Download this report as an MP3 sound file.

The Year in Stamps.

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

There was no fix for the U-S Postal Service's financial woes -- if anything, they got
worse when the agency defaulted on two 5-and-a-half billion dollar payments to a
benefits fund. And with Congress deadlocked over other problems, it's not known when
anything will be done.

The Postal Service's Board of Governors vetoed putting living people on U-S stamps. A
few months later, apparently unrelated, former Postal Service cycling star Lance
Armstrong was stripped of all his medals for doping.

It was revealed a well-known and -liked collector had embezzled money from an organization.
He paid it back, but the shock waves are still spreading.

The Postal Service issued a set of Lady Bird Johnson stamps, apparently under political
pressure. It also took out a five-million dollar contract with a P-R firm to publicize ten
stamps in 20-13.... and began producing TWO 54-dollar collectibles for every commemorative
issue.

Britain's Royal Mail commemorated 50 years of James Bond movies and Queen Elizabeth's
Diamond Jubilee — No word on which sold better, but we can guess — and every British Olympic
gold medal.

And Israel and Gibraltar had a disagreement about a stamp design that showed a site in a
disputed territory, East Jerusalem, and canceled a joint issue.

I'm Lloyd de Vries of The Virtual Stamp Club. For more on stamps and stamp collecting, and
to weigh in on what you think were the big stamp stories of 2012, visit virtual-stamp-club-
dot-com.

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

Go to Report Index