Rick Barrentine of Duluth has been draped in honor, if not dollars, by the new American flag postage stamp.
The United States Postal Service picked a photo Barrentine took for a new stamp. About 2 billion will be printed, said David Failor, a postal official.
Barrentine said, "I told my wife, I wish I could get 1/1,000th of a cent for each stamp."
That would have been a cool $20,000. Instead, he got $70.
"That's no big deal," Barrentine demurred. "The honor of being on the stamp is really cool."
The stamp went on sale Friday. Barrentine did not know his photo was chosen until a stamp collector called him.
The post office bought the image off a Web site where Barrentine sells freelance photos, but he was not notified. "I said, 'No way,'" he said upon its discovery.
Failor said a U.S. flag is the one consistent stamp among many images."It's the bread and butter stamp of the postal inventory," he said.
The flag hangs in front of Barrentine's house. "It's still getting good use," he said. "When we get finished with it, I'll probably take it down and keep it."
See the stamp: www.usps .com/communications/news room/allnews.htm.
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