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(COMTEX) B: Vatican stamps with image of Pope Benedict XVI go on sale
( AP WorldStream )

VATICAN CITY, Jun 02, 2005 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- The first Vatican
stamps bearing the image of Pope Benedict XVI went on sale at the Vatican on
Thursday, the Vatican post office said.

The stamps were issued in a series of three, showing Benedict in red robes,
white robes, and yellow robes, and bearing the Latin inscriptions: "Habemus
Papam" ("We have a pope"), "Tu Es Petrus" ("You are Peter"), and "Episcopus
Romae" ("Bishop of Rome").

The stamps were issued at three values: 45 euro cents (58 US cents), 62 euro
cents (80 US cents) and 80 euro cents (US$1.03).

The Vatican post office said that although people queued throughout the day to
buy the first Benedict stamps, the crowds were smaller than those that gathered
for the stamps issued after Pope John Paul II's death.

Hundreds of thousands of those stamps, issued to mark the period between John
Paul's death and the election of his successor, sold out five days after they
went on sale April 12.

The issue of the Benedict stamps was delayed from May 24 because of technical
problems, and Internet surfers started bidding for the stamps on e-Bay well
before they went on sale.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press, All rights reserved

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