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For broadcast on CBS Radio Network stations February 28-29, 2004:

Making Change

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

What do a chair, a necklace and a coffeepot  have in common?

They're all part of a series of stamps the Postal Service is calling "American Design." And 
they aren't just ANY pieces of furniture or jewelry....they're a CHIPPENDALE chair, a NAVAJO 
necklace and a Pennsylvania TOLEWARE coffeepot. Toleware is varnished or painted tinware.

They're all low-value stamps, used to make up obscure rates....often on junk mail.

The Chippendale Chair stamp, for instance, is four cents, the American Clock, a dime and the 
Tiffany Lamp is a penny.

Another function of these stamps: They're often issued at stamp collectors' shows, while 
flashier stamps get their own events or tie-ins with something the postal service hopes 
will get a great deal of publicity for the stamps.

And there's one more purpose for these stamps: To make change in postage stamp vending 
machines. Four thirty-seven cent stamps are a dollar-forty-eight. Throw in a two-cent Navajo 
Necklace, and VOILA! it's a buck-fifty even.

And that's Stamp Collecting this week. 

I'm Lloyd de Vries, CBS News. 

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