I HAVE TAKEN IT UPON MYSELF TO CLEAN THIS ENTIRE MESS UP. EVERYONE THINKS THAT COLLECTING PAPER FOOD STAMPS IS ILLEGAL. Worse of all the USDA has not released an official statement regarding collecting them...... UNTIL NOW!!! After writing a buttery sweat letter to the USDA, here is what they responded Your thoughts?
How do we make this public I mean everyone thinks that collecting Food Stamps is illegal and thus flags every ebay listing for them. Craigslist users flag and ban my posts because they think it's illegal
You should contact Beth Deisher, the editor at Coin World. She could assign a cub reporter to the story.
I am sorry but when I got this letter from the USDA I was happy almost as if I was 10 again and it was Christmas morning. LOL This just means so much to me as a Food Stamp Collector and the fact that I am the person who clarified for everyone so every person can now enjoy Food Stamp note collecting without fear of the law.
This information was already in the numismatic press in an article by Neil Shafer in Bank Note Reporter in early 2010. Even so, getting more people to write about it cannot hurt.
I have been fighting this battle with Ebay for the last year. I even sent them Shafer's article and the correspondence he received from USDA saying USDA Food Coupons were legal to collect. They continued to respond that the information they had from USDA indicated these were illegal and refused to change the policy. I hope you have better luck than I. I still have the scar in the center of my forehead caused by banging my head against the wall.
I see what you are talking about. Even with my letter from the USDA they still removed my listing CHARGED ME THE LISTING FEE and told me that if I continue to encourage illegal activity I will be banned for life! This is just crazy the letter clearly says "It is legal" and basically the USDA does not care. How am I doing anything illegal? How do I get my listing fee back and man it got up for $75 for a $1 and a $10 before ebay removed the listing.
I collect food stamps, I even have an unexploded booklet from when they were actually stamps - small, perforated and glued. That program ended in 1941. I also have unexploded booklets from the later coupon era, series from the 70s, 80s, & 90's. What I don't have is knowledge of a forum where other collectors discuss food stamps in depth, or whether anybody's attempted to create a catalog of issues and varieties and relative scarcities/prices. If anybody does, I'd sure appreciate any info they'd care to share.
Rocky Rockholt and Tom Conklin wrote a book on Food Stamps and Food Coupons in around 2001 or so. It was privately published in a limited quantity of 100. I was lucky enough to pull one off Ebay about 5 years ago. It gives background, history, the meaning of the monthly letter codes, serial number ranges, etc. for all the series up until the time it was done. There are no prices in the catalog because they were illegal to possess at the time it was written. Scarcity is going to be anyone's guess since there is probably no way to determine how many went unredeemed. Or is there? Perhaps a FOIA request to the USDA asking for the number of Food Coupons issued and the number redeemed by series and denomination may be in order. I don't know whether they tracked the number with that specificity. The best you would probably find is total dollars of each series issued and annual reports of the amounts redeemed. Rockholt and Conklin's production and serial number information is based on BEP and USDA records.
I used to have a collection of 1 book and 2 $1 food stamps. I sold the book and one fs a long time ago (like 1 yr) ago. I don't know why you had a problem but there's always food stamps on ebay and they go for ridiculous prices. I'm just sayin'!! WTH??!
Here is the good news. I spoke with Neil Shafer at CPMX today. He is working with Conklin and Rockholt to update their USDA Food Coupon catalog. He did not have an expected publication date but it is being worked on.
i too have a big collt, of full books of these and have tryed to sale them and find it hard i'am not sure if you know about the link the usda has with all of the laws about the food stamps and couponds but here it is http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/rules/regulations/default.htm this may help every one that is in the same boat
i have been thinking of something to do about this and did ask PMG about having them graded but they said not now as they have nothing to go by [FONT="]Good morning Randy,[/FONT] [FONT="]At this time we are not grading food stamp coupons. Due to lack of a catalog system to reference to we are not dealing with them at this time. In the future it may become an option. If you have any suggestions for a catalog or any other information on them it would be appreciated. [/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="]Regards & Happy Collecting,[/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="]Jenna Schultz[/FONT] [FONT="] PMG Customer Service[/FONT] [FONT="][/FONT] [FONT="] 877-PMG-5570 Ext 238[/FONT][FONT="][/FONT] [FONT="] 941-309-1002 Fax[/FONT] [FONT="][/FONT] [FONT="]but i do remember some one talking about where they found some info on these if they can send it to PMG it may help as i don't think e-bay would kick a sale if it was something that was graded [/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT]
send this link to ebay as i have done "smithsonian acquires food stamp coupons " http://www.fns.usda.gov/cga/pressreleases/2010/0028.htm
Maybe I'm being dense, but while the letter clearly says that collecting them is okay, it does not explicitly say that selling or buying them is legal. Maybe this is a silly distinction -- surely it was never illegal to "collect" them by receiving them from the government and keeping them! But the letter does say: Is buying and selling, even as a "collectible", an "other purpose"?
Good point , but Ebay should realise that in order to collect something one must obtain it which means buying and selling . rzage