November 26th, 2008
Licking Stamps
I keep an assortment of postage stamps in my drawer. And I sent a lot of international letters, which are subject to ever-fluctuating postage rates. The USPS hasn’t provided us with a “flat rate” stamp for international yet, so I find myself with an assortment of 1¢ and 2¢ stamps.
I sent a letter to the UK this morning. Total postage: 94¢. I used two domestic flat-rate stamps to make a total of 84¢, and needed to make up the last 10¢ with 2¢ stamps.
So what relevance does this have to the world? Not much, but I did come across a curiosity when I was scrounging for 2¢ stamps: an old lick-and-stick stamp.
I’m not lamenting peel-and-stick stamps one bit. In fact, I rather like getting letters in the mail and knowing that someone’s saliva wasn’t slathered all over the envelope.
Still – there’s some sort of childhood connotation with licking stamps, and it gave me a touch of pleasure this morning to use my very last lick-and-stick stamp.