A Bit o' Stamp History...

[Tom Geiger]

It seemed my newly acquired Graf Zeppelin post card was a hit in the "What I Got Today Thread". I didn't get these today, so I'll post some stuff here. I've been a stamp collector since I was a kid. If I'm spending big money on a collectible, it's more likely to be a stamp item than a model car item!

A few things that I think are cool... I know I've posted these places before, but I don't believe I've done so on this board.

Here's another Zep item. I got this one a year or so ago, I just noticed this was the eBay image I bought it from. This was one of our military zeppelins, the USS Akron. We didn't have an air force back in 1932 so 'air ship' somehow went to the navy and they gave it the typical "USS" ship designation. I have another cover from an Akron flight where they delivered mail to a navy ship in the Pacific. It's cool to have these since they were actually on that flight!

The post office offered Special Delivery Air Mail even back in the early 1930s when airmail was still in the pioneer stage. Note that this one is postmarked Dec 31, 1932 at 6:30pm. It is going coast to coast, from San Francisco to Pennsylvania... actually to a town very close to me here near Philly,

Here's the back of the same envelope. The mail didn't stop for holidays! Here it got to Chicago by 9pm on January 1st 1933. So this cover straddled the year, postmarked the last day in 1932 and the first day in 1933. It did make it to Ardmore, PA by 11:30am on Jan 2nd, so it must have traveled over night by air again. I'm surprised there wasn't a Philadelphia airport receiving mark. That would have told the whole story. It no doubt went to Chicago because they didn't have planes that could make the whole trip in a single flight back then.

Now we can only wonder what was so important to spend 18 cents to rush a message coast to coast. This is a small card envelope, and the dark lining (see where it's missing a bit of the flap) may signify a mourning card, so I'm thinking that this mailing brought sad news in the new year.

It's fun to be a bit of detective in the cyber age too. The house at 133 Arnold Road in Ardmore is still there today. Just pop the address into Google Maps and a picture of it comes right up.

Here's another interesting piece. It's a greeting card. I don't believe I've seen a greeting card in an envelope prior to the early 1930s. The post card was the custom back in the early part of the 20th century, Now you may have noticed the significance already. It was mailed on February 28, 1908, and received February 29th. Yes! 1908 was a leap year! This is a completely unique piece, you won't find another!

Keeping my eyes open to little details like these New Years and Leap Year postmarks are part of the fun of collecting. And nobody before me even noticed the significance. The New Years airmail cover was in a large lot I bought. The Leap Year post card was an eBay find. But the seller was focused on the picture on the other side.

And sometimes our worlds collide. Here's an airmail cover mailed from Lansing, Michigan to Nyack, New York by the Reo Motor Car Company back in 1929!

Hope you enjoyed this bit of history.

Edited April 9, 2014 by Tom Geiger

[jrherald420]

Pretty cool stuff. I used to collect stamps when i was a kid.

[Harry P.]

Interesting stuff, Tom.

I've also collected stamps since I was a kid... my uncle was a collector and he got me involved. Been collecting ever since, but only US now. I realized very early that trying to put together a worldwide collection was impossible! But one thing I don't collect is covers... I already am spending too much trying to fill the holes in my collection.

[Tom Geiger]

^{Interesting Harry! I specialized in one stamp, the Series of 1902 Ben Franklin One Cent stamp. That's the one on the Leap Year cover. I had given up on finding the hard stuff back in the 1990s, but once eBay came about I renewed my interest since suddenly I was finding things I had never seen in person like the booklet pane and the private perforations. It was an interesting era in postal history as things had just begun to be automated and companies developed the private perforations for use in stamp vending machines and stamp affixing machines, the very birth of junk mail. Within 10 years of collecting with eBay, I had completed all the hard (and expensive!) stuff so now my focus is on unusual postmarks and usage, precancels and perfin (companies perforated their logo or initials in their stamps to avoid theft) stamps on covers. They aren't expensive but it's something to chase! And isn't the fun in the chase?}

[1930fordpickup]

Takes me back to sitting around the table with dad and my brothers. Dad collected stamps so does one brother. Nothing high dollar or old.

Edited April 9, 2014 by 1930fordpickup

[Harry P.]

^{And isn't the fun in the chase?}

To fill out my collection, I still have a whole lot of chasing to do! I'm pretty good from the 40s and newer, but the older stuff... my album pages have many more empty spots than stamps!

[Ace-Garageguy]

...I still have a whole lot of chasing to do! I'm pretty good from the 40s and newer, but the older stuff...

Are we talking women or stamps?

[Harry P.]

Are we talking women or stamps?

Both...

[Agent G]

Oh I gave up the newer um er "stamps" after the last debacle.

I just like to see the addresses, you know like :

Thomas Smith

Atascaloosa, Abalama

and it gets there!

Seriously simpler times.

G

[Harry P.]

Oh I gave up the newer um er "stamps" after the last debacle.

I just like to see the addresses, you know like :

Thomas Smith

Atascaloosa, Abalama

and it gets there!

Seriously simpler times.

G

Yeah, and probably got there faster than it would today!

[Agent G]

No stuff!

It takes five days for a card or letter to get from my place to the kids in St Louis.

G

[Tom Geiger]

Yeah, and probably got there faster than it would today!

Actually yes! Back in the day the mails were much more important than today. Mail was delivered twice a day in city business areas around the start of the 20th century. It was the only means of communication before phones. I have a cover that was mailed between two lawyers in the 1890s. It was mailed from Newark, NJ to Brooklyn, NY and from the postmarks it appeared to have been received the same day it was mailed. The message inside was making an appointment to meet the following day. I guess it took a lot of faith that the recipient actually got the letter, to travel to that appointment!

[charlie8575]

Newark is the city you go into on I-80 leaving NYC, isn't it?

I mean, it's not THAT far, yet with today's mail.....

One of my friends (who, ironic to this, lives in Brooklyn now,) has a sister that works at the mail processing plant in Shrewsbury. Oh the stories of how one mess-up after another.

It really is a wonder the mail works as well as it does, before and after computers.

Charlie Larkin

[Tom Geiger]

Newark is the city you go into on I-80 leaving NYC, isn't it? Yes, but don't go there. Once a proud city, not so much anymore.

I mean, it's not THAT far, yet with today's mail..... I was talking 1890s, before motor vehicles! No doubt the mail moved across the river by train, but much of the travel was by human means!

One of my friends (who, ironic to this, lives in Brooklyn now,) has a sister that works at the mail processing plant in Shrewsbury. Oh the stories of how one mess-up after another. If you mean the mail center in Eatontown, NJ (next town from Shrewsbury), my wife's brother worked there for 25 years. It's being shut down and he was lucky to get a transfer to Hamilton (near Trenton) instead of walking papers. It's interesting how far the PO has cut back in recent years. He's got over 25 years in and he's low man in seniority for preferred shifts, holidays off etc.

It really is a wonder the mail works as well as it does, before and after computers. It is amazing that you can mail a letter for 50 cents in NJ and it will wind up in a specific mailbox in California within 2-3 days. But the funny part is that the mails were very efficient way before computers.

Charlie Larkin

[Tom Geiger]

And some more stuff to chew up bandwidth! I've always been intrigued by town names and postmarks. Armed with the 1976 Zip Code Directory I found that there was a Geigertown in Pennsylvania. I was 17 at the time, and I send a couple of postcards to the postmaster there asking for a postmark for my collection. They did so, even putting them in a special USPS postage paid envelope to protect them in the mail, along with a nice note inviting me to come there someday.

Well, once we moved to PA, I came across the postcards and decided to see exactly where Geigertown was. Score! Less than a half hour from my house. I never would have imagined that in 1976! So we made a little trip there in December 2012 and presented this card to the current postmaster, along with the invitation to visit. They were happy to see me and stamped my cards with a current postmark. We also mailed all our Christmas cards there that year, thinking relatives would get a kick out of the postmark... wouldn't ya know, not a single one of them even noticed!

How about a Charles M Schultz autograph on a first day cover? Back in 1975 when this stamp was issued, I was a budding journalist and I decided to send these out to well known people in journalism. I sent each two covers, one for them to keep and one to sign and mail back to me in my self addressed stamped envelope. I was surprised at both who responded and who didn't. Charles M Schultz was the first one back, along with a hand written note thanking me. The editor of the New York Times didn't respond, nor did the other high end journalists I mailed. But who did respond? Erma Bombeck and Ann Landers! Just fun stuff to have!

Stamp collecting is like car collecting. The first question you usually get asked is "How Much Is It Worth?" So I'll show ya the money! I bought the above cover at auction when I was a kid for something like $50. It was auctioned as "probably a fake 318" which was the official government issue coil stamp. I did a bit of research on the subject, and uncovered history that these were another variety of the private perforations commissioned by Covel, and that the government issue 318 never existed. I did the research that Covel was on the same street as Shermack, who did the coils for affixing machines and vending machines, and Covel had them do their own variety. This cover is unique since it's real commercial postal usage (versus a collector sending it to himself or another collector). Put to auction today, it would bring $500-1,000. And to the average collector, this wouldn't stand out among a stack of dollar covers.

I posted this one on another board, but I don't believe here. This is a last day cancel from St. Thomas, Nevada. The town was abandoned because it would be under water with the building of the Boulder Dam.

These two pieces were inside the envelope and make the history come alive. Imagine that this cover was actually there!

This photo was also in the envelope of the post office and the boat that was needed to escape the rising waters. Now for the fun part in this Internet age.. I looked up St Thomas, and of course there was a web site. It seems that with the drought of the past few years, the town has appeared from the receding waters. The site had old photos of what was there, and current photos of foundations of the old town that had been under water for 75 years. I originally scanned all this to send to the web master, and explorer who went there, who was happy to get the information. It's great that you can reach out to nearly anyone today.

So those are the pieces I have to share in this installment...

[charlie8575]

Oh...I should've clarified.

That's Shrewsbury, Ma., a suburb of Worcester- next town over, actually. That's called the Central Mass. Processing & Distribution Center. HUGE plant.

Charlie Larkin

[Tom Geiger]

Oh...I should've clarified.

That's Shrewsbury, Ma., a suburb of Worcester- next town over, actually. That's called the Central Mass. Processing & Distribution Center. HUGE plant.

Charlie Larkin

Shrewsbury... I always thought that should be an ice cream flavor! I assumed NJ since they were traveling from Brooklyn. I worked with a lot of NYers in that area of Jersey.

[Modelmartin]

Very cool stuff!

[charlie8575]

Shrewsbury... I always thought that should be an ice cream flavor! I assumed NJ since they were traveling from Brooklyn. I worked with a lot of NYers in that area of Jersey.

Nope, Rob's a Worcester/Leicester boy originally. He moved there in 2010 because Rhode Island's economy had failed so miserably, and he figured "well, if I can make it there, I can make it anyplace," got a job three weeks later, lost it not quite a year later, and is now marking about nine months at his new job- yep, two years of nothing or very little.

Shrewsbury....wonder how that would taste? If ours, it would be kinda rich.

Charlie Larkin

[Harry P.]

Shrewsbury....wonder how that would taste? If ours, it would be kinda rich.

Charlie Larkin

Sounds to me like it would taste sort of ratty...

[charlie8575]

Sounds to me like it would taste sort of ratty...

Hmmm....you may have a point there.

Charlie Larkin