First Class Postage??????

[SophiaGrace]

This is going to be a dumb question/issue

Ok so I've just written a card to someone...
and We have these stamps from 2001 commemorating the Heroes of 2001...

I put one of these stamps on my card and then wondered what the heck First Class meant.

there was no denomination on the stamp.

So I put 3, 3 Cent stamps on it and a 1 cent stamp to make 44 cents after I had looked up what the postal rate was back in 2001...which was 34 cents by my understanding (please correct me if i am wrong)

But what the heck is a First Class stamp? Is it a forever stamp? Does it increase with the regular postal rate??

I've already googled this and I feel like I didnt find any good solid information on it.

:l

I"m confuzzled. How does this all work? Btw I live in the USA.

 

[Minus]

First Class Mail is just a level of service as are Priority Mail or Express Mail or Book Rate. First Class Mail is you typical standard mail. The stamp was for the amount of First Class Mail letter at the time that it was issued.

 

[SophiaGrace]

so...if i follow this chart i'll be ok? => http://www.akdart.com/postrate.html

 

[Minus]

so...if i follow this chart i'll be ok? => http://www.akdart.com/postrate.html

Looks good.

 

[SophiaGrace]

so...if i follow this chart i'll be ok? => http://www.akdart.com/postrate.html

Looks good.

Thanks

 

[Minus]

If this is it them it looks like it might actually be a 37 cent stamp.

They would print stamps without amounts on them when they were expecting a raise in the cost of postage. This would allow them to print the stamps and get them to the post offices before the actual rate increase would be confirmed or go into effect.

I see on your chart that it did go to 37 after the 34 cent stamp.
--
Okay let me just make a total mess out of this.

That was not a transitional stamp. Transitional stamps became harder to identify once they quit putting letters to identify the value, on them.

The stamp pictured above is a 34 cent stamp and remains good for 34 cents of postage.
The stamp cost 45 cents when it was bought. The 11 cents difference was to raise money to provide help to families of emergency relief personnel killed or permanently disabled in connection with the attack on the towers.

There was also a breast cancer stamp that worked the same way only the excess money went to breast cancer. I remember those ones because i bought a bunch of them.