Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch BRE features butterfly on flower
My post office box is full of “junk mail” pretty much every week when I go to check it, and things were no different this week. In spite of that, there was only one mailing with a business reply envelope I hadn’t seen previously, one originating from Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch.
The BRE in this mailing has three stamp-sized designs picturing a butterfly sitting on a flower.
Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch business reply envelope with stamp-sized butterfly & flower designs
Other business reply envelopes in the mail I received over the past week also featured preprinted designs, but they were all repeats of artwork the same nonprofits have used in the past.
Today’s mail brought my wife a single business reply envelope I had not seen previously in a mailing from the American Bible Society, and while the stamp-sized designs printed on it are simple, I think they’re sufficiently attractive to share a scan here.
American Bible Society business reply envelope with patriotic designs
Each of the four designs on the envelope are patriotic with red, white, and blue colors. Three of the four feature some variation on the American flag, and the other depicts stars and the Statue of Liberty’s silhouette. All four designs have printed faux perforations.
I also checked my post office box today, and while there was the usual array of notepads, return address labels, and greeting cards enclosed in mailings from other nonprofits, there were no new business reply envelope designs in that pile of mail, so the BRE pictured above is all for now.
Business reply envelopes from first week of February 2025
Last week’s mail brought a couple of new business reply envelopes my way.
The first example originated in a mailing from Veterans of Foreign Wars. The envelope bears five preprinted stamp-sized designs depicting the American flag.
Veterans of Foreign Wars business reply envelope with preprinted United States flag designs
The second example came from Prison Fellowship and features three preprinted and overlapping flower designs. If they were actual postage stamps, that would be against USPS regulations, but as graphics with no postal value, I guess it’s a case of no harm, no foul.
Prison Fellowship business reply envelope with preprinted flower designs
World Local Post Day 2025 is nearly two weeks in the past now, but several first day covers bearing stamps issued in conjunction with the annual local post event have arrived in my post office box since then. We’ll do a quick review of those here.
First, naturally, is a cover bearing a copy of my own Philosateleian Post’s National Monument to the Forefathers stamp that I issued January 27. The United States postage stamp is tied to cover by my Floresville, Texas, mailer’s postmark, and my local post stamp is surprisingly undamaged!
Philosateleian Post National Monument to the Forefathers FDC
Next up is New Hampshire-based Purgatory Post’s contribution, a 25-sola stamp that reproduces the design of the Scott-listed McGreely’s Express local stamp issued in Alaska in 1898. Although the stamp’s vignette shows a dog sled in motion, mail and packages transported by the operation were actually carried by motorboat.
Purgatory Post World Local Post Day FDC
Finally, Bat’s Private Post in Beverly Hills, California, released a pair of stamps with 10¢ and 83¢ face values for World Local Post Day. Each stamp features the design of the 2½-anna blue peafowl stamp issued by the Indian feudatory state of Jaipur in 1931. That stamp was part of a series valid for postage only in Jaipur, which makes it a local post stamp.
I recently had the opportunity to acquire three additional on-cover solo uses of the 14¢. Two of the three are obviously philatelic in nature, but two of the three also show the 14¢ stamp paying specific rates for which I did not already have in my collection.
The earliest of the three covers dates from 1923, the same year the American Indian stamp was issued. This envelope was sent via air mail from San Francisco, California, to Millburn, New Jersey, and the American Indian stamp paid seven times the correct postage rate in effect at the time. That, along with the fact it was addressed to a well-known cover collector, leaves no doubt of the philatelic nature of the cover.
14¢ American Indian cover mailed via night air mail
Next up is a totally commercial cover mailed from New York City to Meriden, Connecticut, with the 14¢ stamp paying postage on a two-ounce letter at 2¢ per ounce plus 10¢ for special delivery. This rate was possible for over nine years from the date on which the stamp was issued, yet this is the first example of it I’ve ever seen.
14¢ American Indian cover mailed to Kelsey Press Company
Finally, we have a philatelic cover that shows the 14¢ stamp paying a specific rate. The envelope mailed from Pennsylvania to Syria needed 14¢ postage: 5¢ for surface transport from the United States to the Netherlands, and 9¢ for air mail service from Amsterdam to Syria. Despite its obviously philatelic nature—the addressee was not known but just happened to have the same first initial and last name as the sender—this is the only example I’ve seen of the American Indian stamp paying this particular rate.
14¢ American Indian first flight cover mailed to Aleppo, Syria
I can go months in between finding solo use examples of the 14¢ American Indian stamp, so to find three different covers on offer from the same dealer? That’s quite a treat.
