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Greetings!

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

If people aren't mailing bill payments or writing letters any more, when DO they use 
the mail?

For greeting cards. And the greeting card industry influenced two upcoming U-S stamps.

This year's Love stamp features pansies in a basket. The design is from a 1939 Hallmark 
greeting card the company says is the best-selling card in history.

And it may be more than coincidence that Hallmark is celebrating its hundredth anniversary 
this year. Now, Postal Service rules prohibit honoring a private company, but that's not 
why this stamp is being issued....is it?

The U-S is also issuing a special 64-cent Monarch Butterfly stamp intended for use on 
larger greeting cards -- ones that can't go through the automated sorting equipment. 
The envelopes accompanying these cards will have a butterfly icon on them to warn 
mailers they'll need higher-rate stamps.

After all, when you care enough to send the very best, you don't want it showing up 
postage-due!

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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