WHAT IS THE FUTURE FOR HANUKKAH STAMPS

Although a new design was issued in 2009, the 2010 Hanukkah stamp is the same one.  There will be a rate increase, scheduled for January 2, 2011.  If the United States Postal Service follows its usual pattern, the 2011 stamp will be a revalued issue of 2009 menorah design. 

The United states Postal Service continues to claim "Postal customers are well served by the current program of reprinting the (Hanukkah) stamps when prices are adjusted (raised).  In 2009 the United States Postal Service only printed one half, and distributed a mere 15%, of any other stamp issued during the same year.  This, in fact, created a shortness of supply.  So, even when the Hanukkah stamp is a new design, it does not get equal distribution.  To me this is unfair and I believe biased and discriminatory.

Some people say, even if it is the same design repeated every year, at least there is a Hanukkah stamp.  However, a repeated stamp is not automatically distributed as would be a new stamp.  It is left up to the individual local post offices to order a reissued stamp  And, a reissued stamp may not  be displayed on the Annual Stamp Program poster and is not necessarily listed in the annual New Stamp Program.  Thus, many people may not even know that a Hanukkah stamp is available that year.  Now is the time to end the ongoing religious discrimination by the USPS  It is time for the USPS to issue a new  Hanukkah stamp every year in which it issues a new Christmas stamp.

If you feel, as I do, that there should be a new and different Hanukkah stamp every year just as there is a new Christmas stamp (of any design) tell that directly to the Postmaster General of the United States.  Send him an email at pmgceo@usps.gov (just click on it and send the message now). or by regular mail: John E. Potter, Postmaster General, United States Postal Service,  475 L'Enfant Plaza SW,  Washington DC 20260-0010.  Tell him you want a new and different Hanukkah stamp every year.  Maybe if he sees the demand directly to his office he will realize, and admit, that there is a demand for a new Hanukkah stamp every year and include one in the Annual Stamp Program every year. 

                                                                                                                              July 8, 2010