Very Strange Modern Postcard/Cover

The owner of the company I work at received this postcard in the mail today at the store I manage for him. It really piqued my interest and I had to grab it for my collection.


What makes it strange is that neither my boss or myself know who it is that sent the card and they don't match up to any of our known customers. Stranger is the use of selvedge from a US definitive forever booklet as postage, its acceptance and cancellation.

How would you folks label this if it was in your collection, Cinderella, Freak, Error.

Thanks Scott

Postal Hijinx. It is a booklet label. Not the first time I have seen one used for postage.

It wouldn't be classified as a freak or an error (except on the part of the sender). The booklet cover could be classified as a cinderella, I suppose, but really doesn't fall into that category in the truest sense of the word. It's simply a mistake on the part of the sender to use the booklet cover as a stamp and a mistake on the part of the post office to accept it.

An "oddity" would be the more correct term, I suppose.

Actually, I have a number of similar covers -- even meters from business mail as recent as this past week -- that shows people short-changing the post office on first class mail. I have some postcard rate stamps that were used on first class envelopes; some meters from businesses that don't reflect the April 17th postage increase for second and third ounce mail, etc.

On one hand, if the post office were to crack down on some of these "mistakes", they may be able to pull in more revenue to help their financial situation, however, as a practical matter the loss of these few cents here and there aren't going to break the bank for them either. It seems to me it would take more time than the value of the stamps are worth to challenge it, return it to sender, etc. Besides, it makes for better PR for the post office to just deliver the mail rather than return it, as one would assume it was an honest mistake and not a deliberate act.