The nation's first plastic stamp - one that takes no licking to keep it sticking - went on sale Saturday through automated teller machines at banks.

Over the next six months, 22 ATMs in the Seattle area will dispense the limited-edition, 25-cent stamps in a test to see whether people will buy them and if banks want to sell them, said U.S. Postmaster General Anthony Frank."We think ATM stamps represent a good idea and a technological milestone," Frank said at a first-day-of-issue ceremony Friday.

The stamps, which feature an abstract American flag, need no moisture to stick. You simply peel one off a sheet of backing and post it on your letter.

They are humidity and tear-resistant, and were designed to have the thickness of a dollar bill, to be dispensed through 24-hour bank machines.

The 10-layer stamp is basically a polyester film over a pressure-adhesive with a water-soluble primer. Less than five-thousandths of an inch thick, it is dispensed in sheets of 12, roughly the size of a dollar bill.

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It is not biodegradable but can be soaked off envelopes and recycled.

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