For broadcast on CBS Radio Network stations 
April 8-9, 2000:


Postponing Christmas.


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


Well, not the holiday so much as issuing new stamps each year 
for it. The Postal Service this past week said it had enough 
of last year's Christmas stamps left over, so it didn't really 
need new ones. Instead, it'll do a relatively small reprinting 
of the Deer stamps. (The Postal People insist they're not 
REINdeer.)


The new stamps already announced for this year will be 
postponed, and instead of stamps showing a Flemish painting of 
the Madonna and Child in an Italian style, you'll get stamps 
showing an Italian painting.


So far, most stamp collectors are applauding the move. As a 
group, they've been after the Postal Service to issue FEWER 
stamps each year. The first U-S Christmas stamp was issued 
in 1962, and it showed a wreath and candles. Soon the annual 
stamp became much more religious, and when the A-C-L-U 
protested that, the post office began to issue SEVERAL 
Christmas stamps each year.


If there are complaints now, they're likely to come from 
non-collectors.


And that's stamp collecting this week. 

I'm Lloyd de Vries, CBS News.


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