I wrote last week of a bunch of business reply envelopes that arrived in the mail while I was out of town in October. Since I posted, a couple more have shown up, one from Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States and the other from Parkinson’s Foundation.
The VFW envelope has five different stamp-sized designs printed on it. They picture a church, a cardinal, a snowman wearing a hat and scarf, children around a Christmas tree in the snow, and three dogs with their heads stuck out of a vehicle window.
Veterans of Foreign Wars business reply envelope
The BRE from Parkinson’s Foundation has three deisgns. The first design is horizontal and may depict an abstract sort of “P.” The other two designs are vertical; of those, one is highly abstract, while the other features what may be a stylized representation of a microscrope.
Parkinson’s Foundation business reply envelope
And that’s that. Obviously, I had a much shorter list to work through this time than last.
Free City of Loffburg fantasy stamps tied to Adanaland
Today, I’m writing about some stamps that have been in my queue for several weeks now. They came to me by way of England’s Alan B., the creator of Adanaland stamps, but this block purports to be from the Free City of Loffburg.
Free City of Loffburg fantasy stamps
According to the approval card on which the block is mounted, Loffburg was mistakenly excluded from the terms of the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty of 1890, the agreement by which Germany gained control of Heligoland and German East Africa in exchange for recognizing British authority in Zanzibar. It was subsequently declared a free city and became a member of the Adanaland Commonwealth.
These stamps are, of course, fantasy creations through and through. Loffburg doesn’t really exist! Nevertheless, the designs seem appropriate to the time period in which they supposedly originated, and they’re certainly not something you’re likely to run across every day. This sort of material is, to me, one of the things that make stamp collecting fun!
Some of the latest stamps issued by Beverly Hills-based Bat’s Private Post honor a late Mexican artist.
Jesus Helguera (1910–1971) developed an interest in art at a young age, and he enrolled in an art school at age 14. By the time he reached his twenties, he was already teaching art as well as creating works of his own. The new local post stamps ranging in face value from 10¢ to $3, plus $10 and $20 stamps issued as a souvenir sheet, feature several of his most famous paintings.
Bat’s Private Post stamps picturing Jesus Helguera paintings
I have seen a copy of the 10¢ stamp (not illustrated here) and the souvenir sheet postmarked August 31 and a first day cover with the stamps from the strip of five postmarked September 5. It’s unclear to me if the strip of five was issued on a different date than the other stamps or if the cover received first day markings in error, but either seems possible.
Last month, my family and I were on a trip away from home for about a week and a half. When we got back, our post office box and home mailbox were stuffed absolutely full of mail including a big stack of nonprofit mailings. Many of those had colorful business reply envelopes enclosed, no fewer than seven of which were new to me! I’ll get through these as quickly as possible.
First up is an unusually small business reply envelope from Shriners Children’s. The front of this envelope has two preprinted stamp-sized images depicting a teddy bear. This is a design Shriners has used since at least as early as November 2022, but the original version had a blue background while the new version is red.
Shriners Children’s business reply envelope with preprinted teddy bear designs
Shriners also sent a mailing containing an envelope with three different designs picturing a snowman, a house, and a deer printed on it. Unlike the first entry, this envelope is a standard size.
Shriners Children’s business reply envelope with preprinted winter designs
Next is a BRE from Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch. This example, which features three designs picturing floral arrangements, is the fifth different business reply envelope I’ve received from this organization this year.
Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch business reply envelope with preprinted floral designs
Fourth, we have a debut appearance from the Society of the Little Flower, which appropriately used four copies of a pink flower design of its own on this envelope.
Society of the Little Flower business reply envelope with preprinted pink flower designs
National Jewish Health distributed a BRE featuring two copies of each of two images of children dressed as medical professionals. These designs have simulated printed die cutting which does make them look a bit more like stamps.
National Jewish Health business reply envelope with preprinted children designs
Operation Smile used new variants of artwork that appeared on a BRE that I reported from a September mailing, but without simulated die cutting to make the designs appear to be coil stamps. Additionally, the first two of the designs have been modified from that earlier envelope: on the first, the dove now faces to the left rather than to the right, and on the second, all four tiers of the Christmas tree appear to be the same shade of green.
Operation Smile business reply envelope with preprinted Christmas designs
And finally, an Edmundite Missions mailing included a business reply envelope with four designs that looked familiar. That’s because they originally showed up on a BRE enclosed in a May 2024 mailing, but on that envelope, all the designs were printed in blue rather than the purples and dark red that we see here.
Operation Smile business reply envelope with preprinted Christian designs
Whew! That was quite a haul, and quite a list to work our way through. That does, however, bring us up to speed, at least for now. We’ll see what the post office box holds when I go to check it this week, then go from there.
Mistral Local Post stamp features snowy winter scene
In my capacity as treasurer for the Local Post Collectors Society, I recently received a mailing bearing a stamp from Mistral Local Post out of Medford, Oregon. This is a private local post with which I was not previously familiar.
The stamp was tied to cover by a Rogue Local Post postmark with an indistinct date. The stamp appears to depict a snowy landscape with a rock wall with perhaps a building or buildings in the distance.
Mistral Local Post stamp
Due to damage incurred during mail processing, the stamp’s denomination is unclear. What was its original face value? What is the location of the scene on the stamp? These are questions for which I have no answers, but I’ve written the sender to request more information. If I receive a response, I’ll be sure to post an update here.
Update (2024-11-28): I recently received an update regarding this stamp from its creator, John Z. It’s a 50¢ stamp, and its design is based on a Claude Monet work, The Magpie, Snow Effect, Outskirts Of Honfleur, which is a town in northwestern France.
50¢ Mistral Local Post Outskirts of Honfleur stamp
Mistral Local Post, which is based in Medford, Oregon, was established in 2009 and has issued no fewer than 50 different local post stamps, all of which reproduce various paintings including several by Monet. John sent the mint copy of the stamp pictured above and several other Mistral Local Post landscape stamps to me for my collection, and I thank him for that!
