Another Messy Cover I'd Like To Share...

Thanks for posting the back side image. Yep, boring but typical for its travels. still a nice item.

The back side: The St Louis marking proves the cover actually completed its forwarding journey. It is an uncommon Barr-Fyke machine cancel used only about 6 months in mid-1898 for marking received mail in St Louis.

The Per S. S. Etruria instructions are also interesting. Were they part of the original transit instructions (most likely) or added for the forwarding journey? Sailing records would quickly answer that question.

1945 and this is a very messy cover...the story it could tell about the people protecting the free world.


And the back for Hoosierboy!

I just found this in some covers I am slowly sorting through.

Funny coincidence- the address on that NZ airmail cover is an easy drive from my house but the house that's at that address now was built in the 1980s.

Whenever I see all that postage on one letter it makes me wonder what the story was with the sender. I have a fragment of a cover that has nine 22 cent 1985 decoy stamps and two 3 cent 1956 conservation stamps all cancelled.

I once had a lid from a box that was used to ship ballet slippers from Belgium to the US. The lid was so plastered with small denomination King Baudouin stamps that from a distance it looked like the lid was gift wrapped.

Cool story Aviatik! Show us the lid please.

I wondered about that New Zealand first flight cover, too. Somebody made it decorative with current stamps, and the rate was apparently a lofty 4/6 (4 shillings 6 pence) so at 4/7½, this works for me to get two sets on the cover. Other covers have decorative frankings, too, often including the then-current 9d red and black definitive. Glad that Miss M A Elzey thought enough of the cover to not soak off the stamps for her collection.

It was mentioned how cheap 2 cents was to mail a letter in 1891. It really wasn't.

If you want to compare the value of a $0.02 Commodity in 1891 there are three choices. In 2018 the relative:
real price of that commodity is $0.57
labor value of that commodity is $3.03 (using the unskilled wage) or $4.82 (using production worker compensation)
income value of that commodity is $5.21
economic share of that commodity is $26.50

Laurie02-The lid with the Belgian stamps was destroyed along with most of the cover containing the decoy and conservation stamps in a basement flood.

revcollector--That was me with the 2 cents comment. People can show me tables, formulas and stats all day long and I won't dispute them but comparisons of todays' prices to yesterdays' will always feel wrong to me.

Here is an example closer to home than 1891.--When I was a boy individual serving snack pies were three for 25 cents. Today that pie (same size same brand) is $1.79 for one. I get it-long ago -inflation -macro -micro yadda yadda- the pie should be more expensive today but 21 times? It's still just flour and fruit in a cardboard wrapper. Maybe it's an old man thing, but the cold equations just don't trump the gut feeling.

That cover from 1911 makes me wonder how in the world a letter could be delivered to a person with just New York, NY as an address. Even 108 years ago there were over 8 MILLION people living there.

ajuchum--If you look closely at the return to sender stamp, it says"not in directory". Apparently, in those days, the PO kept a phone book or like reference and would make an honest effort to find the addressee.

It may have been common practice to address like that when the world was a smaller place. I've noticed some slogan cancels in years after the early 1900s that say "address mail to street and city". If the PO felt it was necessary to tell people that, then I'm thinking it had been past practice to address city only.

I've had the experience today that you can have the street address exact but if the zip code is off a digit or two they won't deliver.

Hey Aviatik and ajuchum, I can't get over how quickly post as delivered back on the 1800's and early 1900's even international post, and, the postmaster had the audacity to work weekends and holidays, even Christmas!you just don't get dedication like that anymore!

More likely, the NYPO in 1911 would have used a city directory. It was indeed much like a phone book, updated yearly, and included individuals and businesses. Many are available online today. I assume the clerk involved had all of them for each borough, which is how New York directories were broken down. City directories went well beyond the start of the era of phone books, as I can remember an alcove in San Francisco (Post St. near Market) that had these -- no phones or phone books there.

Well beyond the early 1900s was the practice of addressing mail to a named building: "John Smith Co., Empire State Building, New York, New York". In the UK, if you had a property with a name, like "The Willows", no street address was needed, at least at one time.

The main directory in the UK was Kelly's - I remember our having one in the house in the '60s. To a large degree, 'phone books replaced them, albeit with a different arrangement.

To see typical US auxiliary markings related to 'Not In Directory' see the newly published article "Directory Assistance in Readdressing Misdirected Items" here
http://stampsmarter.com/Learning/ID...istance.html
Don