While I agree, I don't want to see notes scribbled all over a cover, any more than I would a Picasso, there are some instances, writing on a cover other, than by the postal service, and sender, can be intriguing and, in some cases, add value.
I would prefer a collector keep their notes on a separate note card, because, as pointed out, they might be in error.
My comment about writing from other than the postal service, or sender, is based on a piece I am doing historical, and genealogical, research on, now. It is an airmail cover from Sweden to MA, USA. I have learned, from my research on this cover, airmail, in it's infancy, was sometimes signed by the pilot. I would hesitate to remove writing, before knowing who wrote it, because of that fact. I read aerophilatelists might place more value on that type cover, than others. I assume, though, it would also fall under the category of having been written on by the postal service, since the pilot was performing a postal duty. Until I figure out whose name, or what the writing is, on the front or back, I would not try to remove it. It may be the sender, it may be the pilot. I don't know yet. There is also a postal note of how much the letter weighed, though I only have the cover, not the contents.
I would not know this, or been inspired to look further, and do more research, if the recipient, I believe, had not written on the front 'By air over the Atlantic and from New York'. It is my understanding, from my mother, that when this cover was airmailed, it was a big thing, to some, to receive airmail, so that may be the motivation behind writing that on the front. That and the postmark is not long after the debacle of the 'airmail scandal', which I was totally ignorant of, but the writing on the cover, led me to learn about.
I also learned, the recipient was born in Sweden, and married a US citizen. This letter was sent in their senior years, her husband passing two years after the postmark. I imagine the trouble with the airmail system in the US, a few years prior, receiving it not long after World War II began in Europe, this letter was a letter from home that meant something, particularly it's route to her, which may be why she wrote that on it, if indeed, she is the one who wrote on the front cover.
Hence, my comment, writing on envelopes can be intriguing.
And amusing, as another person noted. I thought the back of envelopes was where everyone wrote their grocery lists, until cell phones came along, with the ability to keep one in it. That, and names and phone numbers, when someone called, as you were walking in the front door, with the groceries you purchased, based on the shopping list on the back of envelope, that is now in your purse, and you collected the current day's mail, it's in your other hand, as you walk in, and the phone is ringing. You drop your groceries, put the mail on the table next to the phone, pick up the receiver and are unprepared to write it down, when the person on the other end of the line says 'If you have a paper and pen handy, I'll give you my number, and you can call me back, when you have time to talk.' You flip over the first envelope on the top of the mail, reach in your purse for a pen, and viola... something interesting for KGB to see, and something Hal is going to have to remove.
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Posted 09/24/2015 09:55 am
