Navigators business reply envelope uses cinderella label
2024 has certainly gotten off to a busy start. It feels like every day has been full—and so, at least a couple of times, has my mailbox!
One of the more interesting pieces I’ve pulled from the “junk mail” arrived a couple of weeks ago in a mailing sent to my wife by the nonprofit Navigators. It’s a business reply envelope bearing a self-adhesive label with three roughly stamp-sized designs picturing snowflakes.
Navigators business reply envelope bearing cinderella labelLabel picturing snowflakes
BREs with preprinted designs are fairly common these days, but I’ve seen only a handful with cinderella stamps or labels affixed. The first was enclosed in a Boys Town mailing in February 2019, while the most recent prior to the pictured Navigators envelope was a National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund envelope sent to me by a friend in September 2020.
Parcel fragment shows unusual use of American Indian stamp
I recently had the opportunity to acquire an unusual example for my collection of 14¢ American Indian stamps on cover. It’s a solo use of the stamp on a parcel fragment mailed from Summerville, South Carolina, to Jacksonville, Florida—coincidentally, my old stomping grounds—in 1937.
14¢ American Indian parcel fragment postmarked in Summerville, South Carolina
Although there was a 14¢ parcel post rate in effect in 1937, it was for items mailed over longer distances than the distance between Summerville and Jacksonville, so how do we explain the use of the American Indian stamp by itself here? The answer lies in the inverted “Insured” marking handstamped below the mailing address.
While the parcel post zone 3 rate—that is, the rate for a mailing traveling 150–300 miles—for a package weighing up to one pound was only 9¢ in 1937, the insurance fee for up to $5 in coverage was 5¢. Add those two numbers together, and you get exactly 14¢, the face value of the American Indian stamp.
(As an aside, the addressee may have had a very indirect connection to the motion picture industry. You can read more in my detailed write-up on the piece.)
This strikes me as an unlikely way to get to a solo use of the 14¢ American Indian, and I suspect I would be hard pressed to find another, so I’m very pleased to have added this to my collection.
Como Park Post issues embossed 3¢ local post stamp
The first local post stamps of 2024 are already arriving in my mailbox, and the first of those I have to share with you is a new 3¢ stamp from Minnesota’s Como Park Post. The stamp was issued January 3.
A progressive proof shows the three stages of production required for this stamp. First, a frame bearing the letters “CPP” is printed; second, a solid purple oval is printed to serve as the vignette; and finally, a “3” is embossed in the center of the vignette.
Como Park Post 3¢ stamp proofs
Since the Saint Paul-based local post’s operator, Tom B., carves his own printing blocks, I can only assume those three steps have to be carried out for each and every stamp. That would be quite an involved process, and it demonstrates Tom’s dedication to his craft.
Hollywood Sign featured on pair of California local post stamps
I thought the Rocking Horse Farm Local Post stamp I mentioned last week might have been the last local post stamp issued in 2023, but I recently received a new claimant to that throne. Two of them, actually: a pair of stamps from Bat’s Private Post celebrating the centennial of the famous Hollywood Sign. The stamps were issued December 29, 2023.
Bat’s Private Post Hollywood Sign stamps
The Hollywood Sign was erected in December 1923 to publicize a real estate project known as Hollywoodland. Roughly a quarter century later, the “land” was lopped off the end to make the sign match the name of the nearby community of Hollywood.
Both stamps are die cut. The 10¢ value pays Bat’s Private Post’s fee to transport a letter to the United States Postal Service, while the 78¢ value pays for the Beverly Hills-based local post’s transport fee plus United States postage.
American Heart Association envelope reuses heart design
My first significant nonprofit mailing of 2024 comes from the American Heart Association, and it features the reuse of imagery first seen on the business reply envelope included in a February 2023 mailing.
The envelope I received last week bears three stamp-sized copies of a preprinted heart-on-heart design.
American Heart Association cover with stamp-sized designs picturing hearts
And the business reply envelope enclosed in the outer cover has five copies of the same image printed on it.
American Heart Association business reply envelope with stamp-sized designs picturing hearts
As I mentioned, I first saw the heart-on-heart design last year. The only difference I can see in what I received in the mail this month is that the designs on both the cover and the business reply envelope have a bold black border; on last year’s BRE, the designs had a pale border.
