Some Recent Stamps And Meters I Sorted This Morning

I may be interested in the metered postage and the cent Washington coil if you decide to let them go. The coil might be a Scott 412.

I'd be interested in the registered mail advert on meter.
advise price or trade if available.

Sorry Rod I just seen this post again. I'm not positive what I'm doing with these yet honestly? I'm not very good at ID-ing the meters. I would like to at least find out a little more about them before I pass them along. I'll be sure to give you first crack at them OK? Thank you Rod.

Yes, that's fine ILS,
thanks for responding,
just didn't want the little fellow to be left, lost and lonely
in the back of book somewhere..... :)

The Pitney Bowes F3 / F4 registered mail Meter could be worth good money depending on the meter number. Is it on a full cover or is it loose tape ? loose tape could be from $5 - $100 and some of these on cover are listed as "Extremely rare, value unknown". Unfortunately the Postage meter catalog only shows about 5 of the Meter numbers, the rarest I assume.

There's an interesting study of that Registered Meter Tape at this link. Refer to pages 21-24. Note that it is the VERY SAME meter (Pitney Bowes No. 90122) as you have scanned, only dated a few days earlier (April 14, 1936). The user of that Registered Mail Meter is clearly identified as the CONTINENTAL ILLINOIS NATIONAL BANK AND TRUST COMPANY OF CHICAGO (Whew! That was a long name for a bank!)

http://www.machinecancel.org/forum/...el_forum.pdf

Here is a better scan. stallzer it's not on cover sadly. It does have those ovoid watermarks too although hard to make out on the scans. wt1 Thank you for the link but admittedly I don't really understand what it's saying. Can you dummy it down for me please? Although I don' really care about value I do care about if special care for it and it's relative "rareness". (How rare is it and how should I store it?)

I'm not sure how to explain it any clearer than shown in the link, but to summarize:

1. The link provides confirmation that Meter No. 90122 was assigned to the CONTINENTAL ILLINOIS NATIONAL BANK AND TRUST COMPANY OF CHICAGO. (That alone is crucial information that you just can't get anywhere.)

2. The link provides confirmation that the Registered Mail imprint on your label was only used in label form, in other words, no imprints directly onto covers exist.

3. The link provides confirmation that the user of that Registered Mail label had to put the "Registered Mail" portion of the label on the face of the cover and the postage paid indicia was folded over and adhered to the back of the cover. An unusual usage, but apparently required due to the "Registered Mail" status of the cover. (This is further evidenced by the scan of you example of that meter, showing the same fold-over.)

4. The link provides confirmation that the post office had to use a postmark (more likely a roller-type cancellation device) on the rear of the cover to show the payment of proper postage. (Remember, it is quite rare to see a postmark of any kind on a meter label, but in this case it was required.)

5. The link provided shows that the meter label used for this Registered Mail imprint was also used for a variety of other postage meter services, including fractional postage (as evidenced by the colon (:) following the denomination.) Keep in mind that back in the day (1936) many meters had only one usage and/or one imprint that could be made; this is evidence of an early use of a meter type that offered the flexibility to use many denominations of postage value.

All in all, I'd say you got quite a bit of information about your postage meter label by just referring to the various details provided in that link.

The rarity/scarcity and/or value of that meter label is a matter that was not addressed within the link and due to the limited collector population that would be interested in meters, the value may or may not be significant (remember, supply and demand is at work so even if it was "catalog valued" at a high amount, the market for such an item is limited which would have to be factored into any valuation quote.) Also keep in mind that the usage of that meter by a bank is probably the most common business that would have had need for the use of "Registered Mail" so that, too, would need to be considered.

As for storage, I'd keep the item in a Vario page within a looseleaf binder or else in a stamp stockbook of some type. You can put it away until you either have an interested buyer or until you are able to gain further information on the true value of the item ... but as we stamp collectors all know ... "value" is a relative thing.

Why thank you. I understood most of it but didn't understand why it was scarce that's all. I owe you one for all your hard work and effort helping me out all these years. -Jeff

One additional piece of information if you're not familiar with the demise of the user of that postage meter label, the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company of Chicago:

Wow! That's a colossal loss of funds right there!