The USPS has 48 cent airmail stamps. There doesn’t seem to be any airmail rate that would need one. There’s also a 70 cent airmail stamp which doesn’t seem to match up with any particular rate either. What’s up?
Also, does it matter that some stamps are airmail stamps and have a little plane on them, and other aren’t?
I think 48c was the rate for a post card to Canada before the last rise in rates. (It’s now 50c).
70c is the rate for a post card to Western Europe, and possibly other places as well. In addition, $1.70 is the rate for a 2 oz letter to Australia. You can do that with various combinations of stamps, but the easiest is a $1 stamp and a 70c stamp.
Actually 48c was the 1oz rate for mail to Canada in 1999 (when the stamp was issued). There was a hint in that the picture is that of Niagara Falls.
The little airplane doesn’t matter. The stamp can be used for domestic postage as well. Also, mail going overseas doesn’t have to have the airplane.
You can use any combination of U.S. stamps for non-US mail. The only restriction I know of is that the actual denomination must appear on the stamp, so those letter stamps that appear when the rate changes are not allowable.
Why must the face value of a stamp equal anything? This is the Post Office.
Go look at one of their “Priority Mail” flat envelopes. It says you can send anything up to 70 lbs., if you can get it in the envelope and seal the flap. But the envelope doesn’t expand. There’s nothing on earth weighting even close to 30 lbs you could get in there.