Question About A Cover From Pinsk Poland Circa 1932

Seems standards require stamps on the front of an envelope today. Is this standard recent or not a standard at all? Does the sender have the option of putting stamps anywhere they want?

I am not an expert on this sort of thing but this seems to have been accepted practice in several countries a while back. Here is a postcard from France with the stamp on the photo side and not the address side - I see ones like this fairly often from this time period in France.

I have a number of covers from Latvia from before WW2 that have the stamps on the back. I've wondered what the deciding factor was....just a personal whim? With postcards I think the stamp on the picture side made it easier to display in an album with both the picture of the location and the stamp both visible. Especially since mounting many times was glue on one side.

Sealing the envelope with stamps seems to be a Russian Empire habit. It replaces the use of sealing wax, and maybe shows a level of mistrust in the postal system. I have Russian empire covers from Finland Duchy and various places in what is now Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania all doing the same. I don't recall seeing this practice anywhere else. Very soon after the breakup of the Empire and the formation of the USSR the practice seems to have died out, maybe a response to UPU conventions on placement of stamps.

I am no expert on sealing letters with stamps but as a cheapskate who buys envelopes with inferior gum I know you have to start looking around for something to seal the envelope. In the days before sticky tape using the stamp was probably the quickest way of sealing an envelope. I have used airmail etiquettes and stamp edging before now.

Thank you all. I can't imagine going to the Post Office today and presenting an envelope with stamps on the reverse. I think the piece is interesting as an example of changing standards.

I am not sure that the French picture postcard had the stamp applied to the back )the picture side) so a collector could display the picture and the stamp and cancel all at once. Back then I am not sure that all of these cards that you see with this style were made up by collectors with this in mind.

Another example of a country where stamps were applied to the back at on point in their history is China. Here is an elaborate example of stamps on the back of a cover from Canton in 1937.

Kimo, that cover is a bunch of fun. I like it!