Politics & Government
Speak Out: The Cheapest Stamp Rates You Remember
The cost of mailing a domestic letter increased by one penny to 45 cents Sunday. What's the lowest rate you remember?
As the cost of mailing a domestic letter increased for the first time in more than two years this week, many thought back to the days when it cost a little more than a few pennies to mail a written correspondence.
Here's what some of our Facebook fans wrote on the Manassas Patch page on Monday.
"I think I remember 12 cent stamps—am I OLD or what?"-Cindy Wayland
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"I remember eight cents!"-Jody Schaffner-Swiech
"I think it's crazy that it keeps going up."-Chrissi Blasius
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"I can remember 5 cents I believe...I can even picture the stamp. I am a stamp collector and have been an avid letter writer since my pre-teen years. I will never give up postal letter/note/card writing no matter how expensive stamps get." -Cindy Jones Clements
What's the lowest price your remember? Tell us in the comments under this story.
The cost never went above 3 cents, for the first 69 years of the U.S. Postal Service. The rate hit 4 cents on Aug. 4 1958, according to U.S. Postal Service historical data.
Here is a breakdown of the stamp cost increases over the past 50 years.
Jan. 7, 1963
5
Jan. 7, 1968
6
May 16, 1971
8
March 2, 1974
10
Dec. 31, 1975
13
May 29, 1978
15
March 22, 1981
18
Nov. 1, 1981
20
Feb. 17, 1985
22
April 3, 1988
25
Feb. 3, 1991
29
Jan. 1, 1995
32
Jan. 10, 1999
33
Jan. 7, 2001
34
June 30, 2002
37
Jan. 8, 2006
39
May 14, 2007
41
May 12, 2008
42
May 11, 2009
44
Jan. 22, 2012
45
Read more about the history of the U.S. Postal Service in the PDF pamphlet attached to the right of this article.
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