Express Mail First Flight Cover

Since most of you do not seem interested in postal stationery, I thought I would share something with a stamp on it for your enjoyment.

I picked this cover up a few years ago. It is a First Flight from LA to Washington DC airport. It is a legitimately used Express mail cover. It is addressed to a biggie in the Post Office food chain
from a smaller but equally local biggie in the Los Angeles Area.

The cover measures 10 1/2 by 7 1/2.

It is a keeper in my mind (as warped as it (my mind)is!).

Very nice cover. And the old style Express Mail Orange/Blue label, too. I just wonder why the trip was via "Terre Haute" (Indiana). Even Express Mail doesn't go non-stop, I guess!

BTW, I for one do enjoy looking at postal stationery. If you have some to post, by all means feel free to do it, as there are collectors here who do have interest in such things. As a matter of fact, I was just on a website I found quite by accident that had some nice in-depth articles and scanned examples of some of the old time postal stationery varieties with cancels and auxiliary markings, some of which I never even knew existed. If you're interested in postal stationery and not familiar with this website, I recommend checking it out:

http://usspecialdelivery.com/exhibi...onery_30.pdf

Couple of corrections to my initial post.
1. It is a Express Mail cover, not a Priority cover, but then you figured that out. econdly, I spelled First wrong in the title.

It has been a LONG day, sorry for the errors. If I knew how to correct the original post I would have. I seem to remember something about doing that, but again to tired.

Will try to do better next post.

Bob

PS. Thanks for link WT1.

To edit your posts, click on the third icon (looks like paper with pencil) and it will allow the original writer to edit the post as you may desire.

There should be a little "edit" logo to the right of the "Posted 1 minute ago" that only appears for the original poster. I see five buttons, and you probably see six on this post?

Thanks you, that fixed it.

Great item, thanks for sharing!

This cover was mass produced by the USPS with this address combination. I have one also. It was not their personal or business mail. I have my doubts if any of these souvenir covers ever really flew on the flight.

The USPS uses a hub system for moving and processing Express/Priority mail. At this time, the Express Mail hub was operated by Evergreen Express at the airport in Tere Haute, IN. That is why Scott 2394, the $8.75 stamp, had its first day of issue at Terre Haute in 1988. The current hub is in Indianapolis paired closely with FedEx.

There is even less interest in FDC's (or so it would seem to me). Seems to be a general bias (in the non-pejorative sense) against "philatelic" material as somehow less "authentic." But at the margin, even mint stamps could be dissed as "philatelic." But that's okay. From time to time I post an FFC or FDC that is notable for some reason or the other, and the response is generally positive.

As for postal stationary, I'd say interest would be most in that which is "postally" used, not mint or FDOI. But really, anything with a backstory can be made interesting, and the SCF members will respond favorably. That's one thing that makes wt1's contributions so appreciated; he has access to biographical sources that often add a lot to otherwise ordinary material.