18-Center Arrives as the New King of Stamps: 15-Cent Stamp Long Gone As the 18-Center Arrives
In these days of inflation and penny watching, Washington-area resideqts and businesses flocked this weekend to fetch a three-cent bargain.</br></br>Carrying their letters, cards, bills and notes, they rushed to their comer mailboxes and post offices to pay a final tribute to the three-year-old, 15-cent first class postage rate, which was replaced at 12:01 a.m. yesterday by an 18-cent rate. The cost of mailing a postcard also increased, from 10 cents to 12 cents.</br></br>423,000	pieces of mail on Saturday compared to the normal 235,000. At the city post office, where an estimated 1.5 million pieces of mail are processed on a normal Saturday, ihe volume was 10 to 20 percent higher. Postal officials at the Northern Virginia center at Merrifield said they also had noted a significant increase, but had no specific numbers.</br></br>ÛÏMy own wife mailed early to save that three cents,Û said Buddy Hampton, superintendent of mails at Riverdale. ÛÏThe public</br></br>While the postal deluge in Maryland appeared to be evenly split between individuals and businesses rushing to beat the higher-priced postage, the bulk of the increased volume came from big professional mailing firms in the District of Columbia.