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National Treasure

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

In Britain, the Queen owns the national stamp collection. In the U-S, the national collection 
belongs to the National Postal Museum in Washington -- one of 19 in the Smithsonian Institution. 
The Postal Museum tells the story of postage stamps and postal operations, says its chief 
curator, Cheryl Ganz.

"It's the story of America. It's of our identity. If you take the Post Office, almost everyone 
in America is connected to it, whether it's coming mail right to their house or they've had a 
relative who's been in the post office, or they've gotten a piece of mail that has been a 
life-turning moment -- an announcement that they've been accepted at a college, a wedding 
invitation where they meet their future spouse.   The mail has been very important to our 
lives." :23

Most of the visitors, Ganz says, aren't stamp collectors, but the stamps at the Museum get the 
most attention.

"People want to come and see...year they were born" :09

And one stamp in particular.

"The Inverted Jenny....happened to be an airplane" :11

The Postal Museum also houses actual airplanes that flew the mail, a railway post office car 
you can walk into, and interactive exhibits for kids....and adults.

Coming up at the museum is an exhibit on Franklin Roosevelt, the stamp collecting president, 
and Ganz and her staff are already working on the centennial of the Royal Mail Ship Titanic.

The National Postal Museum is located on Capitol Hill, across from Union Station.

I'm Lloyd de Vries of The Virtual Stamp Club. For more on stamps and stamp collecting, 
visit virtual-stamp-club-dot-com.

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