Revenues Used As Postage Gallery

"Nearly all"? How do you make that assertion for in-period pieces when in most cases there's little context to be drawn from the name of the sender, the recipient, or the attributes of the cover itself. Without said context, how can you assert that a particular cover is philatelic or not?

Some examples follow. I'm curious as to which you (or anyone else) believe to be philatelic, and more importantly, how you come to that conclusion. Numbered for convenience.

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I like anything to do with stamps. So I find these covers more than interesting. I enjoyed viewing each and everyone of them. I really like number 12 but then I'm a Pa boy. I even saw one addressed to Huntington, Pa. In any event pretty cool from a segment I don't personally do.

I make it because I have seen dozens of covers such as these, and doing so was a very popular philatelic activity at the time. Especially from about 1920 on, but before that as well. And deliberately using various forms of non postage to pay utilities bills was VERY popular back in the 60's; I have seen accumulations of 100 or more a few times. Obviously there were some occasions where people lacked ordinary postage and substituted revenues, but these usages are not rare and a very high percentage are philatelic.

To all, kindly note that at no point in my post did I claim that the covers that I showed were anything other than "interesting."

I came across a forgotten about album yesterday and I took a half hour of my life to scan a dozen covers, just to share something that is uncommonly presented here. I thought that maybe someone else might collect these types of covers, as I did. And if not, maybe someone would appreciate seeing something a little unusual.

Again, I truly apologize for not meeting the apparent threshold of sophistication of material with my post.

To those that made positive comments, I thank you.

In all honesty, if I was a naive beginning collector, full of enthusiasm with what I thought was something kind of neat and eager to share it with "friends," and I received the above comments, I would never post here again.

Jim

Perhaps my tone was wrong, but I think that for inexperienced or new collectors to the field of revenues, it is healthy to hear that many collectors are cautious about the origins of these curiosities. And that many of these items should not come at astronomical prices.

Many years ago when I was actively exhibiting wine stamps, I was offered, at what I considered an exorbitant price, a 1914 wine stamp on a cover, cancelled as I recall in the 1917-1919 period. It really would not have improved or fit into my exhibit and I passed on the purchase. Admittedly, my exhibit was organized around the paying of the taxes on wine and a curious use to pay postage did not fit the purpose of my exhibit.

James Drummond and revenuecollector, thank you for posting those covers. I always like looking at stuff like that. And then you begin to wonder what stories they could tell of their creator's intentions if only they could talk.

Jim Thanks

Stampmaster

Hi

Thought I might as well show you one of my covers for this topic.

Stampmaster

Unusual, in that one doesn't see proprietaries used as postage very often, but used LONG out of period for the stamps, so likely philatelic. Still, interesting.

One of my favorites.

and one more for good measure since it's proprietaries. Extra note: mailed from one of the Baltimore streetcar lines!

Apparently sophistication is not permitted, the only posts allowed are those that go ooh and ahh and say how amazing something is, even when it is not. Some of us feel that accuracy of comment is important, and that stating exactly what an item is does more for other collectors then blind approval. At no time did anyone say that no one should like these covers, or collect these covers, or enjoy seeing them. But they are what they are, and having this pointed out is part of what happens when an item gets posted.

No Ken, sometimes it's not what is being said, but HOW it is being said.