“The ‘H’ Rate make-up stamp” and other alphabetical postage stamps
by V.E. on February 6th, 2008
Have you ever seen “The ‘H’ Rate make-up stamp“?* Any guess as to how much it’s worth? What’s with the “H” anyway? Hah. Well, I participated in LiveJournal’s holiday_wishes community this past winter (second year in a row = w00t!) wherein one of my wishes was for unused postage stamps of any denomination. One of my kind benefactors sent me two “H” Rate make-up stamps along with a few others that actually have cent values on them. I was confused, but I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I just put them in my folder along with all my other stamps.
Today I sent out a birthday present to a friend and needed to know how much those pesky alphabetical stamps were/are worth so that I could (hopefully) use them. (Cue: “YAY for t3h Intarnets!”) I found out that “The ‘H’ Rate make-up stamp” is worth all of 1¢… that is, $0.01. [sarcasm] Woo hoo, let’s throw a par-TAY. [/sarcasm] Oookay, so that’s no big deal. At least now I can use them.
So that got me wondering why anyone would want to name a stamp “The ‘H’ Rate make-up stamp” over the simpler (and less confusing) “1¢ stamp.” Turns out that “The ‘H’ Rate make-up stamp” isn’t the first one to confuse the hell outta everyone, including many postal workers (see the comments section here). Apparently, “H” stamps and other lettered, nondenominational stamps were originally “contingency” stamps. According to the PNC^3 Glossary, a contingency stamp is “a stamp printed in advance of an impending rate increase, for use while stamps bearing the new rate are prepared. These had been ‘alphabet’ stamps, until the rate increase in 2001, when the contingency stamps were prepared with a design similar to that of the intended design for the next first class coil stamp, and marked ‘first class’ instead of using the numeric value.”
Basically, in 1978, some genius decided that a first-class (at the time, “first-class” was 15¢) “‘A’ US Postage” stamp would be sufficient for the needs of the American people. And, they decided to make it horribly unattractive. (“A” stamps—as with all the stamps in that link—are still valid, by the way.) At least “The ‘H’ Rate make-up stamp” isn’t as confusing as the “G” stamp, which came in “seventeen different versions, in six different formats, with five different rates, from four different manufacturers—there were six different sheet stamps, six coils, three booklets, and two self-adhesives”… *headdesk*
So, now I’m just glad that my kind LJ holiday_wishes gifter sent me “The ‘H’ Rate make-up stamp” instead of a couple of “G” stamps.
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* Not to be confused with “The ‘H’ Rate stamp,” of course.
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PS: The lettered stamp series ended in 2001. Too bad they stopped it before producing an “‘I’ Rate” stamp. Hahahahaha. (Get it? An “irate” stamp? Well, I think it’s funny.)
Moving Day
by V.E. on February 6th, 2008
filed under personal, thoughts, work
I’ve officially moved… again. It’s the third or fourth time (depending on what counts as “moving”) in less than a year. Luckily, this time I didn’t have to search for a place to live (the roommate did that) and it’s only two doors down from the last place… Seriously. Pretty cool. No moving trucks or packing tape needed. This past weekend was “moving day”—mostly Saturday, though there was a tiny bit on Sunday, too. The set up here is roughly the same as the last place, but I think I like it better because the roommate has his own room with a real door (not one of those sliding things) and the common area is between our rooms, instead of his room being between the common area and my room. Also, the bathroom is bigger and the toilet flushes normally (don’t ask), the kitchen isn’t noticeably smaller, and I have my own closet and can hang my clothes in my own room. YAY. Only downside is that it costs me $100 per month more than the last place, but that’s still not a huge deal because the current price per month is still significantly under the going rate these days.
So here’s my beef. (<—Where did that phrase come from, anyway? To “have a beef” with something or someone?? But, I digress…) Obviously, my roommate and I were both moving from the same place to the same place. I think even though I have more stuff than he does, he has more big stuff (like sofas and other furniture). So, my transfer was relatively simple; all I had to do was put things in big boxes, carry them down stairs and then upstairs, and dump the stuff in my new room to deal with later. Then, repeat until finished. I do have furniture in my room, but the roommate hired a couple of his son’s friends for the weekend to help moved the large items—I’d've helped, but I was mostly in the way. I did hold doors and stuff for them, so I wasn’t completely useless.
Okay, so that’s all fine. I get all my stuff moved, and most of the big stuff has been moved by Saturday evening. On Sunday, the roommate still had stuff to do over at the old place which included bringing some more stuff over to the new place. I asked him a few times if he needed or wanted help (at least twice that I can specifically remember) but he always declined. Finally, I stopped asking because, even though it seemed to me that he could use some help, he kept declining my offers. I figured that if the situation changed, he’d ask.
Apparently, I was wrong. Today (well, yesterday, by the time I post this) after returning home from work, he mentioned that he was sad (ie: disappointed) that I hadn’t helped him move over the weekend. At first, I didn’t understand what he was talking about and was unsure if he was being serious… He’s jerked me around facetiously at least once before, and I can never tell when he’s joking, so I always have to ask to make sure I’m responding appropriately. In this case, after I determined that he wasn’t joking, I learned that he was/is disappointed in me because I hadn’t helped out more with the moving of the smaller items. I apologized and said, “But I asked if you needed help, and you said ‘No.’ What am I supposed to think?” He replied (roughly), “It’s just common courtesy for someone to help another person when they know that help is needed.” And I said, “But I did offer to help you but you said ‘No.’ Why didn’t you just say ‘Yes’ instead? I’m not psychic. I can’t read your mind.” He replied, “It’s just common sense to help, that’s all. It just makes me sad that you didn’t help. I’m not angry, just sad.”
I wanted to scream. To me, “common sense” is offering the help in the first place; it’s up to the other person to take you up on your offer, or not, as they see fit. Now, it doesn’t matter to me whether or not you want to help when you offer, but if your offer is accepted, you should go ahead and help out… You did, after all, offer. If you really don’t want to help, don’t offer in the first place; this tactic has other problems associated with it, but not ones I need to think about right now because I did offer, and I was prepared to help him if he needed/wanted it. But he kept saying “No” so I eventually I stopped asking because I don’t like being rejected (rejection is another issue I can talk about later if anyone’s interested, but not now). I was surprised today when he (essentially) said I let him down because I don’t think I did. I mean, “No” means “no,” right? That’s what I’ve been taught my whole life, and I try to respect that in other people. When they say “no” (or “yes,” for that matter)—especially multiple times—I just let it go and assume that if things change, that person will let me know. I tend to take someone’s (repeated) statements at face value. What else can I do? Since when did “No” start meaning “yes”?
Argh. I can’t read minds (as much as I wish I could), and I’m not particularly good with body language, either, especially with those people who can deadpan or lie easily. This whole thing is frustrating to me. I called my dad who, after I explained the situation (my side of the issue, anyway), said that he would probably have done the exact same thing as I had. At least I know I’m not nuts. Maybe it’s just a cultural misunderstanding. I don’t know. I’m just upset—I feel slighted because I thought I did was I supposed to do; I mean, helping isn’t a one way street. You’ve got to accept the offer; you can’t just assume that because I’ve offered I’m going to help you. Don’t get me wrong: I will if you accept my offer; if you don’t, I’ll assume that you don’t want/need help. Heaven knows I’ve gotten into trouble before for “helping” even after my offer was declined. Trust me, it’s not pretty. What is it? Is this just a no-win situation? Damned if I do and damned if I don’t? Either way, it doesn’t make me want to offer again in the future.
Anyway, if you want my new address, drop me a line and I’ll email it to you.
