Any Clues About These Fake Covers?

I've had the first of these for a while. It appears to be from the 1940's. The second is more recent, and appears to be from the 1960's. Both pretend to be repeatedly forwarded to another country.

Would anyone know the story behind them, who and why, or has anyone found these or similar covers? They look interesting, but are clearly mass printed. In fact, I have several of the second one. The stamps, on both, are real.

Larry...I was going thru my STUFF.. and I have the second one also.

This cover came to me, in a trade, with a buddy of mine, from Ohio.

There was a little yellow "post-it" on the cover, and if I can recall
correctly, he said that these covers were given out at shows, at the Childrens booths, loaded with common stamps.

Those covers would have caught my interest as a child. I think I would have became a cover collector sooner than 20 plus years after I began collecting.

Thanks, Bob, that could explain the why.

Now who dunnit?

They're colorful and interesting, even if the cancels (and the covers themselves) are fakes.

I have never seen anything like this, but I would assume that the same person/group is responsible for both of them -- note the similar cross cancel used on both, the first in the upper left, the second in the upper right.

I doubt that these saw wide distribution, and would suggest that they might be a product of a stamp club in an area close to you. They may have been given away as souvenirs of a local show.

They are covers produced by an approval dealer around the 1960s. They were given to some of his customers. I do not remember the name of the dealer. Below is another example.

Ah! Another mystery solved!

Good input, WpgLwr, thanks.

Bob, I don't get it.

Since everything except the stamps was applied with a printing press,
some kind of template was probably used to get them where the fake
cancellations would fall. I have a dozen of the second, and placement
of the stamps is pretty close to identical, throughout.

The older cover looks as if it was done with a letterpress and the
newer one with an offset press, both of which make sense for the time
periods shown on the covers. The older is what would have been called
a "two color job" in the printing trade. They probably went to one
color on the later cover to cut costs.

These came in a lot from Massachusetts, but no telling where they
originated. Club origin sounds good. Of course Massachusetts now
brings H.E. Harris to mind, but it would seem they'd put their name
on them somewhere for the publicity, or maybe not.

If that's the case, khj, it could have been Harris.

See yours also had a U.S. stamp added and was mailed in 1968.

The only thing that disturbs me is that the cancels are fake. They are not legitimate, and weren't applied in their country of origin. In a way, this is a kind of fraud played on unknowledgeable collectors.

Ethically speaking, is this something a dealer would do?

I realize that the stamps concerned are cheapies, but kiddie collectors wouldn't really have the knowledge to understand that. I could imagine them feeling pretty disgusted when they learned the truth.

Of course, when you had large dealers printing albums designed to sell stamps they held vast quantities of, anything is possible.

I'm thinking that if it was Harris, though, they would likely have had their name on it somewhere. For them, that would just be logical.

They are still interesting covers. I like them.

These are not considered fakes, but are merely souvenirs created and distributed for fun. One look at the covers and you will realize they never went through the mail. These souvenirs were all created at one location, not through the mailstream.

Even the one I showed with the additional US stamp/postmark probably never went through the mail. The US stamp was applied afterwards and probably favor-canceled without going through the mailstream (this is permissible under US postal regulations).

Also, the cover I showed is not mine, it belongs to a collector friend. I don't collect covers, but I like to collect scans of unusual stamps and covers (it's a lot cheaper!).

Sorry, I really don't remember the name of the dealer, only that it was an approval dealer. They were ALL produced in approximately the same time frame (1960s), even though older stamps may have been used on some of the covers.

k

I believe the proper name for this type of material is "fantasy cover", but don't hold me to that because I am not a cover collector.

A dealer friend of mine familiar with those covers has replied to me and told me he doesn't remember who made the covers. But it was an approval dealer, and the dealer was NOT on the East Coast.

That's about all I can tell you.