Test Stamps - Part 2
Here are some examples to demonstrate "Test Stamps" used by direct mail lettershops to test and demonstrate their equipment. These were acquired many years ago at a Trade Show.



I grabbed a slew of direct mail samples and several "Test roll" ends left on a trade show table at the show booth, while talking to a salesperson. Again, the salesperson told me the stamps weren't suppose to be released, but I promised they were going in my collection -- and I was already their customer. If I wasn't a customer, I would have never gotten the loose stamps.
While here are some examples used by postal clerks in the late-1970's/early-1980's to test a hand-held stamp application device devised by Pitney-Bowes for use by U.S. Postal Service window clerks. The "test" was held for a three day period in Central Pennsylvania and elsewhere across the US. I was able to "rescue" ten PS Form 13s from my friendly USPS window clerk that I purchased my plate blocks from on day one of the test. When I returned on test day two, I was advised he couldn't give any more slips to me --"...it was prohibited and he shouldn't given me the ones he did. He got in trouble giving some to another person! "


Sometimes, you just get lucky.

Hal