For broadcast on CBS Radio Network stations,
August 1-2, 1998:

Secrecy and the U-S Stamp Schedule.

The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries

At a recent air show in Dayton, a Postal Service booth had
a display of the 1930s Celebrate the Century stamps and
ballots to vote on the 1970s subjects. Neither series has
been announced yet.

Yet when LINN'S STAMP NEWS reporter Brian Liedtke copied
down the subjects, his notes were confiscated by a Postal
Service official and he was asked to return the ballots....
even though they were being handed out to other patrons of
the air show.

It turns out that all the 1930s subjects and some of the
1970s had already leaked to the papers, to the Internet
and, yes, to CBS News.

The choices on the ballot for the 1970s Century stamps
include the Smiley face, Earth Day, Triple Crown winner
Secretariat, "All in the Family," "Sesame Street," and
Watergate.

As the editor of another stamp newspaper commented
recently, hey, why the secrecy?  The Cold War is over,
and Russia doesn't care.

And that's Stamp Collecting this week.

I'm Lloyd de Vries, CBS News.


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