Early US Covers Up To 1930

Just want to share some covers that are in my collection, would love to hear what everyone thinks and to see you all share yours with me.

Most of these are in some type of protective plastic, so if anyone would like a closer inspection of any particular item dont hesitate to ask!

Thanks

Interesting group, especially the 1861 covers. Where is the 16th cover postmarked from? Might take a closer look at #17 as well, stamp is pi nkish.

Cover with tears into the stamp aren't usually worth much financially.
Orginize them into groups, all canceled NY together, Va together, ect. That will help you see what you have.

Oh, and could you please turn them all right side up? Kinda made me dizzy trying to read the cover fronts!

Thank you for your comments *littleriverphil* !

The 16th covers' postmark appears to be: New Bern, North Carolina
I can make out July 12th but the year is difficult.

The 17th cover appears to be postmarked from Cattaraugus, New York

However the last three letters of the postmark are: G you A

So I am uncertain.

Yep, I figured the covers with damage are not high monetary value but its certainly a historical treasure, at least to me.

I appreciate your organization tips by postmark state, thats a great method that I will implement.

As for the pictures being upside down, rest assured that wasnt how I took them, unfortunately the file size of these pictures is close to 4 mb, so I used an optimizer and I guess it rotated the pictures. I will do my best to correct that.

Will dig up some more covers and hope to see others.

Am including some closer shots of #16 & #17.

Look like we both used the name of the hobby in our user names. My name is really Don, but there are several of that name here.


Thanks. If you have a lot from one state, you can begin county groups About 25 years ago, I began narrowed my cover collection to two California counties, Humboldt and Mendocino. You can see a lot of my covers and postcards on the cover calendar thread, at the link below.
I started about there, and go on for the next 30+ pages.

https://goscf.com/t/11887&whichpage=107

I added this cover last month. It is the 2nd of 3 covers from the same woman to family members in Berkley, Cal. It is dated between the two I had. Not a lot of mail from Gualala, Cal. ( I always use the Cal abbreviation as that is what the postmarks say)

The new one;





The other two;

That might be Canandaigua, NY

Is there content with the Maquay Hooker Co. cover?

I like the Adairsville Lodge cover. The glare in your pic makes it hard to see though.

In addition or sorting them by State, you might also pick out all of the railroad postmarked ones and put them together with them sorted by railroad.

There are literally thousands of different kinds of covers that one can collect and organize covers. Usually it is best to decide on one or two themes and then collect covers that meet those themes, like focusing on railroad cancelled covers or covers from a given decade or two, or covers from a given state, or from only small post offices, etc. etc. By focusing your collecting you can build a collection that tells a story while you become expert in that particular collecting theme, knowing which are the good ones and which are the very common ones.

Hey Don,

Yes we do both have the hobby in our forum names, but I'm actually Dave.

I really like the "farming in the heat" 2 cent on cover. Ah, Mendocino and Humboldt counties, have a lot of good memories near there by the russian river. What a beautiful area and would like to get back there in the near future.

Its amazing how one can come across a series of family letters, retracing the past in a sense.

I enjoy the covers with content as I do have a few somewhere or other, when I find I'll post for the forum.

Definitely going to check out the thread with many of your covers.

My own collection of covers are rather varied and are less than focused on a particular geographical area or theme, sometimes I like the penmanship, the antique look of the envelope, the stamps or when im lucky the official letterhead of an organization or government entity etc.

Hi Stampcrow,

I think you hit the nail on the head with Canandaigua, NY cds.Thanks!

Unfortunately, there is no content with the Maquay Hooker Co.

Have you seen these before? Any signifigance or insight into those?

I also like the Adairsville Lodge cover and try to collect these and the like when available. If you have any to share please do.

I'll upload another pic of that one without the glare if I can help it.

Thanks,

Dave

Hi Kimo,

That is a great idea, to pick out all the railroad postmarked ones. Admittedly that is something that I have not considered or paid much attention to.

Thank you for your advice on improving my cover collection by focusing my energies in a particular direction, you can tell im definitely all over the place, same with the rest of my philatelic collections.

This input is great and exactly what I hoped for when I decided to join this community.

Thanks alot Kimo and everyone else who has been welcoming and supportive of a relatively newcomer to the field.

Stay tuned for some more uploads!

Best,

Dave

Here you go Stampcrow,

Hope these are clearer.

Much clearer scans Dave.
Lol, the web never ceases to amaze, The fact you even knew of those two California counties is kind of amazing. Combined the population of both counties today is less the city of Santa Rosa, the county seat of Sonoma County, the county adjoining Mendocino to the south.

Not all that uncommon for groups of related covers to be saved. Got really lucky a few time in the early days of ebay, when they allowed communication with sellers, twice, I bought family lots of covers and postcards, 50+ in one lot with one rare postmark and 7 very scarce postmarks. All 8 from same town, the rare one being a name change.

At least in the redwood empire, it seems the loggers wives really used a lot of postcards from the 1890 to 1920ish.

Concentrating on this small area made me expand my library to I include county history. Doing so, I discovered that the Mill at Mendocino paid a messenger to carry mail to and from Cloverdale.

I've heard it said that Philatelity begins where the catalogue ends. Very true with local postal history!

Glad to have you with us, Posts lots, always someone with an answer of additional question. A great site!

Two other small suggestions are 1) hold off on buying covers that do not have clear, full, and easily readable postmarks unless it is something that you really need to fill a hole in your collection. Knowing what the cancel says in terms of where and when it was postmarked make your collecting much more fun, and should you ever decide to divest yourself of your collection it will make it much more saleable. Condition of the covers is also pretty important - torn, water damaged, crumpled, etc. covers have little commercial value unless they are unique or unless they were in an accident when they were being carried and that damage was done during that accident such as an aircraft crash or train or ship wreck or the like. My second suggestion is that once you get a better feel for how you might like to start to focus, begin to buy reference books and catalogs for that area. There is an enormous amount of philatelic literature out there where experts in the various areas have shared their hard earned expertise and knowledge. The price of a philatelic reference book can be more than a couple common covers, but what you learn from them make your collecting so much more fun and they will help you chose covers for your collection with wisdom and knowledge to keep from wasting money.

Wow, what an amazing collection of covers in your link Don! Reading through that thread has given me a whole new perspective on cover collecting and was very enlightening in many regards.

While many items piqued my interest, I must say that the Independence of Mendocino cover took the cake for me. That was unknown to me before today and will definitely be researched further when time allows.

Yes, this is a really small world we live in and the internet opens up so many possibilities. I have fond memories of Sonoma county and the many beautiful people, great friends who live there to this day.

I recall enjoying countless scenic cruises as I call them (via automobile) from my previous home in Sausalito on a northern course for the fine wines, delicious varieties of cheese that rival Wisconsin and history adventures to the mission museums etc.

What a charming and paradaisical place to live imho.

Regards,

Dave

Yes, the web sure shrank the world!.
I have spent some time on the Russian. Lived in Occidental thru high school, spent all summer from Monte Rio to Rio Nido.
My cover interest began one afternoon in the 80's when I found a shoe box of 1870 to 1890 covers at a tiny little flea market in Guernville.

A few of them made into the Cover Calendar posts. I think there was a two month period I missed, but have the covers for. I learned a lot posting like that. Makes you research them. Glad you enjoyed the thread. I love it.

That Mendocino Independence Cinderella shows up on ebay occasionay.
People in the county talked about that for months.

Some more covers for the forum! A bit jumbled up please bear with me im still mastering the art of posting.