Consumer Minute: Stamps, coins and coffee

Postal Service
Soon, it’s going to cost you more to mail a letter. The postal service is raising the cost of first-class postage to 44 cents, beginning May 11.

Postal rates generally go up in the month of May to adjust for inflation.

Coffee and Ice Cream

News about local coffee shops. There will be more Tim Horton’s and Cold Stone Creamery combo stores. As many as 50 more by spring.  The restaurant chains experimented with co-branding two Tim Horton’s locations in Rhode Island in November with good results.

Existing Cold Stone Creamery and Tim Hortons locations in Rhode Island and Connecticut will be reconfigured to offer both brands—though franchisees will still have some say in what they offer.

New Coins

And something new that is going to show up in your pocket change soon.  U.S. Mint video shows the new Lincoln pennies rolling off the assembly line.

It’s the first re-design of the one-cent piece, in 50 years. The head side of the coin still shows former president, Abraham Lincoln, but the tail side is different.

There are four tail images, each one representing an era of his Lincoln’s life.  The first one goes into circulation on
Thuursday, the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth.

The remaining pennies will be released each quarter for the remainder of the year.