J88 Cover With Legitimate Usage Found

Postage due clerks usually dealt with multiple covers and it would have to come out on a odd number. The stamps would be placed on the top cover in the bundle or on a separate postage due bill. Since these were delivered to organizations using the fractional rate they most likely were thrown away after the contents were removed.

That fractional rate the half cent postage due was used for was discontinued at some point in the mid 60s. I guessing it was late 1964 or early1965 since I seen no half cent postage dues used after that. Of course back in the day the post office was thrifty and used the postage dues until they were used up (see the J79s in my post above).

I cannot tell you how many letters I sent to my girlfriend in the 1962-64 period that were underpaid by a half cent in the hopes of obtaining the half cent postage due stamp on cover. Alas, every one of those letters went through underpaid and were never assessed the half cent postage due. Those covers reside in my household, because that girlfriend is now my wife!

Sometimes diligence pays off and other times you just get lucky. So how my times did you have explain to her why your letters were always have a cent short?

"Postage due clerks usually dealt with multiple covers and it would have to come out on a odd number. The stamps would be placed on the top cover in the bundle or on a separate postage due bill. Since these were delivered to organizations using the fractional rate they most likely were thrown away after the contents were removed."

Sorry, don't understand how this makes covers with a 1/2c due more prone to being throw away than full cent due covers.

Several things led to the J88 not being found on covers.

1) The fractional postal rates were being fazed out in the early and mid 1960s. Most likely in late 1964 or early 1965.

2) The postage due clerks had to use up the old stocks of 1/2 cent postage dues (J79) first before being issued the new one (J88).

3) The fractional postal rate were used by organizations who had large mailings and were given the rate discount.

4) When 1/2 cent stamps were used they were used to pay postage due on large numbers of letters where the return
postage was paid by the addressee. Most of the postage dues stamps were then placed on a postage due bill and
not on each individual envelope. Of course the half cent postage due was only used when the number of letters came
out to be an odd number.

5) The 1/2 cent postage due would be most likely used on individual envelopes if they were only a few where it was easier to do
that then filling out a postage due bill.

6) These organizations would simply pay the postage due bill, keep it for their records for a time, and then dispose of it.
The ones on the letters would be disposed of after contents were removed unless they were rescued by an enterprising
stamp collector working in the organization's mail room.

7) After the fractional rates were done way with the postage due clerks still had the 1/2 cent postage due stamps in their stocks and
didn't just thrown them away. They used them in pairs until they were gone. This of course would be where most covers bearing J88
would be created and saved since they would get into the hands of ordinary people and not to an organization using the fractional rate.

Postagedueguy, I know the J88s were issued 11 months too late, but do you (or any reader) have any 1/2 cent dues used during the July 1958 'plus a nickel' period?

Edit: to correct misspelling.

Will this newly discovered cover be written about and shown in Linn's Stamp News, The United States Specialist, etc?

Actually I don't. My postage due covers and bills are from the early to mid 1960s, looking for J88 on cover.

Thanks!!! An excellent idea. I get to work on that tomorrow!!!

I realize this one is a different earlier issue that possibly is not hard to find on cover, but I thought people might enjoy seeing it (it is not mine)

Very nice. IMO all of the half-cent dues (J68, J69, J79, J88) are moderately tough to find on cover paying fractional-cent rates and especially as solo uses, although the first 3 are nowhere near as tough as J88.

Pretty much any half-cent due cover that isn't an even-numbered multiple is at least a $20+ item. Solo J68 covers can easily reach $50 and well north depending on the usage and markings.

How far north? $72.87 plus $1.99 shipping (and sales tax if you are not lucky) is how far north this cute little cover went back in late October 2022. Sadly it does not live with me.

Yep. I was an underbidder on that one; it went for considerably more than I was expecting. I think my snipe was around $25. Other than the size of the cover itself, there's nothing particularly unusual about it IMO.

It's been a while since I published Tony's exhibit "The Ways U.S. Postage Due Stamps Were Used, 1879 -1986" but I think it included 1-2 1/2 cents usages.
https://stampsmarter.org/learning/a..._TonyPD.html
Don

Great exhibit. There are several half-cent dues on cover in that exhibit, although no J88, as expected.

I'm pretty sure that every fractional-cent due commercial cover or card with half-cent dues (J68, J69, J79, J88) that I've seen has been a domestically mailed and addressed item. I can't recall any items with international aspects, beyond the J88 cover I have to Canada, which is considered a philatelic usage.