Erased Addresses On FDC

One thing that has not been addressed (sorry, I couldn't resist) here so far is different types of addressing. Some are typed, some are neatly written, and some are scrawled. Scrawling is definitely a value downgrade compared to typed or neatly written.

I literally see thousands of FDCs each month and I have seen some silly things - the one that stands out the most is fools who have used white-out to cover an address.

Multiple stamps on a FDC is far more common for foreign FDCs (since they tend to issue sets of stamps instead of a single stamp), but in addition to the combo FDCs someone else mentioned, there are multi-design US issues that are often found on a single FDC, but also it is not that uncommon to find plate blocks or plain blocks of 4, particularly on older FDCs (they were probably most 40s & 50s, but you will find them earlier and later)

I mentioned the combo FDCs. As for plate blocks on FDCs, my experience is limited mostly to US airmail and aviation themed topicals, and have found them to be present from the 1930s down to the present. I have a collection of US airmail material in two Lindner binders of singles, plate blocks and booklet panes, and FDCs. The earliest airmail plate block FDCs in my collection are C16 (1931) and C17 (1932). From C20 (1937) to C150 (2012) I have plate block FDCs for almost every issue (excluding booklet issues, where I have FDCs with booklet panes). I don't know if plate block FDCs were more common in the 1940s and 1950s, but I think there was more interest in plate blocks in the past than at present. But even with modern issues, in accumulating my collection of US airmail and topical aviation FDCs, I've found the modern covers with plate blocks to command a modest premium over FDCs with singles.

Basil

Addressed wherever possible for me. They're more interesting.

Someone took the time to go to a post office on the date in question, to send something to themselves, or someone else.
I have a few where someone sent a note to a friend on date of issue so they
could have a FDC for a notable event.

The addresses and postmarks also let me find something about a collector in the past.

I also like to collect letters in general, not just FDCs. I have a really nice letter with a Penny Black from Henry George Grey to his niece Lady Mary Lampton, following the death of her father. I subsequently found out that another stamp "The Red Boy" depicts her brother.

I would never have learned anything like this from owning a MNH Penny Black, as nice as it would be to have one.

I collect MNH stamps, but as the years have gone on my preference is for used, preferably on letters or cards.

If unaddressed FDCs are in fashion then that suits me fine. It's nice to collect things that are out of fashion.

-MM

"Radical Jack" Lambton is commemorated by the Penshaw Monument in Co Durham. More recently, his descendant Lucinda Lambton was a fixture on TV in the 1980s and '90s.

I always collected FDC hand written and a bonus for sloppiness and scrawl. I felt the person. Liked the addresses, cities and towns.

I may not remember it right, but I think for a while the Post Office required an address, and maybe that all covers actually were mailed. At some point they dropped that making unaddressed FDCs more likely.
Although it did carry on for decades with some clerks... I tried making 9/9/99 covers and they insisted on mailing them.

For FDCs, I'm a bit odd. I like unusual ones, especially very fancy advertising versions. I also occasionally pick up or keep ones that were sent by usually pharmaceutical companies to doctors as ads.

And... while I don't go searching for them, FDCs that were somehow messed up either in the original processing, or in the mails are almost always in the yes pile when I find them in a dollar box. Damaged, return to sender!?, cancelled over the first day cancel, first day cancel not on the stamp... All fun stuff, even if a serious FDC collector wouldn't want them.

Steve

regarding "This person didn't just get rid of the address they covered up 2 cancels too. WHY????" ==
answer, pure ignorance. It's hard sometimes to accept, especially when you come across ruined covers, but many folks out there have no concept of respecting a paper example of history that it can represent.
The rule should be, don't touch don't mark don't cut or cut down, etc.

Not brought up yet is another nice niche of FDCs, the commercial use of them by businesses. They might arrange a flyer or a form letter to be mailed to prospects or their customer list in a FDC envelope. Obviously intended to go through mail and collectible as such. Some might have wording to effect about the "new stamp," or "pass this along to a collector friend."