They Came From The Dollar Box.....

So this weekend I went to the local monthly stamp show here in the Troy, New York area. Between two dealers I was able to score 128 covers - all from the dollar box. Here's some samples below. I think I did well for buck-a-cover. Feel free to share your own dollar cover finds.

Postal envelope for use in Puerto Rico -



Not in the best condition, but that's okay -



This is not the usual dark blue color shade. Doubt it's the blue green, but possibly turquoise shade perhaps?



Unusual philatelic overprint on U.S. commemorative stamp -




I think this is the first time I've seen these U.S. postal cards postally used. Alas I couldn't find the airpost types.




First time I've seen an unused official postal envelope of this type.




Hmmmm sender's name ring a bell and there's a precancel under that cancel -




A place just up the road from me and it's still in service -




Nice American Indian advertising -




Interesting postmark - it wants to be a machine cancel so bad, but it's not.




Another item of official postal stationery that I liked.




..and probably my best find o' day -




Nice imperf revenue on a mining stock document. The mine is in upper Michigan and mined primary copper.

> it wants to be a machine cancel so bad, but it's not.

I love it! Seriously, finding any one of these covers would have made it a good day at the stamp show, never mind finding all of them. I've never seen one of those Puerto Rico overprints underprints in my life.

You should post the mining certificate in the BOB section, to share with the Rev guys.

Did you know Carl from B-Trading Co on Quail St Albany?

I met Carl once at a local show shortly before he passed away. I heard he was good friends will Bill Powers who also passed away earlier this year.

Those postal cards are the real score! Congrats!

That wasn't a Dollar Box, it was a Treasure Chest.

Nice finds, congrats.

Regards,
Stampalotapus

Agreed. That was no ordinary set of dollar boxes!

Amazing finds - I have some I will try to scan later

I am particularly intrigued by the William Howard Taft cover since I collect covers and stamps related to my alma mater Yale. Taft was a Yale graduate and the address shown on that cover is of the Yale Club in NYC near Grand Central. He was not a particularly notable President but was a respected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and remains the only person to head both the Executive and Judicial branches of the U.S. government. According to Wikipedia, Felix Frankfurter is reputed to have said that it was "difficult for me to understand why a man who is so good a Chief Justice...could have been so bad as President".

How much would you like for it?

I guess next month I'll have to tell the two churches that I play organ at that I'm taking the 3rd Sunday of November off and drive the 2 hours to Troy to the stamp bourse. BTW, I heard today that George M., one of the organizers of the bourse, was home from a successful operation and doing well.

Someone clearly did not know what they were doing, there are several very nice items there, a few even better than the postal cards which are very nice to find used.

Glenn: Yes, Hopefully George will recover nicely and will be back next month. I wish him well. One of the nicest dealers I've ever known. Before you decide to visit the show make sure Amberman and Doubleday are present as they are the big covers dealers at the show. I saw a lot of Vermont covers.

Oracle: Interesting information about Taft. I'm keeping the cover for now, but I'll keep my eye out as I've seen Yale related covers before.

rev: Even the best dealers miss things. Some of these dealers also have dozens to hundreds of banker boxes full of covers and would just like to see them go out the door. I'm obliged to help. One dealer told me that after he goes his money worth out of a box then basically he lets the rest slide. It really seems some dealers just really don't have the time and other just pick out the obvious goodies and things they specialize in. I target things that seem unique or unusual.

I only picked those three postal cards. There was over dozen more of the same types. If anyone is a postal stationery collector you would be in heaven. I didn't scan them yet, but I also pulled several nice railroad covers that also had the RPO postmarks and perfin stamps. There were quite a few RPOs. I also found some nice WWI and WWII worldwide censor covers. They were nice boxes to search for a variety of postmarks - even found a Leavitt cancel. It was a nice fun way to spend a day, find a lot and really didn't spend much.

I want to go to the next stamp show with you!!

I worked a stamp show last weekend next to fifteen dollar boxes and it was interesting to see twenty collectors go through covers and then collector #21 would pull out an Indian and a Colorado Territory cover.