USPS Picture Permit Indicia

A new USPS offering for "junk mailers". We consumers can look forward to receiving more creative junk mail with respect to the corner indicia that usually shows "Postage Paid - Permit No.":




https://www.usps.com/business/picture-permit.htm

Here is the template businesses must work within:

https://www.usps.com/business/pdf/p...template.pdf

For stamp collecting purists, this probably means little or nothing; for those who collect (as I do) all of the postal-related ephemera that comes to me, it adds a new dimension to collecting these items.

Perhaps a new collecting area for starting collectors also. I am thinking of how people started collecting years ago, by keeping stamps that came in the mail.

If different logos and brand names come in the mail that may make a collectible if enough different ones appear that appeal to people.

So, how does this new offering differ from the old offering that permitted these?



Cheers, Robert

I can't say how they differ from the examples shown, until I see some examples in use. Or could they actually be first examples of the new program?

I will say that the Mystic Stamp Company indicia is rather curious as it references no city/state name nor does it indicate a Permit No. Of course, in Mystic's case, the indicia is for Presorted Standard Mail, so maybe there is a caveat in the regulations that don't require that additional information under that level of mail service.

But then again in Mystic's example, there is a direct prohibition in USPS regulations against using an image (facsimile) of a postage stamp that is neither real nor being used to pay postage. I wonder how Mystic got by that regulation?

EDIT: This is what I'm referring to about not depicting a stamp in the indicia. This excerpt is from USPS Domestic Mail Manual Section 604:

The APS has been using these permit labels for nearly twelve years (they change the design periodically), as evidenced by this first day cover:



I've had the Mystic imprint for at least a year, I'm pretty sure. Mystic must have had some sort of waiver (or loophole?) to get around that prohibition. I have another one that depicts U.S. Scott 1. By the way, the Mystic imprint also violates the prohibition against part of the decorative design appearing above the indicia.

None of the examples I've shown are in accordance with the template for Picture Permit Imprint Indicia. It will be interesting to see these new indicia. May have to keep a few if they catch my eye.

Cheers, Robert