By Bill McAllister, Washington Correspondent

A rare drop in postal prices will become effective Sunday, April 10, the United States Postal Service announced Feb. 25.

The decrease, which results from the expiration of a temporary rate increase ordered in late 2013, had been widely anticipated.

It will be only the third time that there has been “a general reduction in postage rates,” according to the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers.

The two other rate reductions came on July 1, 1885, when a 2¢ reduction in the price of a letter was ordered, and on July 1, 1919, when a World War I 1¢ “exigent” surcharge was removed, according to the alliance.

(The July 1, 1885, drop resulted from the letter rate moving from 2¢ per ½ ounce to 2¢ per ounce.)

Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan had pleaded with Congress and the courts to continue a 4.3 percent emergency rate increase that had been ordered because of sharply falling mail volume and the 2008 recession.

But neither the courts nor lawmakers seemed sympathetic to intervening in the change, which Brennan said will cost the cash-hungry Postal Service $2 billion a year.

Brennan had agreed Jan. 12 to give mailers at least 45 days advance notice of the change.

In early February, the USPS gave notice of what the new rates would be.

As expected, the first-class letter rate will drop to 47¢, from 49¢.

The additional ounces of first-class letters will drop to 21¢, from 22¢.

International letters will drop to $1.15, from the current $1.20.

Postcards will fall from 35¢ to 34¢.

Prices for forever stamps will also decline on April 10.

In a press release confirming the change date, Brennan again argued that the reduction is not wise.

“The exigent surcharge granted to the Postal Service last year only partially alleviated our extreme multi-year revenue declines resulting from the Great Recession, which exceeded $7 billion in 2009 alone,” she stated.

The Postal Service’s “current pricing regime is unworkable and should be replaced,” Brennan said, citing continuing declines in first-class mail, which has traditionally supported the Postal Service’s operating costs.