WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- The image of the commemorative postage
stamp honoring the nation's 40th President, Ronald W. Reagan, will be unveiled
at the Simi Valley, CA, Presidential Library and Museum that bears his name on
Tuesday, Nov. 9 at 11:30 a.m. Pacific time. The event is free and open to the
public.
In announcing the unveiling, Postmaster General John E. Potter said, "The
Postal Service is pleased to honor President Ronald W. Reagan with this
commemorative postage stamp. He led our nation during a momentous time in
world history and never lost the ability to reach Americans on a truly
personal level."
"My husband would be humbled by the issuance of this stamp," said former
First-Lady Nancy Reagan, "and probably a little amused by picturing himself
arriving in mailboxes around the country stuck on the upper right hand corner
of an envelope. I am so grateful to the Postmaster General and the U.S. Postal
Service for honoring my husband so soon after his death."
It is the tradition of the Postal Service to honor prominent Americans
with a stamp no sooner than 10 years after death. The single exception to this
policy is for a United States President, who may be honored with a postage
stamp as soon as the first birth anniversary following death. Reagan, who
served from 1981 until 1989, was born February 6, 1911.
The first-day-of-issue stamp dedication ceremony will also take place at
the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum on Wed., Feb. 9, 2005.
Since 1775, the U.S. Postal Service has connected friends, families,
neighbors and businesses by mail. An independent federal agency, the Postal
Service makes deliveries to more than 141 million addresses every day and is
the only service provider to deliver to every address in the nation. The
Postal Service receives no taxpayer dollars for routine operations, but
derives its operating revenues solely from the sale of postage, products and
services. With annual revenues of more than $68 billion, it is the world's
leading provider of mail and delivery services, offering some of the most
affordable postage rates in the world. Moreover, today's postage rates will
remain stable until at least 2006. The U.S. Postal Service delivers more than
46 percent of the world's mail volume -- some 202 billion letters,
advertisements, periodicals and packages a year -- and serves seven million
customers each day at its 38,000 retail locations nationwide.
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