"All that is within me," wrote Franklin D. Roosevelt, "cries out to go back to my home on the Hudson River."

Perhaps the river and its waterfowl were on the president's mind when he signed the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act into law in 1934. Roosevelt personally requested the scene depicted on the first duck stamp: two mallards landing on a marsh pond.

• The duck stamp program was among the first nationwide conservation programs in the U.S., and it's widely considered the most successful.

• More than 119 million stamps have been sold.

• About 1.8 million stamps are purchased each year. Most are bought by hunters, the rest are sold to stamp collectors and wildlife supporters.

• A duck stamp purchased in 1934 for $1 is now worth about $750 in mint condition. A poor condition stamp sells for about $250.

• Duck stamp sales in Pennsylvania peaked in 1972-73 with the sale of 87,661 stamps.

Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

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