Do you collect stamps? How about this article...

[copperman]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/11/rare.stamp.ap/index.html

 

Saw this on cnn.com and said ouch to all those stamp collectors.

[comicdonna]

It looks like it's permanently put away. That is, until someone steals it. Either way, we will probably never know the fate of the stamp.

[zrlevin]

Just open the damn box...I don't see what the problem is.

[copperman]

Just open the damn box...I don't see what the problem is.

[23Pairer]

Guess it would be a crime to open it early and remove the rarity, a crime involving politics!?!? There goes another oxymoron................or just another dumkopf (sp?) for putting it on an envelope.

[DC Dawg]

Just open the damn box...I don't see what the problem is.

Unfortunately, once the box is sealed it is against Florida law to open the box. In another article, the box is sealed for 20 years or can be opened by court order.

 

Remember, this is Florida... South Florida at that! This is where a good portion of the problems were in for the 2000 elections. I don't see the courts allowing the box to be unsealed for these reasons. Just as in numismatics, pedigrees can change the value of stamp. This stamp is now worth more than its cousins!

Isn't collecting wonderful!

 

Scott

[Buffalo_Pete]

There were re-productions of that stamp.

 

It may not even be genuine. Thing is, the Postal Service has some kind of software linked with the cancelling machine that verifies postage that is either genuine or not.

 

It is supposed to reject short-paid or phoney stamps so that postage can later be collected.

 

But, as previously stated, we're talking South Florida AND the Postal Service.........

 

Need I say more?

[Bob Flaminio]

There was a follow-up to this story where it was revealed that it was actually PanAm invert reprints from a 2001 souvenir sheet that were misinterpreted by an overzealous elections worker.