The United States Postal Service announced today that the first class domestic 1 ounce letter rate will go from 41 cents to 42 cents in May of this year. We haven't yet heard whether there will be any other rate increases, such as increased charges for domestic parcel post or priority mail, or for international mail.

A couple of things (in addition to costing more to mail an item) make this rate increase important to stamp collectors.

First, the new rate will necessitate the printing of new 42 cent stamps - and possibly other stamps too, if other rates are also increased. That means that there will be a whole raft of new, collectible stamps to be added to existing stamp collections. Additional one cent stamps will also need to be printed in order to meet the demand - people will want them in order to use their "leftover" 41 cent stamps after the rate hike goes into effect.

Second, just how "forever" will the Forever Stamps be good for, and how long will they continue to be printed, now that the USPS has announced a rate increase so quickly on the heels of the last one? Maybe there will not be as many printing varieties of the Forever Stamps as we originally thought - because it's possible that once the existing stock is gone, no more will be made and sold to the public.

Alternatively, new printings - and hence additional varieties - ARE possible, although after the beginning of May, they'll cost 42 cents instead of 41 cents. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.