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Between 4¢ & 6¢ Stamps, Put a Man on the Moon; Buy your Forever Stamps

Historical Chart of U. S. First Class Postage Rate with Stamps from S. H. Smith Collection (Chart by S. H. Smith, 2014)
Historical Chart of U. S. First Class Postage Rate with Stamps from S. H. Smith Collection (Chart by S. H. Smith, 2014)

First class postage will cost 49¢ as of January 26th, 2014.  Buy your supply of Forever Stamps now at the 46¢ rate!  If you were one of those who bought a big supply of Forever Stamps when they first hit the market, you paid 41¢ at that time.

This historical chart shows the U. S. First Class Postage Rate trend from 1900.  For the first half of the Twentieth Century the postal rates were flat.  About 1960, the rates started to skyrocket and have been climbing steadily ever since.  If they continue to climb at this historical rate, they’ll hit 70¢ by 2030; maybe even higher.

Before I started elementary school, I started to collect stamps.  I collected from the mid-1950s to the late 1960s.  Thus I collected in the era when the first class postage rate doubled from 3¢ to 6¢.

I was the casual collector, saving stamps from letters at home and the occasional empty envelopes that Dad brought home from work.  I have about 300 different stamps in this collection from my youth.

The images of the stamps on the chart are from my collection.  A Benjamin Franklin saying was “A penny saved is a penny earned.”  I found it curious that Ben had the honor of being placed on the 1/2¢ Stamp.  The 1¢ Stamp with a clean-shaven Abraham Lincoln is also rather unusual.  Between the time of the 4¢ & 6¢ Stamps, the United States put a man on the moon.

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Remember, you have until the close of business this coming Saturday, January 25th to buy your supply of Forever Stamps at the 46¢ rate!

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