American Heart Association BRE features heart, logo
I’ve previously shared scans of several business reply envelopes distributed in American Heart Association mailings. The latest example from that nonprofit arrived in my mailbox recently, and it’s pictured here.
American Heart Association business reply envelope with preprinted “I Love My Heart” designs
As you can see, the envelope bears five copies of a design featuring a heart with the words “I Love My Heart” and the American Heart Association name and logo. Each design has preprinted faux perforations.
At just 7¼ inches long, this business reply envelope is smaller than most I receive in nonprofit mailings, and while the design isn’t the most creative, I actually like it better than the generic birds and flowers used on many BREs. The designs on the envelope actually promote the organization that had it printed, which I think is an excellent approach.
Minnesota’s Como Park Post was quick out of the gate in 2025, issuing what had to be one of if not the first local post stamp of the new year January 4.
Como Park Post local post stamp
Como Park’s operator creates the woodcut dies from which he prints his stamps by hand. In thise case, I’mt not entirely certain what the stamp’s face value is. It looks very much like there is a “5” in the lower left corner, but if that’s the case, what are the characters in the other corners of the stamp? I’m not sure.
Bat’s Private Post issues Happy New Year souvenir sheet
I wrote last week about how Rocking Horse Farm Local Post and Purgatory Post had issued the last couple of new local post stamps in 2024, but it turns out I was wrong. While those two operations released some of the last local post stamps for the past calendar year, Beverly Hills-based Bat’s Private Post slipped in under the wire with a souvenir sheet released December 31. The theme was “Happy New Year.”
Bat’s Private Post Happy New Year souvenir sheet
The souvenir sheet contains six stamps ranging in value from 10¢ to $3. I suppose the fireworks stamp is “happy” (so long as you’re not a dog or a horse), but “happy new year” carries with it a darker undertone for the other stamps because there’s some truly horrible stuff going on in the world. And this souvenir sheet was issued before the New Orleans terror attack or the California wildfires!
At any rate, Bat’s probably wins the last local post stamp of 2024 award; there certainly can’t be any released any later than December 31!
Philosateleian Post sets record for second consecutive year
For the second consecutive year, Floresville-based Philosateleian Post in 2024 once again set new records for the total number of mailpieces processed.
In 2023, Philosateleian Post carried 525 pieces of outbound mail. Last year, the total was 575 pieces of outbound mail, an increase of nearly 10% over the previous year. Philosateleian Post also dealt with nearly 20 pieces of mail misdelivered by the United States Postal Service or addressed to unknown recipients.
The grand total included all-time single-year highs in the number of mailpieces processed in the letter, business mail, postcard, and international categories.
Rocking Horse Farm, Purgatory Post end 2024 with new stamps
My first post office box checking of 2025 brought with it the last couple of new local post stamps of 2024.
First is a Christmas stamp issued by Minnesota’s Rocking Horse Farm Local Post. The $1 stamp picturing a snow-covered Christmas tree was issued December 23.
Rocking Horse Farm Local Post Christmas 2024 stamp
I previously mentioned this local post in a January 2024 blog post, but I didn’t know much about it at the time; however, the local post’s operator included some additional information with his most recent stamp.
Rocking Horse Farm is a historic farmstead in Saint Cloud, Minnesota, and in addition to an 1850s log building hosts a music school and craft and sewing shops among other things. Rocking Horse Farm Local Post was established in 1999 and has released more than 130 different stamps since then, but over the past 15 years, the local post has issued only Christmas stamps.
The other local post stamp I received is from a more familiar issuer, New Hampshire’s Purgatory Post. The latest in Purgatory Post’s series of stamps commemorating the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, this 6-sola stamp celebrates the semiquincentennial of the Yorktown Tea Party of 1774. Purgatory Post issued the stamp December 27.
Purgatory Post Yorktown Tea Party
While I, like many other kids in the United States, learned about the Boston Tea Party, the Yorktown Tea Party didn’t sound familiar. It turns out it was a very similar event that took place in Virginia in November 1774 when a group of patriots boarded the ship Virginia and dumped two half chests of tea into the York River. From this stamp, I learned something new!
