THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 20, 1995 TAG: 9505200311
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KERRY DOUGHERTY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
People liked to kick Richard Nixon when he was president. But not many people want to lick him now that he's on a stamp.
Richard Nixon commemorative stamps were issued on April 26. So far, the stamp isn't going over as well as his famous ``Checkers'' speech.
``Let me make one thing perfectly clear,'' joked Miles Elliott, a postal clerk in Norfolk's Church Street office. ``No one asks for the Richard Nixon stamp. I just give 'em to people without them asking.
``Most customers don't give them back,'' he continued. ``They just say something like `Well, he wasn't my favorite president.' ''
Nixon's stamp, which shows a smiling 37th president, with just a hint of gray at the temples, on a linen-like background, seems to be off to a slow start.
``Most people decline them,'' said a postal clerk at Virginia Beach's Seapines station who offers every stamp customer the choice between Nixons and flags. ``I sold a couple the other day, but most people would rather have a flag.''
Harry Simpson, in Portsmouth's main post office, says ``nobody'' there wants stamps honoring the only president to have hand-canceled his own presidency.
``The clerks are putting them across the counter just to get rid of them, but the people won't take them,'' he said.
After checking, however, Simpson was able to find one post office, Portsmouth's Olive Station, where the stamps were selling briskly. The numbers may have been skewed somewhat by a lone customer who bought 500 Nixons. Fortunately, the U.S. Postal Service decided not to print many Richard Nixons - 80 million, a modest number by stamp standards.
``We won't really know how they're selling until we do a quarterly report,'' said Robin Wright, a U.S. Postal Service spokesman in Washington. ``So far we only have anecdotal reports about how the stamp is selling around the country. It seems people become pretty vocal when they're offered a Nixon stamp.''
But the postal service apparently anticipated sluggish sales. Compare Nixon's figures to Marilyn Monroe's: 400 million of her stamps will hit the post offices on June 1.
Even James K. Polk, the 11th president and the one who gave Vancouver to the British, will have 105 million stamps printed this year in honor of the 200th anniversary of his birth.
Postal regulations allow commemorative stamps after a person has been dead for 10 years. The lone exception is U.S. presidents, who traditionally are honored with a stamp one year after their deaths.
Lyndon Johnson's stamp was issued in the early '70s - and sold for 8 cents. The postal service printed 150 million of those.
The biggest dud in American philatelic history was the alcoholism stamp issued in 1981. It said simply ``Alcoholism. You can beat it.'' Seems no one wanted to send these stamps, for fear of offending the recipient.
The biggest-selling stamp of all time wasn't a president but a king. Elvis Presley broke all post office records a few years ago, when 500 million of his stamp were issued.
The late 37th president has proved less popular. After his 80 million are gone, you won't have Dick Nixon to lick around anymore. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
[stamps]
Elvis Presley
President Harry Truman
President Lyndon Johnson
Richard Nixon
KEYWORDS: U.S POSTAL SERVICE STAMP RICHARD NIXON by CNB