US POSTAL HISTORY BLOG

With February 14th just around the corner, love is in the air…literally…as Valentine’s Day cards jam mailboxes around the world. According to the Greeting Card Association, 25% of all seasonal cards sent each year in America are Valentine’s, making it the second most popular card-sending occasion in the Unites States
 
Valentine’s Day originated in 5th Century Rome as a tribute to St. Valentine, a Catholic bishop. February 14th evolved into a holiday for lovers over time, and Charles, duke of Orleans, sent the first true Valentine card in 1415. The recipient: his wife. (He was imprisoned in the Tower of London at the time.) 

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From the earliest days of the war between the States, designs began to appear on envelopes sold to the public which expressed various kinds of sentiments of patriotism and/or negative caricature-like opinions of the enemy, or some other type of related subject. This type of postal expression had never been used to any extent prior to the Civil War. Earlier illustrated envelopes to promote various causes were usually of a propaganda nature, such as Intemperance, Cheaper Postage Rates, Anti-Slavery, etc. Patriotic themes on envelopes were used sparingly prior to 1861 in connection to a few political campaigns, but they were limited in scope and intent. Then, in 1861, all Hell literally broke loose! Continue reading

When stocks of a certain stamp ran out, postmasters sometimes resorted to cutting higher denominated stamps in half, vertically or diagonally, thus obtaining two “stamps” each representing half of the original monetary value, or “face” value, of the uncut stamp. The general public could only resort to this practice if authorized by the local postal authorities and for a limited period only.

The most famous bisected Black Jack stamps are known as “stage cents” bi-sects, and occurred after the Civil War when Southerners would cut 2-Cent stamps vertically in half between the “O” and “S” of the word “POSTAGE” at the top of the stamp. The result was that the wording that was left on the right-hand portion of the stamp would say “STAGE CENTS” – subtly referring to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by the actor John Wilkes Booth. If anyone had any questions, the creator of the bi-sect would simply tell him that he was only intending to use the left-half portion of the stamp, which read “U.S.PO TWO”; and footnoted it saying that he was truly sympathetic towards the causes of the poor and The Union.

Bisects only have philatical value when the cut halves are still affixed on the postal item showing the postmarks and originating from a recognised historical event.

Charles Lindbergh — equal parts flying enthusiast, risk taker, and showman – was determined to make a career in aviation. He enrolled in the Army Air Service Cadet Program in 1924 and earned his wings the following year, graduating at the top of his class in March 1925. In October, he became chief pilot for Robertson Aircraft Corp., the company that won the federal Contract Air Mail route from St. Louis to Chicago in October.

It was love at first flight.

The fact that airmail service was relatively new — and particularly dangerous — appealed to Lindbergh’s daredevil nature. He wrote of the perils of his profession that, “the best way to cope with danger is to keep in contact with it.”

Lindberg loved the challenge of a good competition and was drawn to the Orteig Prize of $25,000 for the first nonstop New York-Paris flight. He was competing with top flyers from around the world, including U.S. Navy Commander Richard Byrd.

In 1927 at age 25, Lindbergh left his competitors in the dust as he crossed the country in 22 hours to arrive in New York on May 12th, before departing again on May 20. He left at 7:54 am from Roosevelt Field on Long Island and arrived at Le Bourget airfield near Paris May 21 at 10:54 pm to a cheering crowd of more than 150,000. Lindbergh’s total flight time was 33 hours, 30 minutes, 29.8 seconds. The pilot had not slept in 55 hours

Lindbergh carried only five covers on his famous 1927 Trans-Atlantic flight and they were for purely promotional purposes. He had declined to take a real mail sack onboard because of concerns about over the effects of extra weight.

I would say it refers to a branch of collecting such items as envelopes, postcards, and wrappers with postage affixed, sold by post offices around the world. Some people collect by countries, states, cities, post offices, cancellations, events, and the list goes on and on. Cover collecting is a wide open field and an extension of stamp collecting. A “cover” is an envelope that has seen postal service. Many have “cachets,” a rubber stamped or printed impression or label placed on the cover descriptive of the event for which it was mailed.

Airmail postal history collectors will browse for First flights, Catapults, Zeppelins, Crash covers, Transpacific Airmail and all sorts of Commercial International Airmail.

Military postal history collectors will browse for war covers, APO covers, U.S. naval ship covers mailed by sailors, patriotic covers and other areas that pertain to military history.

There are so many areas to collect in there is just no way I can list all of them here. I haven’t even started on town cancellations, DPO’s, machine cancellations, flag cancellations, cities, states and many more collecting interest.