon delivery and was based on the distance the letter traveled, making it a bit of a pain in the neck.  If you could find a Penny Black these days, it would go for around £500 (USD $667). 

Still pretty amazing that the price of a stamp has only gone up to 72₵ in the last 180 years.  Guess I’ll have to stock up before July!

Why did the stamp go to therapy?

19 thoughts on “Signed, Sealed & Delivered”

  3. I Seem to do most of my correspondence at the college and I can buy stamp stone in the bookstore. I have no idea how much stamps cost because it just doesn’t stick in my memory, but $.72 for a stamp seems expensive. And yet, you’re right, I can mail something across the country for the $.72. Or maybe $1.54 if it’s a big package. “Congrats on your new toaster”. I love it!

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  4. I have two bills that accept payment only by a check which I had been mailing. Both are local. Today arranged to easily not mail them. Just never made the effort before.
    Clyde

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  7. i have a great time buying wonderful stamps. im going through some art stamps now i purchased multipe sheets of i think its raushenberg ive done marilyn and elvis and batman and dinosaurs. i love stamps

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  8. i had sn incle who was a stamp guy. he was the guy who directed standard oil what to invest their money in for 401k kind of stuff. he did half of every paycheck on stamps and then half into savings and lived on25%
    great stamp collection

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        1. In fact, I think of this movie is being pivotal in my life. Before I saw it, which was toward the end of high school, my goal was to be a translator at the UN. After watching this movie, I realized I did not want to spend my life in a little tiny box, translating boring speeches at the UN.

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