"life after death" (i.e., after the destruction, usually by burning, of the main issue).
Denominations of Stamps
With the increasing costs of colour printing, and the cont- inuing need to raise postage rates to offset inflated costs of labour and materials, it no longer makes much sense to have stocks of postage stamps in all denominations from cent or penny up- wards. This is particularly the case where, say, the minimum internal postal rate is 5c and the minimum overseas rate perhaps 20c.
If a definitive issue is to last for at least 3 to 5 years, one must, of course, allow for increases in postage charges, but to some extent it should be possible to foresee by what sort of steps increases might in future be made. One should start by ensuring that there is a single stamp for each of the main types of letter in general use,
e.§.
internal surface mail, and 15 gramme external air letter, and international aerogramme.
Traditionally, the cost of the first 15 grammes (ounce) of airmail was greater than subsequent units of weight, and some countries continue with this system. There is, however, a trend towards having the same unit charge per unit of weight, which, though perhaps less logical (since collection and delivery costs are about the same for a 15- gramme letter as for a 45-gramme letter) is easier to administer and thus saves expense for the postal department.
The other current trend is to introduce stamps of higher denomination, so as to make it easier to prepay airmail parcels without having to cover large areas of the parcel with adhesive stamps. (some countries use high value postage stamps as a means of paying stamp duty on legal documents a subject which is out- side the scope of this chapter).
It is not usually regarded as good practive to ixx make commemorative issues in high value stamps since it tends to alien- ate the faithful collectors who aim to buy all the issues of a particular country.
The virtue of having a single stamp to cover the postal charge on the commonest types of letter mail is the economy to the Post Office in stamp printing costs, economy for business firms which post a lot of letters, and the simplification of checking that mail has been adequately stamped by postal staff.
"Schoolboy Packets"
Countries are often asked by stamp dealers for large quantities of low denomination stamps, sometimes with the request that they be specially cancelled with postmarks, and often on the basis of sale at a discount. Nowadays, it may well be the case for a small country that the unit cost of printing, say, a cent stamp in colours will exceed the face value. As a commercial proposition, therefore, the sale of large quantities of such stamps is non-pro- ductive.
The argument in favour of making such sales is that the country is put on the map for schoolboy collectors who may retain an abiding.
interest in the stamps of the country when they grow up, but only a tiny fraction of schoolboy collectors retain their boyhood hobbies when adults.
If a country wishes to retain its low denomination stamps for historical or sentimental reasons, it would be best advised to adopt a simple design in monotone or at most two colours, and try to obtain a very favourable rate for printing them in large numbers if it can be sure of selling quantities for the schoolboy market at a price which gives a small margin of net profit. Preferably, too, it should keep postal rates expressed in cents out of its postal tariff, so that although cent stamps are on sale to the pub- lic they will rarely appear on letters.
It is not regarded as "legitimate" for a country to print for philatelic purposes, stamps which are not actually in use for postal purposes.