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Lost on the Road to Rio

The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries.

On a visit to a U-S post office, you may find stamps showing pickup trucks, parks, pets,
or planets – even ice cream… but you won’t find anything for the Summer Olympics.

The U-S didn’t issue any stamps this year commemorating the games.

Britain and Canada didn’t issue any Olympics stamps, this year, either.

It’s part of an ongoing feud — more of a cold war, really — between the International
Olympic Committee and postal agencies over rights. First, it was over the use of the five
Olympic rings symbol, then the word Olympic. The U-S Postal Service says it won’t pay for
permission to issue stamps. Other countries may feel similarly.

Four years ago the U-S planned to issue stamps showing sports you MIGHT see at the Olympics,
without anything trademarked, but then pulled the issue and said the heck with it.

This year, there wasn’t even that. In fact, there are no sports stamps at all on the
U-S schedule.

What’s more interesting is that no one has asked about U-S stamps for the Olympics.

They used to be among the most popular the U-S issued. Now? No one seems to care.

I’m Lloyd de Vries of The Virtual Stamp Club. For more on stamps and stamp collecting,
visit virtual-stamp-club-dot-com.

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