B1 Breast Cancer Stamp Value

Why does the USPS Non Denominated Postage Guide in the link below show the First Class Breast Cancer stamp as having a postage value of 55c when other First Class non-denominated stamps have a fixed postage value at the time of their issuance?

https://pe.usps.com/text/qsg300/Q604a.htm

Look at this envelope on a thread posted on these forums. The stamp indicates it was issued in 1998, when postage was at 32c, but the sender was able to use it with no problem (meaning not adding 12c in postage) in November 2011 when the first class rate was 44c.

http://goscf.com/t/20355

I don't think it's right or fair for someone who bought this stamp in 1998 when postage was 32c to be able to use it at the current value.

Interesting. It would seem that the USPS chose to ignore any difference between B1 (1998 Breast Cancer) & B5 (2015 Breast Cancer), making both still viable as postage. Does this perhaps, in some sense, make B1 the first U.S. "Forever" stamp? It certainly predates the 2007 Liberty Bells.

Post Office desires notwithstanding, any stamp the says "First Class" should be currently valid, since it has no other face value and was never demonetized. When I add up face lots I always assume that people will use them accordingly.

I agree that the "First Class" on a stamp should make a stamp usable at whatever the current first class rate might be. This, of course, would make all of the "First Class +" semi-postals good for 55 cents of postage now. Instead, it appears that the USPS has set the postal values of such stamps at whatever the first class rate might have been when they were withdrawn from sale. Of course, given today's penchant for not cancelling stamps, I suspect any U.S. semipostal would likely be accepted as valid first class postage anyway.

Torin said: "I don't think it's right or fair for someone who bought this stamp in 1998 when postage was 32c to be able to use it at the current value."

Well, the post office received the 32¢ twenty-two years ago and hasn't had to do anything to fulfill its obligation until the stamp is put on a mailing. True, the labor to fulfill that obligation twenty-two years later is more expensive, but the post office has had the use of the money for the duration of that time.

The rules are simple. An issue with "first class" denomination retains its original purchase price value. "forever" stamps are valued at the current first class postage rate. Sometimes people break rules, intentionally or not, and sometimes they get away with it.

Jr. Ratfish: Completely agree that "First Class" denoted stamps should retain their fixed postage value at the time of their issuance.

I think it's odd that the USPS would denote the Breast cancer stamp as having a postage value of 55c when it was issued in 1998 when postage was 32c. On the USPS website, it indicates for the Breast Cancer stamp

"Purchase price, 65¢; Postage value, 55¢

Breast Cancer Research Semi-Postal

Issued July 29, 1998"



I think the USPS should be more clear about the fixed values for this and other first class non-denominated stamps that have been sold for many years through many rate changes.