US - 1903 Mckinley Postal Card - Amer. Postal Machine Cancel

Hi guys,

Anyone seen a received cancel like this before? The CDS portion looks very similar to some machine cancels I have seen. Is it a machine received cancel?

Any comments or insights are welcome.



Thanks!

I can't help with the Received stamp, but I'd be curious what the reverse side of that National Medicine Company postal card has to say. I searched for a couple of references to the name/address on the internet and came up with a mail order promotion that the inquirer would receive "tablets" to sell, and upon successfully selling the items, they would receive a premium, either a life size doll or a shaving kit. The postal cards were apparently a device in which they would intimidate those who did not remit the proceeds from the selling of the tablets in a prompt manner.

I guess one must consider the time period when this was an active offer, but I find it quite interesting that there is absolutely no reference of what the "tablets" are, nor the price, nor what benefit they would have to anyone who would dare purchase them.

Hi wt1,

On the reverse it says in handsome script:

"Mpls Minnesota April 19th
National Medicine Co.

I will send your tablets back as I am sick and not at all able to go out and sell them.

Yours truly,
Eleanor Lockwood"

What a racket.
It seems that marketing in the pharmaceutical market hasn't changed much, except now only doctors can push the tablets.

Here's another one related to the same company. However, at least this time it refers to the "tablets" as being a One Day Cold and Headache Remedy at only 25 cents per box. Speaking of "box", look at the "premium" they are offering here:

Smauggie, I missed this post, it is a machine cancel American Postal Machine Co Model B22 service mark I believe it is ASM 23. These were relatively common from about 1898-1903. This would be a late use for New Haven.

hmm...seems suspect already! A "Casket" of jewelery and and an ironic letter that claims that he/she is too ill to sell pills to cure illness...lOl...Jeesh! I wonder if the pills made the person sick in the first place?
Cancel- no never seen it before.

Thanks Russ.

That was a commonly-used term by old-timers in my area (isolated Southern Appalachians where English had a Shakespearean influence).

Small wooden boxes were very common --- as in a "little rosewood casket"

KirkS