Small Change

Deflation of a sort has arrived at the U.S. Postal Service. To help shrink its $652 million annual deficit, the service is experimenting with reducing the size of the 13-c- stamp to .66 in. by .78 in. from the traditional .84 in. by .99 in.

The first 150 million ministamps, featuring an 1877 Indianhead penny against a tan background, will go on sale Jan. 11 in Kansas City, Mo. Next day, post offices in Hartford, Memphis, Portland, Ore., and Richmond, will begin selling them.

If the stamp-the smallest ever issued by the U.S. Government-wins public acceptance, the Postal Service may soon adopt the smaller format for all the 13-c- stamps that it sells in sheets. Since about 3.6 billion of them are issued each year, the annual savings in paper is expected to be some $700,000. Sorry, but the economical ministamp cannot be sold in rolls; that would make obsolete all the vending and high-speed affixing machines.

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