Billheads, Billheads, Roly Poly Billheads.

Eat them up... yum?

I've always appreciated billheads and other similarly-sized documents (receipts, bills of lading, etc.) for their aesthetic properties: attractive vignettes, marketing and advertising lingo, unusual business names and industries.

While I've normally limited myself to those that fall within the revenue stamped periods of the Civil War and Spanish American War eras, I've recently started picking up examples throughout the 19th century, well just cuz...

I picked up this unusual dual-purpose billhead, featuring two different business types and vignettes: railroad supplies and steamship supplies.

Having both railroad and maritime subject matter and imagery on the same document is wonderful IMO.

Appreciate the penmanship too.

Nice! Remarkable resemblance to the 3c and 17c values from the 1869 Pictorial series.

Just wanted you to know your Dr. Demento reference was not in vain.

I just noticed the Ormsby imprint below the right hand vignette. So these are actually engraved? That makes this quite interesting, imho!

What the... a "Fish Heads" reference on a stamp forum??? Too bad the original image is lost.

I sent a begging email for a repost of the image to revenuecollector.

Image restored. The domain was caught in registry limbo for a bit. Sorry about that.

Thanks for the effort revenuecollector and it is a beautiful example.

Now why the "fish heads" reference by a later poster? Fish plates I understand (railroad track piece) but where does "fish heads" come from here?

the thread title is a play on the lyrics of the fish heads song
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_Heads_(song)

Thanks for the info SPQR, the reference was lost in space or a cornfield for me.

Edited to avoid the cornfield.

He knows fish plates... probably today more obscure than "Fish Heads"!!

One STRANGE video to go with it... https://youtube.com/watch?v=n9TNcI7eUXY

That IS a nifty billhead... rail and marine, all in one!

I know "fish heads" as the cheap KMart, Sears, or MonkeyWards shoes with the white plastic over the toes we had in the 60s and 70s.

Converse knock offs.

Pretty much most kids had them.

Parents buying kids sneakers costing hundreds of dollars was not yet a thing...

not a billhead, but rail and marine on a cheap postage propaganda envelope

I am now ashamed I missed the reference as I know the song, likely from my time listening to Dr. Demento and SNL before it fell of the stage way, way left politics rather than balanced comedy.


Edited to reply to:




Finally happened 1-1-1913 with US Parcel Post.

Wow, never heard that one!

Where else can we learn about billheads, sneakers, and parodies??