a href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bTvISTq6I5I/S2e-v-31LfI/AAAAAAAADuQ/EcPfn0gambA/s1600-h/Fishing.jpg”img style=”float:left; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 225px; height: 225px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bTvISTq6I5I/S2e-v-31LfI/AAAAAAAADuQ/EcPfn0gambA/s320/Fishing.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”"id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433521206986092018″ //aThe Office of the USPS Inspector General wants to know, “Are there better alternatives to stamps?” br /br /In a post on the IG’s blog, titled emHow Can the Postal Service Reduce the Costs Associated with Postage Stamps?, /emit points out, “Business customers often rent postage meters and use permits for bulk mail. Now, the advent of online postage vendors has given individual customers an alternative to stamps. Customers that use online postage can customize their postage and incorporate approved language or pictures.”br /br /Regarding stamp collectors it goes on to say, “Would philatelic sales suffer if the Postal Service reduced the denominations it offered? Commemorative Forever Stamps could be issued in limited quantities to satisfy collectors. Some commemorative stamps could be sold locally, while others could only be ordered and shipped direct from a central location. Forever Stamps that marked holidays or other special events such as birthdays would be very useful for people who wanted to stock up. And what could be more appropriate for wedding invitations than “Forever Love” stamps?”br /br /To read the entire post and see comments left by readers for and against eliminating stamps, a href=”http://blog.uspsoig.gov/?p=2756#more-2756″click here/a.div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11420717-1887560492001729979?l=stampcollectingroundup.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

Most stamp catalogs do a somewhat decent job in displaying the various quality levels of cancelled stamps. However, IMO there are surprisingly large international variations to what is desirable / non-desirable.

The beauty of SOTN
Being from Scandinavia, I’ve been raised to keep postmark as the most important quality factor used stamp can possess. If possible, [...]