Download this report as an MP3 sound file.

Carrying the flag.

The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries

Dana Gioia is one of the newest members of the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee. He's
a former chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, but he's also one of the
few serious stamp collectors on C-SAC. So he told me he always tries at meetings to sit
with another philatelist, Janet Klug, the former president of the American Philatelic
Society.

"I think Janet and I are both concerned that among the many things that we issue, in
terms of the stamp-issuing policy,  that we do make sure we have somethings that are
really special for collectors." :11

The other members of the committee don't always understand those concerns. They have
their own.

"The main pressures on CSAC are the pressures from the public to represent a particular
issue, a particular group of people." :07

But Gioia admits the stamp collectors on the committee have limited success pushing their
agenda.

"I don't think that a lot of things that are issued nowadays are issued primarily for
collectors, and that's probably the way it should be." :05

Because, says Gioia, that's not why the U-S issues stamps.

"It's a way of the United States expressing what America is, who Americans are, and what
the nation wants to be." :06

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

----------------------------------------------------------
Go to Previous Report
Go to Next Report 

Go to Report Index