Private Mailing Card Act Of May 19, 1898

Today, May 19th, marks the 114th anniversary of the United States Congress authorizing the Private Mailing Card: Authorized by Act of Congress of May 19, 1898, with those words (in bold) having to be imprinted on the cards intended for use.

Here's the summary of what it entailed:



Does anyone have examples of these Private Mailing Cards they would like to share?

HA! Deja vu! I was just reading an American Philatelist magazine article (Feb.2011 pg.150) called American Souvenir Card Company Postcards A Postal History Saga and it's super fascinating and I highly suggest checking it out if your interested in this subject!

Here's something I didn't know about the Private Mailing Card Act:




More information at this link:

http://www.metropostcard.com/card06...mailing.html

Although I don't have an example of the "Private Mailing Card" from that era, I did find this example I pulled off the internet. Note the "Authorized by Act of Congress of May 19, 1898" reference as well as the postage required for mailing to various points.

After reading an article about these early cards, I thought I'd comb my collection (500+) to see how many I had. Surprisingly, there was not a single one to be found! Apparently they are scarcer than I realized.

Does anyone know what the earliest known use is for Private Mailing Cards? I'd be interested in seeing some designs from this era to get an idea what the earliest postcards looked like. I'm going to guess most were B/W.

September 24, 1898 used from Garrett Illinois. Message on back is hard to read due to brown ink on brown paper. I suspect most of the early uses (pre 1900) are NOT on picture cards.

What does anyone make of this one? (not mine) Very early postmark and it doesn't follow any of the PMC requirements. In fact, American Souvenir-Card never followed these guidelines and the company printed dozens of cards. Also, why the "printed matter" notation? Maybe foreign mail had different criteria?

The international post card rate probably was still 2c at the time. With no written message added, I'd suppose the printed matter rate was usable for this. It could be argued "Gruss von" and the sender's address could be a message, but apparently not even the Bavarian PO thought so.

EDIT: A bald guess is that since it read "souvenir card", it was intended for the picture postcard/souvenir market, i.e., not really intended for mailing. Collecting them was a big craze around the time. Multicolor cards were more expensive than B&W ones therefore their relative scarcity used vs. mint.

A question is then "What went on here?" The return address looks to be in the same hand as the address, though in different colored inks at likely different times. M(r.?) Stolde also knew of the international printed matter rate somehow. Was he/she responsible for the "Gruss von" rubberstamp? And why "Gruss von" instead of the typical PPC "Gruss aus ..."? -- is that just being personal?

I will research what or who was at 789 Park Ave. Stay tuned.

Indeed. Printed matter (as in no personal message), mailed at single piece 3rd class mail is 1 cent even to foreign destinations at that time, so the "Grus Aus" card is not a Private Mailing Card under the 1898 law.

A dressmaker Marie Decker was at 789 Park Ave per the 1892 and 1898 Trow's business directories. I kind of doubt she would be the only one there. The search continues.
EDIT: Stolde was not a Manhattan resident. I did find 789 Park Ave was a 3-story building around that time.

And maybe Stolde did the rubberstamping. Note the "1" on the address side.



Then another bald guess is that the post card seller tipped buyers on how to mail these cards to domestic or foreign destinations.

If it helps, here is a close-up of an unused card, showing the postage rates. I think it would be hard to argue that these were not intended to be mailed. I wonder if anyone ever actually spent 5 cents to send one of these. Would adding a hand-written message then make it a PMC?

Fyi, "Gruss Von" means "Greetings From", except it is used when the greetings are from a person. "Gruss Aus" is used when referring to a place.

Thanks for the clarification. I meant why not rubberstamp both "Gruss aus New York" (imitating the usual German PPC text) and the sender's name and address (smaller), rather than risk the interpretation by either P.O. that a message was there. Well, it could have just slid through.

I can't imagine where the 5c rate comes from. The 1891 Postal Union Congress agreement was in force until 1899 when the 1898 Congress agreement kicked in. Both had the rate for an international post card at 10 centimes, printed matter at 5 centimes. So US 2 cents and 1 cent respectively. Looks like virtually every country/colonial power of the time signed, even Korea in 1897 when it was briefly independent. Not Monaco.
1891: https://www.loc.gov/law/help/us-tre...001-0188.pdf
1897: https://www.loc.gov/law/help/us-tre...001-0206.pdf

I finally got a hold of the article from the Feb. 2011 American Philatelist mentioned early in this thread and it explains the mystery of the 1898 "American Souvenir Card" I posted earlier.

The 1898 Act of Congress which required non-government issued postcards be printed with "Private Mailing Card" etc. was revised, as of Dec. 24, 1901, to the simple inscription of "Post Card." Unfortunately, the American Souvenir Card Co. printed their cards in 1897, before the laws were in effect, and their cards fit neither requirement. The company promptly went out of business in 1898, before it could overprint the cards to conform, as other pioneer postcard companies did. The large number of non-compliant ASC postcards that had already been printed were wholesaled to other card vendors and were still being used 15 years later. But it wasn't until 1907, when the Post Office dropped all inscription requirements, that ASC postcards with a written message could legitimately be mailed domestically for a penny, like other postcards.

FYI, the postal rates in the upper right box of ASC cards represent the UPU rates for 1897. Five cents was, in fact, the correct rate for a foreign postcard with a written message, and there are examples of ASC cards franked at this rate. But foreign cards with no message (or a printed one like Gruss Von) were considered "printed matter" and as such could travel for the UPU rate of one cent. Quite a deal!