Charity Surcharges: Charity Stamps
A few countries ake available, e.g
at Christmas or other eason of good fellowship, commemorative stamps which are valið or prepayment of postage of a certain amount, but cost a little more than that to buy. Thus a 5c stamp may cost 6c, but would only count as 6c's worth in terms of postage. The public are not bound to pay the surcharge since the ordinary postage stamps ronain on sale during the period of the issue. The proceeds of the surcharge are usually nominated to a particuair charity, in co-operation with which the issue has been made, usually in respect of a specific appeal for extra funds. If the "cause" is popular, the Government may benefit from extra revenue on the philatelic side, although the stamps are generally widely used by the general public who wish to support the "cause" the Charity will benefit by the amount of the surcharge. The Government will probably not receive as much philatelic revenue as it would have done from a "straight" commemorative issue, but to the extent that the Charity is enabled to raise its own revenue for a social cause approved by Government, the Government may find that its own liabilities for social expenditure are correspondingly reduced.
The other way in which charities may raise money through the postal services is by selling their own "stamps" or "stickers", advertising their cause to the extent that the extra "stamp" on ordinary mail is noticed by the recipients and this perhaps prod- ucing secondary revenue from any response to that publicity. The U.P.U. does not object to the fixing of such stamps to mail provided that the extra stamps are not placed in the spots where ordinary postage stamps are normally fixed, so that there shall be no confusion for the postal authorities. Charity "stamps" of this kind have, of course, no value for postage or for philetists, and permission must be given by the country of origin for such sales to be made.
Presentation Packs: Commemorative: Definitive: Year: Low, Medium? High
Value
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For those collectors who collect "mint" stamps,
i.e., unused stamps which have not been affixed to letters or other mail, "presentation" pack has some attractions. Such a pack usually consists of a cardboard mount in which the stamps of a particular issue may be inserted, a clear plastic ("cellophane") envelope which is the exact size to contain the mount, and an insert which describes the issue and usually gives background information about the country of issue and its history or at least the part that may be relevant to the issue.
It is not usual to make more than a working profit from the actual pack, the issue country being content with the profits from the stamps comprising the issue. The pack is a useful device for displaying the stamps on sale, eg., to tourists off a cruise ship, without damage to the stamps and although supplies of packs should be such as can reasonable be expected to be sold curing the year's life of a commemorative issue, no harm results from having some left unsold since there are often a few requests for "back-numbers" in subsequent years after by those who set up collections of packs in subsequent years.
By choosing standard designs of mounts, which will accomm- odate varied numbers of stamps, and standard plastic "wallets" to encase, the mounts, considerable flexibility can be obtained because the pack elememts can be ordered in large quantities at infrequent intervals, so obtaining economies of scale. If an issue goes well heavy drawings may be made on the stock of packs, if few are interested, the packs in stock can be used up in subsequent issues. To increase flexibility, it is best to have the written material in a pack prepared by the Government Printer or a local printer. Since the "write-up" is the only element which cannot be re-used for subsequent issues (which must have their own written material) it would be safest to limit the first print order to the numbers which are sure to be sold in the first "rush", keeping the type set up for possible re-runs.