Australian Postage's New Face Value

0 Comments | Insight on the News, August 2, 1999 | by Stephen Goode

What's surprising is that it hasn't happened before. By the end of this year, the postal department in Australia will be the world's first to offer its customers the opportunity to feature a picture of themselves on an official postage stamp.

The personalized stamps (that's what the Australian government is calling them) can be used to celebrate big events such as weddings, significant anniversaries and birthdays. Or they can mark any event the purchaser wants to commemorate and is willing to pay to have the stamp produced and delivered, according to Australia Report, a newsletter of the Embassy of Australia in Washington.

The only requirements are that you take a favorite photograph of yourself to your local (Australian) post office and place it in a special envelope, after which it is sent off to be computer-digitalized and reproduced as a postage stamp. The photograph is returned to the customer along with the stamps. Australia Post will sell the personalized stamps, which will come only in 45-cent denominations, in C sheets of 20 for 19 Australian dollars ($12.73), which is about twice the amount (Australians usually spend on a sheet of first-class stamps but nonetheless a real bargain for providing a path to that 15 minutes of fame we're all said to have coming to us.