Stamps Out

There was a time when they were as ubiquitous as victory gardens, rationing coupons, or the vats of bacon grease that mothers used to collect as part of the war effort. In World War II, nearly every schoolchild saved his nickels and dimes for Government Defense Savings Stamps to paste in a book toward the day when he could purchase a $25 war bond. In the middle of the war, the nation raised as much as $540 million a year from the stamp program.

But for several years, the volume of stamp sales--$18 million in 1969--has barely covered the administrative expense. Many Americans under 30 hardly knew that such stamps existed. Last week the Treasury Department discontinued them.

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