Old Stamp Combos For Current First Class Mail

Strange to see that "Philatelic mail please cancel lightly" message. If they're dropping it in the box wouldn't it never even be seen by man? And if brought to the clerk you could just ask in person to cancel cleanly. That's what I do when sending something as a favor to a fellow collector, I actually bring it to the clerk. Sometimes they make a fuss because they have to bring out their calculator, but sometimes they really like the ones I use

My Post Office only carries the domestic rate stamps,
and perhaps a few Air higher values.

Labels are the staple, for everything else.

For any cover that has Martha Washington on it, "Philatelic mail" is sort of redundant, no? Even I rarely create covers that complex. I like the variety of air mail stamps on that piece. Those air mails did not see tons of use when they were current.

USPS has been slipping in recent years due to demands of Congress and COVID. It's rare I encounter a surly USPS clerk, at least outside the big cities. They will usually lightly cancel any philatelic piece, though once a clerk insisted on canceling every stamp separately even though they were arranged in blocks of four.

I use a lot of old uk stamps and if I take to the post office get strange looks and some clerks get the calculator out, some dont!

The UK are about to stop a lot of this by changing to barcode stamps and from next year will not accept many of the old stamps.

If I have parcels that I've put the stamps on, I just hand them over - no-one checks them. If I need the counter service, I just go with the flow of the labels they provide. It's only the definitives that we need to use up or swap by next year - I'm working through my heap of old Machins.

I don't try to hit the exact rate; it taxes my ancient brain. I use whatever odd stamps I have and affix them until they total at least 58¢. Lately, I just use a block of 4 of any 15¢ stamp I have.

If the envelope is big enough, I'll use scads of 1, 2, 3, and 4¢ stamps just to get rid of them. It's either that or just burn the darn things. I have a boatload of mint stamp stock that got caught on the floor when a pipe burst; nothing wrong with them except the gum is gone. A little Elmer's Glue-All and they're back in circulation.

Interesting use of an old postal card. The 2¢ not even needed as the 40¢ postal card rate was paid by meter.

Did anyone else receive same, or a different issue used?

Any postal reg such that they could not have used a 38¢ meter?


Free plug for the show.

Thanks,
Pat

Thanks for posting that, Pat! I'm not a member of the UPSS, so I didn't get a card, but I do plan to be at WESTPEX, and the presentation about Hawaiian postal cards sounds interesting.

I think the next increase should be 64 cents so it is 32 x 2.

60 cents permits more options for using one big block of low-value stamps
64 divides evenly by 2,4,8,16,32
but 60 divides evenly by 2,3,4,5,6,10,12,15,20,30

With presently high inflation, it will be interesting to see how aggressive the next 1oz first class letter rate is. Furthermore, per the article below, there will be two rate increase in 20233. Given the physical size of most older issue low denomination stamps, it may not make sense to purchase them as discount postage because they may not all fit on a regular sized letter to fulfill the future 1oz first class postage rate. Even though there is more room on a package, their real estate power will be severely diminished by inflation and USPS price hikes.

https://www.linns.com/news/postal-u...ting-in-2023

To OP's point, I received two or three weeks ago a little something and the dealer had adorned the mailer with a combination of blocks including a fractional.

• from the 40's the poultry industry "centennial" Sc. 968 (still bothers me how they figured that - like no one raised chickens on a large scale for market before 1848)


• the 1976 13c Christmas Currier and Ives Sc. 1702


• the 1982 Barrymores at 20c Sc. 2012


• a fractional in the form of the 1988 20.5 cent fire engine with Bureau precancel for zip+4 presort Sc. 2264


• ultimately topped off with a single 8c Sc. 1441 from 1971

And in the end, no-one bothered to cancel anything....

I think those precancels were not valid for postage unless the mailer had a permit. Surely that's why the marker monkey spared them all.

I've been hurrying the use of 3 cent issues for the reason Torin mentions, not enough room on an envelope for many of them. I think that Poultry issue includes the first bird other than an eagle to be depicted on a US stamp. Now it seems we get multiple new bird stamps every year.

yeah - I suspect the 20.5 cent precancels were not proper in this application but slid by as SEP - "someone else's problem" to figure out if they were legit. The packet did not bear the zip + 4 for the destination. And I really doubt the dealer has nearly enough outbound mail to qualify for the pre-sorting discount, based on the little I know about that from years ago at a non-profit.

I have not seen traces of the marker monkey for about a year, though, while regularly encountering envelopes such as this with no cancellations on any stamps, howsoever clearly valid they were. I think the rank and file last-mile carriers have given up on marking....

Holding a permit to use precanceled or service inscribed stamps does not require that you use them only on mail pieces that qualify for the service inscribed on the stamps or that your mail volume meets the requirements for presorting discounts. The permit merely allows you to use those stamps to meet the retail rate for the desired service. The only requirements are that the mail piece is endorsed with the service requested, e.g First Class, and that mail pieces bearing precanceled/service inscribed stamps are mailed over the counter at the post office where the permit is held.