Mom's Special Stamp

The Lakeland,Florida, Ledger suggests when you go to mail your Mother's Day card, you get a Breast Cancer Research stamp to put on it.

According to the paper, "First issued in 1998 after congressional approval, the 45-cent stamp does more than just cover the first-class postage rate of 39 cents.Of the remaining 6 cents, about 4 cents go to the National Institutes of Health and 2 cents go to the Department of Defense. Both do research into breast cancer and both were designated by Congress as the recipients of the extra money collected."

The paper also says, "...that this is the last Mother's Day the stamp can be used without adding increased postage. The Postal Service will release its new Breast Cancer Research stamp Monday. It will cost 55 cents, reflecting the 2-cent increase in first-class postage that also takes effect Monday. The stamp increased 10 cents in cost because of mandates in the legislation that require the increase in the stamp's price be more than the first-class postage increase."

Shown here also is a Breast Cancer Research stamp issued by Hungary in September, 2005. It is almost identical to the US design which was used with permission from the U.S. Postal Service.

Breast cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths among women in the United States. The National Cancer Institute says that breast cancer is still the most common cancer among women, but that more women die from lung cancer. More than 2 million women have been diagnosed with breast cancer. Another million do not know they have it.

To read the entire article, click here.