A former postmaster general has accused the current one of "prostituting" the stamps selected for publication because of the recent choice to feature Harry Potter. Benjamin Ballair served as Postmaster General from 1975-1978 and is considered a prominent stamp collector, according to an article published Thursday that carried his accusation. Ballair had been a member of the Citizens' Advisory Stamp Committee, which meets quarterly to select cultural figures to be featured for upcoming stamps. But the committee was not consulted on the selection of Harry Potter, who was announced as the subject of a series of stamps last November.

That selection was apparently the final straw for Ballair, who announced his resignation last month to in a letter to current Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe :

"The stamp program should celebrate the things that are great about the United States and serve as a medium to communicate those things to a world-wide audience,” Bailar wrote in his letter to Donahoe on July 23, a copy of which was obtained  by The Washington Post. 

"To prostitute that goal in the pursuit of possibly illusory profits does not make sense to me.”

The Post Office announced that, despite record growth in 2013, it posted a net loss of $5 billion for the fiscal year, the seventh straight year it had posted a loss.