Happy National US Postage Stamp Day & National Postal Worker Day – 2024

A Postage Stamp:
Premise: National U.S. Postage Stamp Day commemorates the convenience and straightforwardness of sending and receiving mail. A postage stamp symbolizes the payment for the transportation of a letter or a package.

Philatelic:  The stamp collector just loves to collect different and unique stamps, and for that matter, all stamps to complete the collection–going into different and continual series completions, to make the whole set and catalog and install them in books with two sided, folding light organic stickers made of transparent glassine material. Also duplicates are usually stored and traded inside glassine envelopes. Stamp collectors sometimes collect both United States stamps, and also international stamps.

Over the Years Came Changes:  The way that letters and parcels were delivered over the years came changes. Here is a list of some of those 161 years of recorded history:

• 1885: Dropped charging 1/2 the price for a half ounce letter
• 1917-1919: Wartime emergency rate
• 1975: Last surface mail rate; dropped air mail rate
• 1975: Instituted 1st class & post cards via air mail only
• 1978: Started issuance of the first excessive price increase “A” stamp
• 1999: Last issuance of the first excessive price increase “H” stamp
• 2001: Started issuance of nondenominated stamps
• 2007: Shape-based postage pricing introduced
• 2007: International surface rates were terminated
• 2007: Forever stamps introduced
• 2007: Different prices for letters and packages for the first time
• 2021: USPS announces price increase late, effective 8/29/21 on 9/16/21
• 2020 to Present: 8 price increases since 8/24/21 over a four year period!!

Quite a History of Pricing Increases: Over the course of stamps being used on letters, the price has either changed or the structure of pricing has changed a total of 51 times. Starting out at 3¢, a forever stamp today costs 68¢ and on 07/14/2024, will cost73¢. The average amount of years each period of an increase being every 3.16 years. With 8 price increases over a four year period, that makes this period of 4 years have increases at a rate of 730% higher (yes that high) than the average rate! And officials say that inflation is under control!

Astraying: Many Americans are finding ways and means of shipping other ways than the Postal Service. I have always loved to support the USPS, but I think later this year, Versatileer has no other choice but to ship another method.

Keep Collecting: Despite price increases, many people still collect stamps, and the practice is not going away any time soon!

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The Postal Worker:
Premise:  We honor the postal worker for their continuing dedicate: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

Origins:  Between 1753 and 1774, Benjamin Franklin oversaw the improvement of Britain’s colonial mail service, transforming a basic courier system into a more efficient organization that reduced delivery time between Philadelphia and New York City to just 33 hours. Franklin’s experiences traveling along the post roads influenced his vision for a new nation independent of Britain. The significance of the postal service in the creation of the Republic became evident as Franklin and his fellow patriots utilized underground networks such as the Committees of Correspondence and the Constitutional Post to communicate discreetly. In 1775, the Continental Congress established the Post Office of the United States, marking the first and most impactful function of the new government. James Madison and others believed that the post could help the new democracy by informing the people. In 1792, they created a plan where expensive postage for letters from businessmen and lawyers would pay for cheap, uncensored newspapers. This policy led to a lively political culture in America and made it a powerful communicator. When Alexis de Tocqueville visited the U.S. in 1831, there were twice as many post offices as in Britain and five times as many as in France. He was amazed to see the mail being delivered in the Michigan frontier and described it as a fast and efficient process.

Pony Express to R.F.D.:  In the past, the Pony Express filled the gap when railroads only reached Missouri. They delivered mail from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, in just ten days. The first train on a postage stamp was issued in 1869, the same year the transcontinental railroad was completed. This marked a new era in communication and expansion. Rural Free Delivery carriers later used automobiles to reach far-flung addresses, connecting settlements and territories to the rest of the country and the world. New ideas like Rural Free Delivery (1896) and Parcel Post (1913) helped rural residents. The Postal Savings System (1911) offered financial services when banks didn’t. During World War I, the Post Office backed air transport and the aviation industry until the late 1920s.

Neither Rain Nor Snow. . . Couriers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries used dog sleds to deliver mail to Americans in the Alaska Territory during winter. Ed Biederman delivered mail across his 160-mile route between Circle and Eagle, Alaska, using a sled until he retired in 1935 due to frostbite. The Post Office connected Americans as the nation grew in territory and population throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. Charles Boyer produced this box in Marengo, Illinois, in the early 20th century, which helped rural and frontier carriers fulfill their duty as a traveling post office. John Goudy, a rural letter carrier from Steuben County, Indiana, owned this box. When the government launched the Postal Savings System in 1911, all Americans suddenly had access to banking services, enabling people without access to banks to keep their money securely with a federal institution.

Mid 20^th Century to the Present Days: Following World War II, the increase in mail volume caused financial issues for the department, leading to deficits and a crisis similar to that of the 1840s. In 1970, Congress transformed the department into the United States Postal Service, a government-business hybrid that has not received tax dollars since 1982 but is still under congressional supervision. The 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act added billions of dollars in debt by mandating the prefunding of retiree health benefits. Despite recent controversies, the USPS remains the most highly rated federal service by Americans, according to a 2019 Gallup poll. Jerry Seinfeld’s recent joke about the USPS struggling due to its traditional methods overlooks the fact that parcel delivery has significantly boosted revenue. In 2020, with the Covid-19 pandemic, many Americans rely on the USPS for critical deliveries, including stimulus checks, ballots, and potentially medical tests.

The Uncertain Future: The rate of inflation down at the USPS has made the postal worker’s future very uncertain. With people fleeing from the sticker shock of mailing a few letters, there has never been such a lull in mailing letters and parcels. About Christmas cards: According to the U.S. Post Service, 2.9 billion cards were sent out in 2002. By 2012that figure was down to 1.4 billion. Nowadays it could only be down more, they stopped counting because of the real demise of mailing greetings cards. Postcards are at an all time low, especially with emailing , texting, Facebook and cellphones.

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A Few Facts:

I am sharing a few facts, and more, some trivia, some not trivial. . .

The Present:
Poor decisions and management have made the present day USPS’s image not the same as yesterday’s USPS. . .

The Future:
The USPS’s future is bleak yet improvements and changes iminent. Hopefully there is light at the end of the tunnel. . .

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National U.S. Postage Stamp Day

&

National Postal Worker Day