Interesting story probably typical of the current generation of postal workers.
Thought this quote might be interesting for the topic, taken directly from the USPS web site on postal history:
Quote:
The Postal Service originally developed self-adhesive stamps to make precanceled stamps more secure. Precanceled stamps are canceled across the face before being sold. In the late 1960s, as many as 20 percent of them were soaked off and reused. Precanceled stamps skipped a processing step that often caught reused stamps.
With the Christmas 1974 issue, the Postal Service experimented with a self-adhesive precanceled stamp. It was believed that the tightly bonded self-adhesive would not permit stamps to be soaked off. An additional security feature placed slits in the stamps to foil attempts to peel them off. Unfortunately, the stamps cost three to five times more to produce than regular postage stamps, they could still be soaked off and reused, and stamps in the hands of collectors started to self-destruct.
In 1989, the Postal Service again experimented with self-adhesive stamps, this time with emphasis on customer convenience. The new self-adhesives had a water-soluble adhesive and were produced on coated paper, so the effects of the adhesive would not be destructive. Introduced nationwide in 1992, self-adhesive stamps now are issued in formats that include booklets, coils, sheets, and souvenir sheets.
Posted 01/28/2011 4:58 pm
