Species semipostal sales to resume

President Barack Obama signed legislation Sept. 10 to resume sales of the nation’s fourth semipostal.

United States Postal Service officials, however, could offer no information on when the Save Vanishing Species semipostal stamp featuring the image of an Amur tiger cub (Scott B4) would return to post office sales counters.

Postal Service spokesman Mark Saunders told Linn’s: “They’re working through the logistics to get that up for sale again. I don’t have anything beyond that right now.”

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, pushed the legislation for continuing sales of the semipostal stamp, to 2017.

“At no cost to the taxpayers, the reauthorization of these stamps will benefit conservation programs and endangered species for years to come,” he said.

Portman has said he was assured by Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe that there were 74 million of the stamps unsold when sales ended December 2011 after two years.

If the Postal Service extends the same sales policy it has used with the newly reprinted Breast Cancer Research semipostal, the price for the Save Vanishing Species semipostal will rise to 60¢, of which 49¢ pays for postage, and 11¢ is a donation for multinational species conservation.

The Breast Cancer Research stamp has been the most popular of any of the four semipostals that the Postal Service has issued. It was first issued July 29, 1998 (Scott B1).

The Save Vanishing Species stamp initially sold for 55¢ when it was introduced in 2011. Sales of the stamp ended Dec. 31, 2013, after raising $2.5 million for various animal conservation funds.

The other two U.S. semipostals are the Heroes of 2001 (Scott B2) issued in 2002 and Stop Family Violence (B3) in 2003.