Smauggie's Minnesota Postal History

This is one of my big cover collections. My aim is to have a cover from every post office (that ever existed) in Minnesota. I will be adding images (and linking images I have already posted) as a way to share the learning.

I will start with this:



And of course it is a Machine cancel, American Flag machine cancel from Alexandria, Minnesota.

Red Wing, MN
Doremus Model C Machine cancel

Pine City, MN - Fancy Duplex Cancel
Pine County

FYI, the Alexandria was from a model A14.

Minneapolis, MN - Riverside Station Duplex Cancel



Received cancel is American Postal Machine Co Model B22 service mark I. (ASM 23).

You are surely aware that all the Minnesota post offices, both current and DPO, are listed here: http://www.postalhistory.com/postof...asp?state=MN

For those who didn't know, this is Jim Forte's wonderful postal history website, which lists all the states, most of them complete, with many illustrations.

Wilton, Minn, CDS with killer
Beltrami County

Odin, MN - CDS and Target killer on US POD official postcard
Watonwan County



The post office in Odin asks the publisher to stop sending newsletters to a particular address as the recipient has passed on.

Winona, Minn - Registered Postmark on US POD AR Card
Winona County



AR Card was sent from Altamont, in the Dakota Territory

Good luck to you Smauggie!

I just checked my stamps on cover inventory and I only have one Minnesota postmark -- it is the 1970 Fort Snelling FDOI.

On the stampless side, I don't have any Minnesota folded letters or covers (and I may never have any as most list north of $100).

A quick count of town postmarks in the ASCC from the Minnesota Territory showed over 90 different towns listed so you've got your work cut out for you.

I look forward to following your progress.

Steve

I, too, wish you the best of luck.

While it may be a noble endeavor, it's highly unlikely you'd ever be able to collect examples from "every post office that ever existed in Minnesota."

According to Jim Forte's Postal History Web Site, the number is 4196 different post offices!

True enough. I will never "catch 'em all".

Did you catch any at the show this weekend?

Yes. Went from about 3% to about 10% of MN Post Offices this weekend.

As you know I have been chasing this goal for years. It gets tougher as time goes on, but the chase is still fun. I have well over 2000 different Minnesota post offices. One thing I discovered is even though there have been 4,196 different post offices, that does not mean covers exist from them all. If you get a catalog that lists the scarcity you will find that some items that are listed as a scarcity 8 or 9 may not exist. The scarcity value is based on the length of time the post office was open, the size of the town, volume of mail and the period in time. It is not based on how many exist. I know of collectors that have chased certain cities all of their lives and have found that no one has ever seen one yet it has a scarcity value of 8. I have several shoe boxes of duplicate Minnesota DPO's, some are very tough to find. I know you have at least 8 I want. Let's get together and do some trading