Pope Benedict XVI stamps go on sale

The first Vatican stamps bearing the image of Pope Benedict XVI went on sale at the Vatican today, 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 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 eBay well before they went on sale.