Okay, we’re rapidly closing in on the end of 2023, and I’m trying to finish up a couple more blog posts before we head into the new calendar year. The subject of today’s entry is a business reply envelope distributed in mailings from the nonprofit Operation Smile this month.
Operation Smile business reply envelope with kite, giraffe, and Earth designs
The stamp-sized designs printed on the envelope depict a kite, a giraffe, and an anthropomorphized Earth holding a red heart. All three designs appear to be based on crayon artwork.
We received a pair of these in the mail: one in a mailing addressed to my wife, and one in a mailing addressed to me.
I rather prefer the appearance of the BRE distributed by Operation Smile in a fall mailing, which featured three different designs with simulated die cut perforations. They looked more like real stamps!
The United States of America’s 250th birthday is just over two years away, and the United States Postal Service has already announced a 2024 stamp commemorating the semiquincentennial of the First Continental Congress. New Hampshire-based Purgatory Post is also getting in on the action with a stamp commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.
Purgatory Post Boston Tea Party stamp
The 1-sola stamp was issued December 16, exactly 250 years to the day after dozens of members of the Sons of Liberty boarded three ships and tossed their cargo of tea into the harbor.
The stamp’s frame is based on the design used for the 1926 Sesquicentennial Exposition stamp, but where that stamp was printed in a single color—carmine—Purgatory Post’s new issue features a multicolored vignette.
In September 2022, I wrote about a pair of Como Park Post 7¢ local delivery stamps I’d received from the Saint Paul, Minnesota, local post’s operator, Tom B. Tom recently sent an additional strip of three such stamps that appear to come from the same recut die as those I originally reported.
Como Park Post 7¢ local delivery stamps
A major difference between these stamps and the originals is that the originals were printed on blue paper, while the ones I received recently are printed on yellow paper.
I have no information regarding an official date of issue or printing quantities for the new stamps, but if I receive any, I’ll certainly try to remember to pass it along.
Carina Nebula featured on pair of cinderella stamps
While I don’t receive huge quantities of mail in connection with my responsibilities as treasurer for the Local Post Collectors Society, a few covers do show up when it’s time for members to pay their annual dues. This year, one of the envelopes bore a pair of cinderella stamps picturing the Carina Nebula
Carina Nebula cinderella stamps
The “JWST” at the bottom of the stamps appears to reference the James Webb Space Telescope. Images of the Carina Nebula and four other targets of interest were among the first taken by the James Webb Space Telescope that were released in July 2022.
These items do not appear to be local post stamps, but true cinderellas.
This one has an imperforate copy of the $1 Miller Boat Line stamp from the same set as the 75¢ stamp on the prior cover.
Rattlesnake Island Local Post $1 Miller Boat Line stamp on cover
As you can probably tell form the scan, this envelope and the local post stamp got kind of dinged up traveling through the mail; there are some lovely vertical and diagonal creases through the stamp itself. Nevertheless, it’s a neat piece of modern local post postal history.
