Pre-Stamped Envelopes

okay, still learning all the correct terminology for stamp collecting. what is the "technical" or politically correct name for the envelopes that are pre-printed with the postage. also, is it correct that that envelopes pre-printed with air-mail postage are called "aerograms?" (or aerogrammes, if that is the pc spelling). I don't have any right now, but do plan to collect them as I expand my collection.

Envelopes pre-printed with postage are usually referred to as "Stamped Envelopes" (at least that is the term the Scott Catalog uses). They have also been known as "Embossed Envelopes" but since in later years the embossing has given way to just plain printing, it lost that unique name.

As far as Airmail Stamped Envelopes are concerned, the use of the term "Envelope" is a typical envelope with the preprinted postage; the aerogramme on the other hand is a single piece of paper with the postage imprinted that can be folded to make it's own "envelope". Technically, the Scott Catalog section refers to these items are "Stamped Envelopes and Wrappers" and incorporates the listings together; however, the term "wrappers" is essentially referring to the aerogramme-type item.

Here's an example of an aerogramme:



As opposed to an Airmail Stamped Envelope, as in this example:



To complicate matters even further, if you have any interest in post cards, there are three terms: "Postcard" refers to an unstamped, typically a picture postcard that you would purchase from a store; the term "Postal Card" had referred to the card you would purchase from a post office that had the postage already printed on it. However, the US Postal Service is now designating these items as "Stamped Cards" although that term has not yet met with overall acceptance in the stamp collecting community.

Overall term: "Postal stationery"

kuhli,

Here is a great reference for getting up to speed on the terminology.

http://glossary.usstamps.org/

With regard to your questions, here are a few related terms taken from the glossary:

Not that I'm a great student of the English language, but how is "Indicium" different from "Indicia"? To look it up on the web suggests that the meanings are essentially the same.

thanks, wt and tomiseksj. those are the answers I was looking for. as I scan my collection, I am using Coppermine gallery to sort into categories and sub-categories. I want to have a category for "postal stationery", and was trying to determine to right terms to use to name the sub-categories. stamped envelope and postal cards will get the nod. (along with sub-categories for FDCs and special cancellations, which is a common occurrence for Yugoslavian stamps. lots of cancels for chess tournaments, expositions, etc.) of course, all of this will be a back-burner project until I get the normal stamps caught up and organized. but if I go ahead and put the category & sub-categories into the gallery, it will help nudge me in the right direction.

wt1, per the glossary: "Indicia - plural of indicium."

kuhli, good luck with your expansion into postal stationary!

Here are some Canadian Aerogrammes from the early 1950s. These have been posted on this site before.

Yes, welcome to the wonderful world of Yugoslav Postal Stationery.

What I am about to say is meant to encourage you, not put you off - so if you find it a bit dry read it in small chunks!

First of all there once lived two holy men called Mr Higgins and Mr Gage. Their mission in life was to catalogue all the Postal Stationery in the world. The Yugoslavia section ends with the issues of 1966. It's helpful to have a copy. The whole catalogue is out of print and costs so much to buy that it would be 20 years before you could afford any of the stamps! But you can often pick up reprints/copies of individual countries cheaply.

They introduced a list of catagories. There is of course no need for you to follow their catagories but it may well help you to understand what other collectors/dealers are talking about if you do.

These are all the catagories that affect Yugoslavia - they didn't issue any of the others:

Postal Cards. This also includes reply cards which are double cards. The receiver read your message written on one half, tore off the other half, wrote a reply and sent it back free, because you had already paid the postage on both halves.

As far as Yugoslavia is concerned postal cards are the most fun. When they had hyperinflation in the late 80s/early 90s they were churning them out to try and keep up with postal rates, so there's a lot to find, often with extra stamps already stuck on to take account of new price hikes.

You can build up a good collection of postal cards quite cheaply PROVIDED that you start in 1921. Before that they were using up old Hungarian cards by overprinting them, and these are complicated and considerably more expensive.

Now, you'd better sit down for this bit. Just before and just after WW2 they issued view cards as postal stationery, i.e. with the stamp already imprinted. Just about every major town in Yugoslavia wanted themselves included -with the result that there are a lot of different ones to collect. Well, to be honest, well over 800 diferent. And most of then cost around £5 sterling. So you may want to limit your collecting of those either to a specific town, or a sample of each different type.

A - Letter Cards. A sheet with sticky edges, which you write on, lick and seal

B - Envelopes

D - Official Cards. For use by the Post Office. There's only one type, though a lot of sub-types. Ignore it.

F(B) - Airmail envelopes

F(G) - Airmail Letter Sheets

H - Telegram Receipt Card. Only one type and I've never seen it. Ignore.

I - Military Cards. Interesting but expensive.

Of course you can also collect postal stationery of pre WW1 Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia, WW2 Croatia and Serbia,(these are all separate sections of Higgins and Gage) and all the post 1991 states.

Very best of luck

Just a thought, if you've not already done so...
search the forum for embossed stationary, postal stationary, and or cut corners, or cut squares. I've makings of a collection and when I started, knew zip. The forum was very good at answering my questions.

https://goscf.com/t/8759&SearchTerms=embossed