Post Modern

You can't eat it, but you can still lick this stamp

Postage stamps of odd shapes and sizes have been around for decades. The Pacific island nation of Tonga released coin- and star-shaped stamps in the 1960s and '70s; Sierra Leone once produced a kola nut-shaped offering; New Caledonia has had stamps shaped like turtles and other sea mammals. But these days odd shapes alone won't cut it, which is why national post offices and stamp manufacturers are coming up with new twists on the standard colorful squares and rectangles.

In the past decade, a dozen or so places have released scratch-and-sniff and lick-and-taste stamps....

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