1830's Stampless Letters - How To Determine Value?

I've seen Webster free franked letters without contents lately selling in the $50 to $75 range. It is the ones with the letters such as stampless folded letters that tend to go for the higher prices. Too bad someone separated this cover from its letter.

Most stampless folded letters of this era that are not from famous people sell for around $5 unless there is something special about the destination such as overseas or remote western frontier towns, or that are unusual about the rate paid or the method of transport such as by ship. Ordinary land transport from and to populous eastern states carries no bonus value.

Kimo - Thank you for the input. I, too, wish the letter were included, especially considering the closeness of the two people.

Two of the others have postmarks from the 1860s (1861 and 1863), however I'm fairly sure that there is nothing to separate them from the masses, so to speak, as they seem to be from and to folks in NY. I did just notice that those postmarks includes the word 'Free'. I will have to look those up.

In the US, stamps were first issued in 1847, and while people began to use them at that point, they were not actually required until 1855 and so stampless letters dating up to mid 1855 are perfectly legitimate along side with stamped letters between 1847 and 1855.

Letters from time of the war between the states - 1861 to 1865 - will normally have stamps on them - either US or Confederacy - though there are stampless letters from that time as well since postage was not always available, especially in the South. Covers mailed to and from the states controlled by the Union (which changed during the war) have limited value of a few dollars unless they have their letters inside and include historically important content such as letters from soldiers talking about battles and they experience in the Army or Navy or unless they have patriotic cachets or are mailed from remote towns in the territories of the old west. Letters within the Confederate states, especially from soldiers with good content or ones with Confederate states stamps or postmaster provisional stamps or such will command the best prices and the more interesting the higher the values. Unfortunately, there are many forgeries of better covers, especially Confederate ones, but also interesting Union ones as well so you really need to have an expertization if it is more than a $5 dollar common cover.

Kimo - Thank you for the explanation. However, that brings up a question: Is this a stampless cover or a stamped (franked) cover? The word 'Free' is IN the postmark.

Stampless. The term refers to the lack of an adhesive stamp. "Franked" can mean with an adhesive or with a signature (i.e., someone who had a franking privilege). This one is from a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (S. Baker, who should be easy enough to look up).

Some 1840s-1860s postal markings include rate information; they are sometimes referred to as "integral" rate markings and saved a postal clerk the second step of having to apply a rate marking to the cover.

paperhistory - Once again, thank you! I suppose I will have to familiarize myself with the styles of postmarks, and the sooner, the better. I didn't know how much there was to know until I discovered how much I didn't know.

Thats so true of most of us, its why we all have catalogues and varing sizes of librarys, mine takes up over 12 feet of bookshelves.

littleriverphil - Oh, I do hope I don't end up like that! Thus far my reference for stamps might measure 10" wide. However, the spare bedroom (aptly christened 'The Library'), has one wall, floor to ceiling, with reference on Asian art (mostly Japanese pottery, porcelains, woodblocks, watercolors, etc.)

Sounds to me like you've got plenty of room for more philatic literature!

walkabout - let me know where and when you list that Dan'l Webster free frank for sale. I might be in the market.

Kimo - where should I look for Webster covers like one of those you mentioned?

It is a Stampless Free-Franked cover! If one wishes to become seriously interested in stampless covers, they would first need to buy the set of books "The American Stampless Cover Catalog" now out of print, but usually available with philatelic literature dealers (such as James E. Lee, Phil Bansner or Leonard Hartmann) but also at reduced prices on eBay or Amazon.

No need to buy the ASCC, it is available for FREE on the USPCS webpage (or at least Volumes I and II are available, Volume III is listed as coming soon). Look under "Resource Center" and then "Electronic Library"

As to the marking on the cover "S. Baker, M.C.":

Essayk, Watch Ebay. I have seen similar ones go for the prices I mention over the past year or so. Of course there are plenty where the sellers put silly high starting bids that never sell so watch the listings where there have been completed sales but also filter out any where the auction looks suspicious since some unscrupulous sellers buy their own stuff at inflated prices to artificially "establish higher values" and then turn around and try to re-auction their material with high starting bids. Of course also ignore any auctions that did not sell. I would also ignore any retail prices being asked by autograph dealers since those are far higher than what they go for on eBay.

Walkabout, the signature of S. Baker is followed by the letters M.C. That stands for "Member of Congress" which is one of the elected members of the House of Representatives. Generally speaking such covers do command an additional value, but unless the guy was famous or later became President or such they do not command a large additional value as they are pretty numerous given how many members of Congress there were then (almost two hundred of them} churning out a great many letters every day because of their duties which was after a number of southern states had seceded to form the CSA on February 9. Your letter was mailed the day before actual hostilities began though. Fort Sumpter in South Carolina was fired upon on April 12 which most folks count as being the start of the War Between the States.

I wonder if this might revive this thread? Here is a cover from Albany, NY to Kingston about a debtor in Woodstock.