US POSTAL HISTORY BLOG

The government has on occasion, but not often, sanctioned official counterfeiting of some of its postal emissions when desired for some very special purpose.  As an example of government stamp imitations, most collectors will recall at once the official counterfeits of the 5¢ and 10¢ 1847 designs, which were made up to complete the Centennial sets of 1875, when it was discovered that the original dies were no longer available.  Few, however, will think of the stamped envelope imitations shown on the posters formerly used in post office lobby displays as an incentive to the general public to use more stamped envelopes.

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The Civil War patriotic covers and other printed stationery items created by the Charles Magnus Company are distinguished by their eye-catching hand-coloring. To create the covers, a pre-cut stencil pattern was laid over a black and white design and color was applied. The workers, primarily women and children paid a salary of 8-cents per day for their labors, were given free reign in their color selections. As a result, Civil War patriotic covers with designs created by the Charles Magnus Company may be truly unique.

Collecting air crash mail covers is an intriguing and somewhat unusual pursuit. You can collect the covers of a single airline that has crashed, our create a collection focused on a, country, continent, region, state or specific time period. Some people collect the covers from crashes of a single type of aircraft. The earliest crash covers are those carried by balloon out of Paris during the siege of the French city from 1870-71. Many of the balloons crashed, but a surprising amount of the mail was recovered.

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In 1908, Congress authorized post offices aboard ships and stations of the U.S. Navy. These post offices offer the same service as do post offices in cities and towns, and have identifiable postmarks. Around 1930, collectors began sending their own covers to U.S. Navy ships to be cancelled and returned.

If you’re a fan of naval covers, and have thought about creating your own collectibles, the Universal Ship Cancellation Society (USCS) can help. You can contact them for more information on how and where to send for ship cancellations, reference materials for learning about collecting, and a well-written monthly magazine called the USCS Log. The log includes articles about the current and historic fleet, as well as other information of interest.