Washington ? Not just diamonds are forever. Add stamps to the list. The post office is planning a “forever” stamp for letters, good no matter how many times postal rates increase.

That means folks could say goodbye to those annoying 2-cent or 3-cent stamps that have to be added to letters every time rates go up. Sheets, rolls, books or loose stamps in the drawer would still be good.

Forever.

The idea for the special stamps, which would be sold at the same price as other first-class stamps, was included in proposals announced Wednesday that would also raise stamp prices 3 cents – to 42 cents – next year.

“A forever stamp would help ease the transition to any future price adjustments,” board chairman James C. Miller III said.

So, would people stock up on them?

“No, because I’d probably lose them,” said Timothy Cummings, 31, of Lakeland, Fla.

But Layne Rico, a corporate pilot from Valencia, Calif., was more enthusiastic. While he mainly uses stamps for greeting cards, he thinks the forever stamp is a good idea.

“Five hundred or 1,000 would cover me in my lifetime,” he said.

Adela Checino, of Orange County, Calif., said she would stock up on the stamps because she uses lots of them to pay bills.

And Inez Miller, of The Villages, Fla., agreed she too would stock up, though she expressed a bit of skepticism that they would really be good forever.

The idea must still pass muster with the independent Postal Rate Commission, but that shouldn’t be a major problem because commission member Ruth Goldway urged the post office to consider such a stamp a year ago.

“All of us at the commission who have followed the issue are delighted that this is something we will be able to consider,” Goldway said Wednesday.

Here’s how it would work. If the 3-cent increase takes effect next year, the forever stamp would be made available for 42 cents, the same as other first-class stamps. If the first-class rate were to rise to 45 cents in a few years, the 42-cent forever stamp would still be honored for postage on letters.

Once the new price took effect, forever stamps would then sell for 45 cents.

The proposed rate changes would take effect in May 2007 at the earliest, postal officials said.