Talk:History of United States Postal Service rates

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[edit] Sources

The "Consumer Price Index data" source is 404.

It should also be noted that the table represents 1982-4 dollars, whereas the graph represents 2007 cents. Comparing the source for the graph with the parenthesized values in the table confirms that these values are in fact different, and therefore likely correspond to the stated years for the table and graph, respectively (and separately).

As such it would seem that the missing source was used to derive the table (and later references in the article thereto), whereas the source listed on the graph's image page was used to generate the plot.

Given that two different CPI sources are used (and in two different contexts), it may be prudent to retitle the link in the sources section from "Consumer Price Index data" to indicate that it was used to create the table (and a different CPI source was used for the graph).

--Eibwen 01:32, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Apparent Contradiction

With regard to the graph's vertical axis, the first paragraph in the section states

the light plot is the price adjusted for inflation and is shown in 1984 US dollars.

Whereas the legend shown the right of the graph itself states "2007 cents". Additionally the image summary states:

History of US postage, 1885 - 2007 (Apr 07 inflation adjustment)

Either the light plot represents "2007 cents" or "1984 US dollars" (possibly "1984 cents" considering the scale on the graph itself), but it is not conceivable that it actually represents both. As such, this is an unresolved apparent contradiction between the article and the image (and the image summary on the image's page).

--Eibwen 01:00, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

The chart is clearly in 2007 cents since that is where the two plots intersect. I've changed the text to reflect this. I think the old text was in reference to this image. -SCEhardT 01:02, 25 September 2007 (UTC)