One Of The Weirdest Officially Sealed Covers, Ever.

So, as this story begins on this semi-warm Spring evening while we are all mostly squirreled into our various abodes, once upon a time, I used to a) be highly interested in "officially sealed" covers and labels and so on; b) be younger (and thinner); and c) happened to be the "mail-distributor-guy" at a particular cosmetic manufacturer facility.

And, one day, this weird thing showed up.

And, yes, I surreptitiously took it home, and I have never opened it.

Please note in the image, of the back end of a frigging ball point pen (of all things) that was, for some weird reason, stuck inside of this cover, which is kind of shown at the top left.

Jim

Jim these things showed up once in awhile at the mail room where I once worked. the were usually marked with the co. or a senior executives name in an attempt to sell the company advertising giveaways or holiday presents.

I've seen a few of these before. The USPS will also use special plastic bags for damaged mail as well. Last year I was to receive a box parcel from Rome, Italy. All I received was the lid with my address inside a plastic bag that says "We Care". There was also an apology letter along with it. They never found the contents (non-philatelic).

These are generally identified as "Ambulance envelopes". I've seen them in paper like the one illustrated, and very thin plastic bags.

Hello Jim,

People try to mail all kinds of things inside a standard envelope. The result can be a jam inside the high-speed mail sorter, like you have shown here.

Image all those envelopes flying through the machine at a blazing speed, and one just stops! Just like on the freeway in heavy traffic, you instantly have a "multi-letter pileup." Sensors monitor the flow of letters by sensing the gaps. One sensor covered a millisecond too long and the electronics signals JAM! Direct current DC power is instantly switched to fully running AC alternating current motors. CLUNK! The belts and rollers stop instantly, as this is how the machine applies the brakes. If you are lucky only 3 or 4 letters will be wedged into the pileup. A good machine operator can ease the letters out of the pileup, while an operator who doesn't care will just yank them out in pieces. They all go into "body bag" envelopes like yours. Thanks for saving and sharing your example of USA postal history.

Linus

I received one of these "body bags" yesterday, containing about 60% of a postcard I had sent to my niece. But it's nice that they care.