1893 Worlds Columbian Fair In Chicago Souviner Postal

I found these in my box of cards/postals and wanted to share:



From the Chicago Worlds Fair aka the Worlds Columbian Fair.
Both are unused so no cool message on the backside.

Great clean WF cards. Keep those corners sharp and pointed and the cards will carry a premium. The corners are the first to get bumped, and most cards are already impacted.

Beautiful! I collect this kind of stuff- quite a few of us here do. Nice cards!

Great cards Riggsy

I guess the U.S.S. Illinois was part of the "Great White Fleet" back then? If so, they were touring all around the world at this time as well.

Chimo

Bujutsu

There is a series of similar postcards, printed on the backs of government postal cards. These are known as "Goldsmith" cards, after the inventor. Here are two typical examples plus a view of the stamp side.

I can't explain the extra 1c stamp unless after printing the image, they were no longer considered [1c] postcards, and required "letter" postage. All of mine have the extra 1c Columbian stamp.

Here is mine which isn't uprated and has the exposition cancel.

Thanks for the info Doug thats good to know, here is the reverse of mine:



And here is a better shot of the "Women's building" one:



All the artwork I've seen in this thread on these cards is astounding!

Great interesting thread here. I have some of the US expo cards but nothing from 1893. My cards are mainly from the AYPE (Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition) and some of those cards are quite nice too.

The years I have for any expositions are from 1904, 1908, 1915, 1933 and 1939 NYWF.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Doug2222 set with the 1c Columbian scott 230 added to each. The reason for those is that Goldsmith needed to add postage to make them legal to go through the mails. You will note all of the stamps have straight edges and scissors cut perfs because in haste to apply them they were cut with scissors or straight edge. These are known as set 4 according to Ken Wukasch's Handbook and are far more scarce than the cards without stamp.

This is a neat thread. I found 2 used ones with the stamp on "Flea-bay" and called on this thread for info.

AFAIK, the reason to print on the postal card (in 1893) was precisely to obviate the need for additional postage.

But it was the 1893 Columbian Exposition; so the addition of the 1c Columbian stamp would make this 2/3 of a maxicard.

https://goscf.com/t/35617

Fe, fi, fo, fum, I smell the blood of a postcard bum.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

The rate of postage is very simple:
Domestic destination (and to Canada, Mexico) is 1 cent, using the card exactly as printed.
Other foreign destinations are 2 cents, requiring the addition of a 1 cent stamp. Sent to Europe is most common of course.
No doubt many cards can be found which were sent domestically which have the extra 1 cent stamp added as a souvenir or convenience. Crouse27's first sentence above about needing to be legal is incorrect.

The USS Illinois (above) also appears in an SPF I posted about here:

https://goscf.com/t/31740&whichpage=3#366988

Regarding the set 4 cards and "legality" the statement from Wukasch (2005 p. 93) is as follows:

"Since the postal order had declared the trimmed card set of ten to be "mutilated" and "unmailable" Goldsmith was faced with a large surplus of his set 3 cards as the October closing of the Fair approached. Assuming that by adding new postage he could once again legally sell his trimmed cards, Goldsmith ordered his employees to affix a one cent Columbian stamp below the Grant portrait and reissue them to the public. These stamps usually show a straight edge along the top or bottom where they were cut with scissors."

These trimmed cards with one cent stamps added were only available the last week of the Fair. Accordingly they are one of the scarcest sets of the Goldsmith variants.

As for rates, I believe domestic was two cents for the reasons above. If the cards were not considered "mutilated" then the 1c card rate paid domestic fee. Foreign was five cents.