1953 US Post Office Philatelic Agency Order

I picked this up from ebay and found it interesting. A large envelope franked with with 18 .03 Sc 1017 and a 1¢ Washington. The .19 paid for registration and postage? That seems too little to me.

The order sheet asks for 100 of the 1017s and a plate block of 4 but the order is for 106 stamps. Was it the practice of the Post Office Philatelic Agency to frank the order with some of the stamps ordered? I have seen a couple of these.

regards, Theron.

It's before my time, but the way I read it is that:

1. The 106 stamps ordered = $3.18 as indicated on the order blank.

2. The reference to a plate block of 4 was not fulfilled (except for the two plate blocks included in each 50 stamp pane). My suspicion is the collector wanted a separate plate block (in addition to the two panes) and two extra stamps, for a total of 106 stamps, but the request was denied based on the reference (see Paragraph #4) which probably explained on the reverse of the order blank that plate block requests for less than a full pane of stamps would not be honored.

3. As to the postage and registration fees noted, you would have to see a copy of the reverse side of the order blank where it indicated what the fees were at that particular time. Much like the USPS does today, if you place an order for stamps, you typically pay only part of the actual shipping and registration costs based on the number of stamps ordered, not the entire retail cost of shipping.

4. Use of stamps on a philatelic order from that period was not uncommon.

Of course, it's all speculation on my part without having seen the reverse side of the order blank, which would probably explain things in greater detail.

wt1, yes, the back of the order form does explain it. The registration fee was ¢.40 but the POD obviously did not put that amount on the envelope, only the postage of ¢.19.

thanks, Theron.

please count again.

hmm. I must have run out of fingers and toes.

Obviously the .55 franked paid for postage and registrations.

Thanks Kevin.

Theron.