US Senate Free Covers & Army Examiner, Prism...

Hi Everyone,
This is my first time threading here. I have a bunch of old covers but they are not in the best of shape. I wanted to put them in the TRADES section, but thought I would post them here, for all to take a look and see if anyone thinks they are even worth trading?

I have a question too. I have a couple US Senate / Representatives covers, no stamp, did / do they get to send mail for free?

Anyway, here are the photos that I wanted to put up for trade. I picked out some that I thought were different, whether it be for the Army Inspection / Opened mail tape, or
"Buy Defense Savings Bonds and Stamps" postmark
the prism looking space cover
3 cent postage due pair w/ 1 1/2c postage due stamp on Army
Postmark with no date from Army Postal service
Portland Ore. precancel cover
"Address your mail to street and number" mark
Visit U.S.A. 1960 mark,
TB
Thank you,
SueStamps

To answer this question: Yes ... and they still do! Here's the detail:

http://clerk.house.gov/public_disc/franked.aspx

Such franking has also been the subject of several news headlines, such as this example from Connecticut:

http://ctmirror.org/story/12040/franking

As to your other covers, some are very nice. The censored covers from WWII were quite common but interesting because of the censorship requirement and related postal markings that were in place during the war.

The precancels on cover are another speciality, as many collectors enjoy seeing the precancel stamps on a legitimate piece of mail.

Likewise, the cover with the Boston, MA machine cancel "Visit USA 1960" is a collectible item, especially with slogan cancel collectors.

There are also collectors who specialize in the APO markings on military mail.

Bottom line: If these collecting specialties don't interest you, sure they would be worth posting for trade to other collectors who have interest in this material.

Hi wt1

Thank you for the link. I did not know the term "franked". For every answer I have more questions... I wonder how the word "franked" came about. Was if from a person named Frank? Anyway, very interesting. Thank you so much for sending the link.

The article is also very interesting... I was amazed at the amount of money spent of franking.

I am happy that some of the covers could be desireable to others. I have so many of them, I don't know what to do with them all. I was thinking of offering them for free under the "Contests, Quizes, and Giveaways" section, but am not sure if I would get any takers, or if I would get bombed with tons of people wanting them, and thinking about the mailing cost.

I would however, offer them to anyone who just sent a SASE, but not sure that it allowed.

When I first started collecting, I thought precancels were annoying because I just thought that the overprint was in the way of a pretty stamp. I am a member of an online auction site and when I saw a few offered and how many bids it was getting, that's when I realized the precancel mark is not so annoying!

There is just so much to stamp collecting besided JUST collecting stamps! I also did not think twice about postmarks until I auctioned off a postcard and it had a flag mark and someone left a comment stating that it was a very nice flag and highly desireable, which lead to a very nice winning bid LOL.

I am thinking to myself, what APO stands for.... Army or Air Force PO? Or both? If so, what about Navy and mail from the Marines?

Sometimes I lay awake at night, just thinking of so many questions I have!
Thank you so much wt1 for your reply.

SueStamps

NAvy & Marines overseas PO's are called FPO (Fleet Post Office)

I hate to use them as a source of information, but wiki is sooo easy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franking

This gives you a basic history of franking. Even postage stamps (according to them) are a form of franking.

One interesting line about privileged franking says,

The phrase franking is derived from the Latin word "francus" meaning free. Another use of that term is speaking "frankly", i.e. "freely". Because Benjamin Franklin was an early United States Postmaster General, satirist Richard Armour referred to free congressional mailings as the "Franklin privilege"

I think those are terrific. Are the signatures real or do you think they were made with some copying machine? Or could they be a rubber stamp?

There are as many answers as there are questions. To reply to your first question as to how "franking" came about, here's the explanation buried in Wiki:

Not real signatures. Could be rubber stamped, I suppose, but I suspect unlikely. Most common is that the envelopes are printed by the outside printer that does the return address and adds the image of the signature in the upper right hand corner as part of the process.

As noted in the Wiki references, there are tight regulations governing the use by elected Officials and the USPS is paid for it through annual tax-funded compensation, to which each member is given a budget based on the population of the constituency which they serve.

Remember that those covers from Members of Congress can be an interesting history lesson on the work of those named. Take for example the first franked cover from Edith Green. Here's a Wiki link to her biography that I never knew before:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Green

Pardon my ignorance, I'm a fer-in-er. I assume USS means United States Senate. Is MC Member of Congress?

Correct!

Can anyone share a website with information on what the process or what the Army Examiner's are looking for when inspecting these letters please?

Thank you,
SueStamps

Here's one link with some information (albeit, a bit simplified):

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexp...-censorship/

Censorship was a very complex thing back in the days of World War II as this excerpt from a book might suggest:

Oh how interesting.
I have a lot of these old airmail covers, so this information is great, I am printing this out and putting it with them in my Military album.
Thank you so much!
SueStamps