Postage Stamp Increase Requested to 49 Cents in 2014 (Why Not 50 Cents?)

The United States Postal Service announced Wednesday that it has proposed increasing the price of first-class mail to 49 cents from 46 cents, beginning in January, to help raise revenues for the cash strapped service.  The Postal Service said the new prices would take effect on Jan. 26, 2014. The increase must be approved by the independent Postal Regulatory Commission.

The first question that came to my mind is why not just make it 50 cents and make it easy on everyone? Plus, the public would complain less about the 50 cent charge than the pain of coming up with a quarter, 2 dimes and 4 pennies everytime they want to buy a stamp. With the additional penny, maybe they could invest the extra monies to generate additional revenue to keep it from rising again in the near future.  It’s just a thought which is apparently one thought the Postal Service never came up with.

In case you were wondering as I was, here is a breakdown of the cost of a stamp for each decade since 1900.

1900    2 cents

1910    2 cents

1920    2 cents

1930    3 cents

1940    3 cents

1950    3 cents

1960    4 cents

1970    6 cents

1980    15 cents

1990    25 cents

2000    33 cents

2010    44 cents

Since 2010, a single postage stamp increased to 45 cents in 2012 and then again to 46 cents in 2013. Look for it to be 49 cents in 2014 unless they read this blog and gain some sense or should I say "cents".