American Heart Association envelope features hearts
An American Heart Association fundraising mailing earlier this month contained a colorful business reply envelope with faux postage designs printed on it.
The smaller-than-business size envelope has three copies of a landscape-orinted pink-and-white design picturing a small heart superimposed over a large heart—an appropriate design, considering the sender.
American Heart Association business reply envelope with stamp-sized designs picturing heart
Most such designs I’ve seen printed on business reply envelopes use a more typical portrait orientation, so this BRE stood out a little bit to me.
In my capacity as treasurer and public contact for the Local Post Collectors Society, I recently received a letter inquiring about Washington Local Post. Washington Local Post produced several covers bearing Boy Scout-themed cachets in 1965 as illustrated in Levy’s Boy & Girl Scout Cachet Covers of the United States, and the writer wanted to know if we could tell him anything more about the operation.
I had never run across any Washington Local Post material myself, but queries to a couple of other LPCS members garnered a bit of information. It seems Washington Local Post was active in Canton, Texas, which is east of Dallas, from 1965 to 1967, but it’s unclear exactly who was responsible for it, or whether there were ever any Washington Local Post stamps.
One of the Society members who shared information with me communicated there was also a Washington Local Post active in Pennsylvania from at least 1982 until around the turn of the century, but there’s no indication it was in any way connected to the earlier operation in Texas.
Do you have any information about the Washington Local Post from the 1960s? If so, I would love to add some more details.
Bat’s Private Post celebrates WLPD 2023 with four animal stamps
Beverly Hills-based Bat’s Private Post is one of several private local posts celebrating World Local Post Day by issuing a stamp or stamps picturing local flora and fauna.
On February 5, Bat’s released four stamps. Two of the stamps have face values of 68¢ each: one features a blurry image of Bigfoot from film recorded at Six Rivers National Forest in California, and the other shows a Hawaiian hoary bat (Lasiurus semotus). Each stamp covers Bat’s Private Post’s combined charge for local postage and first-class domestic postage.
The other two stamps are denominated $1.50 and cover Bat’s Private Post’s combined charge for local postage and first-class international postage. Those stamps depict a Mexican wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) and Mearns’ coyote (Canis latrans mearnsi), the latter of which is native to southern California.
Bat’s Private Post World Local Post Day 2023 animal stamps
World Local Post Day 2023 was officially scheduled for January 30, the final Monday in January, but local post operators have the freedom to celebrate the event on any alternate dates of their choosing.
Purgatory Post depicts Blanding’s turtle on WLPD stamp
World Local Post Day 2023 took place on January 30, but at least one WLPD stamp was officially issued a little over a week after that date.
New Hampshire’s Purgatory Post on February 7 issued a 23-sola stamp picturing a Blanding’s turtle (Emydoidea blandingii). The endangered species is native to portions of Canada and the United States including New Hampshire, and its shell can grow up to 10 inches long.
Purgatory Post 23-sola Blanding’s Turtle stamp
“It’s one of the few species on the New Hampshire endangered list, and has been seen not too far from my house,” writes Purgatory Post operator Scott A.
The theme for World Local Post Day this year was local flora and fauna, which makes the Blanding’s turtle a most relevant selection for Purgatory Post.
Rule change could see mail with counterfeit stamps go in trash
Late last year, I wrote about the scourge of counterfeit Forever stamps flooding various online marketplaces. Although priced well below face value, such listings are usually (if not always) for counterfeit stamps, and I’ve encouraged my readers to steer clear of such offerings.
If you’ve been on the fence about that idea, maybe a proposed rule change from the United States Postal Service will help change your mind. Barring any unexpected retraction of the change, the Domestic Mail Manual will be revised to reflect that, beginning April 1, “mail bearing counterfeit postage will be considered abandoned and disposed of at the discretion of the Postal Service.”
Yes, you read that correctly. Use counterfeit stamps, knowingly or unknowingly, and if your mail is caught, it goes in the trash without ever reaching its intended destination.
On one hand, I kind of like this idea. The USPS has received no payment for transporting or delivering mail with counterfeit stamps attached, so why should we expect them to do so? It would be like going into a store and handing the cashier an obviously fake $100 bill and expecting them to hand your purchase to you with a smile and no questions asked.
On the other hand…I’m guessing most people who buy discounted Forever stamps online aren’t aware that they’re purchasing counterfeit goods, and they’ll be mad that their mail didn’t get where it was supposed to go while they received no notification that there was even a problem.
Besides that, a lot of mail with counterfeit stamps currently seems to get to where it’s addressed without being assessed postage due, which suggests to me that either the USPS employees handling such mail either a) don’t notice or less likely b) don’t care. In that respect, I don’t know how much the proposed rule change will save the Postal Service vs. the potential lost good will of its customers.
It certainly seems like a sticky situation. What do you think of the proposed change?
