Duck stamps

 Ann Althouse reminds us that this year is the 80th anniversary of the Duck Stamp.

WTF you might ask? These stamps:

no, duck stamps are not used for postage, but required for hunting permits.

But like a lot of stamps, stamp collectors buy them, and some people buy them because the money used to buy the stamps is used to buy land for wildlife habitat:

Friends of the Stamp webpage discusses the history of the stamp

They explain: because of overhunting, diversion of wetlands to farming, etc. migratory birds were being threatened, so the government decided to step in and preserve some land for them. The problem? How to fund these purchases.

Voila: Make hunters pay for it by requiring a stamp on their hunting permits.

More about the stamps here.

they are not merely stamps: They have become a collectors item and there is competition to get your design on the stamp.

for movie trivia buffs, you might have run across duck stamps in the movie Fargo:

,,,(in) the 1996 crime-film classic Fargo, you may have noticed a minor stamp-related subplot: Norm Gunderson, husband of main character Marge Gunderson, is hard at work on a painting that he’ll enter into a stamp design competition (he comes in second place). 

there is even a movie about the contest: The Million Dollars Duck Film : available on Amazon Prime:

Animal planet version here:

Here is a short interview with the three brothers who have had their art chosen for the famous stamp: