US Postage Due Bills Or "Top Of Stack" Sheets: Types Of Stamps?

Browsing ebay I see a wide variety of postage due bills and top-of-stack sheets, cards, and envelopes from different eras. Many have postage due stamps affixed, but others have regular postage stamps, air mail, special delivery etc.

Presumably these were primarily for business senders (business reply mail) where the amounts were fairly large and/or encompassing a large number of pieces had postage due and this was more expedient than affixing stamps to individual pieces.

Were there regulations or limitations as to what types of stamps were permissible to affix to these sheets, and did those regulations change over time?

Or was it the case that prior to the discontinuation of postage due stamps in 1986, postage due stamps were supposed to be affixed, but affixing postage, airmail, special delivery stamps, while improper, was tolerated, because the amount owed was paid regardless?


Example images (not mine, from ebay):

This example (1942 use) sold on ebay at auction for $44.99 in July of this year.




This lot, encompassing the late 1970s and early 1980s, sold for $25.50.




This 1954 bill with a complete sheet of 2c postage dues sold via Buy It Now for $20.05.




This 1970 letter serving as a postage due bill has 8 x $5 Moore postage stamps affixed, and sold at ebay auction for $81.01 in July.




This 1962 bill shows postage due meters; part of a lot still listed on ebay for $65 OBO.




Here is a 1981 postage due bill (prior to the phaseout of postage due stamps), but with postage stamps affixed, despite the wording on the bill that postage due stamps were to be affixed. Currently running ebay auction.

Yes, these are typical examples, and once the Postage Dues issues were discontinued it became fair game to use any stamps. I have heard folklore that some individual responsible for paying the bills provided their own stamps to the post office in payment rather than cash but I do not know this for a fact.

The use of any of the $5.00 postage dues, especially in quantity is always an attraction.

The item with the 8 John Bassett Moore stamps was offered with similar page in another lot with 46 of the $5 John Bassett Moore stamps, and that item was profiled in Chad Snee's column Dollar-Sign Stamps, which appeared in the Aug 8, 2023 issue of Linn's Stamp News.



I have a multi-page Postage Due Bill with 3 of the 4 pages surviving which had a total of about $1499.52 for one period's fees. It can be seen in this thread:

https://www.stampcommunity.org/topi...PIC_ID=44866

Mike

Yes.




Yes.

That said the overarching concern was collection of the amounts due and representation of same.

Can those historical regulations be found anywhere online?

If not, do you know if it was as simple as what I outlined above, that prior to postage due stamps being phased out, you were supposed to affix postage due stamps specifically, or is it more nuanced than that with other types of stamps explicitly included or excluded at various points in time?

Thank you.

Regulations like these can be found in the Postal Laws & Regulations (PL&Rs) prepared by the USPOD, and they can also be found on the uspostalbulletins.com website here http://www.uspostalbulletins.com/

I tried just now and the site was not responding.

These are also on Google Books. This link will take you to one of my Portals that provides the URL for many on-line editions of these PL&R's:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AB...dX3AGDx/view

The following images are from the 1932 edition of the PL&R





I found the original instructions in the Postal Bulletin #14714, dated June 13, 1928. These follow...





These were again revised on Sept 14, 1928 in PB#14792:

http://www.uspostalbulletins.com/PD...19280914.pdf

I'm sure they were revised regularly and included in the Postal Bulletins. My original insert from the PL&R for 1932 then shows the regulations as of that date.

As I don't know when the use of postage dues stamps was phased out, but I expect that the regulations was modified then to identify the manner of payment using other than postage due stamps. Again, the Postal Bulletin is a likely source.

Mike

Thanks Mike, much appeciated.

Stampsmarter.com has the USPOD Guides and PL&Rs.

Bulk collection of postage due was not limited to BRM. Any customer who received a volume of short paid and assessed postage due or postage due matter being postage due on account of it is being returned and postage was required for the return (second, third and 4th Class/parcel post) would have bulk collections done.

Here is an example of returned parcel post matter for which the postage due was $20.40 on a maximum 170 pounds (varies downward due to if the WWI Parcel Tax was also due and collected -- regulations unclear regarding Shanghai and the collection of the WWI Parcel Tax)) spread out on 25 returned parcels. Total postage due being collected with ordinary postage stamps, affixed and canceled.

Front of due notice--


Back of due notice with canceled stamps in the due amount of $20.40--


At the time the US Postal Agency in Shanghai was considered a domestic US post office where domestic rates applied. Edit: Yes the office had postage due stamps available.

parcelpostguy




We don't have the PL&Rs on Stamp Smarter ---- yet!

But it's on my list. I have the PDF's but I want to do some editing and add some navigation bookmarks. With some luck, they'll make it in 2024.

Mike

Mike, thought they had made it on, my mistake. The http://www.uspostalbulletins.com/ site has them. And I have a hard copy set from the late 1800s to about 1950.

For those who don't know: The PL&Rs were provided with updates monthly to insert into the book and a new book issued every handful of years.

To quote the late Paul Harvey: "And now... the rest of the story..."

A few weeks ago I was doing my normal browsing of U.S. revenue lots on ebay, and as I scrolled through images on one particular listing, I passed all of the revenue material and the images proceeded into the "other" portion of the lot, and by that point I had decided the lot wasn't really worth my time. I was just about to close the browser window when I saw some images that made me go:



While I do only collect/specialize/focus in certain specific areas, at my core I subscribe to notion that if you see something odd, interesting, unusual, scarce, or aesthetically pleasing, you'll likely never go wrong acquiring it (financial limitations notwithstanding).

I started looking at current and completed ebay listings, Hipstamp, Stamp Auction Network archives, auction catalogs, and could not find a single comparable example. Maybe they're just so low of a value that they wouldn't ever be offered individually, hence there not being records of similar items, but dang it, they sure look unusual to me.

So I placed my high bid and waited. I ended up winning the lot for far less than my max, so either I was mistaken in the appeal of what I saw, and it wasn't of enough interest/demand/scarcity for others to bid higher, or... given the way, the lot was categorized and titled, the people that WOULD be interested just didn't know it was available.

I have seen a myriad of follow sheets/postage due bills/top-of-stack sheets (whatever term you choose to use) over the years, but they almost universally fall into one of the following categories:

1. Sheets with exclusive postage due stamps affixed

2. Sheets with exclusively postage stamps affixed, most commonly leading up to or after the phaseout of postage due stamps in 1986. Yes, I've seen examples of earlier sheets with postage stamps affixed (like some of the examples shown in previous posts in this thread), but they tend to be the exception rather than the rule.

What I had never seen before were follow sheets with OTHER types of back-of-book stamps or a mixture of different stamp types wallpapering them. That's what jumped off the screen to me.

These follow sheets are all from the same post office, dated 1952, so well before the phaseout of postage due stamps. They are INCREDIBLY brittle and fragile. I had to remove the staples and stabilize the documents with archival mending tape as best I could... even so, I wound up with edge chips all over the damned place.

Some are incomplete. I'm showing them in chronological order.

I don't know if they ran out of postage due stamps and were just using what they had available, but given the mix of both postage due and non-postage due stamps on individual transactions over a period of time, I can't help but wonder if this was some sort of attempt at accounting for the types of services provided (special delivery vs. special handling vs. normal delivery?). I'd really love to know what the thought process was.

I'd love if they were in better condition, but beggars can't be choosers... I've never seen anything like them before.

Fantastic lot. I am jealous.

Well done

Nice to see the QE and E usage from some where other than the state of Maine. Such were used on similar but smaller due transactions there.

Now you have motivated me to add another bulk example, again with a "parcel" flavor, specifically the parcel airlift stamp US 1341 (the 1295s were just frosting). So these are the photos I have of one transaction which are not really done to display the transaction in a nice orderly way.







Tended to be affixed to the card stock sheets contained in stamp pads as shipped to the individual POs. And yes, ebay is our friend again.

Edit: (snipped)

Well, it seems the PD bills were a great way to dispose of stamp inventory "not moving", saving the clerk the hassle of accounting for all the accountable paper every (??) for the inspectors / auditors!

A goose that laid a golden egg?


Yes this topic has been untouched for over a year.

However, I must apologize for not finding the item shown sooner. Actually having looked at PD bills and top stack pieces for decades looking for unusual stamps used to collect postage due. Here all of the stamp was used during period of use and validity. I have never seen such an item before nor would I have expected to see such an item with a 64.

This bill was for the company or firm "Keen." Some may know the KEEN shoe company which began locally to my location in 2003 but moved several years later to Oregon. No, the actual Keen company for this postage due bill is coincidentally also involved with transportation on a scale slightly larger than one human. Founded in 1968, Keen Transport is a national provider of heavy haul transportation and logistics services for the construction, mining and agricultural equipment markets. It does have many offices including New Kingstown, PA. As part of the Wallenius Wilhelmsen group beginning 2017, it can offer additional services including ocean transportation, terminal handling and equipment processing.


$16.42 was due and collected by:

• US Scott 2590, 1994 1 Dollar Surrender of Burgoyne (1)



• US Scott 1862, 1984 20 cent Harry S. Truman (2)



• US Scott 2169, 1987 2 cent Mary Lyon (1)

The above totals $1.42 so there was still a matter of the balance of $15.00. Paid exactly by one $15.00 US stamp. Swallow then scroll VVV to view image
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That $15.00 Stamp is normally not valid as postage. It is sold by the USPS but the stamp is not valid for postage and is only valid for one year affixed to a hunting license, specifically water fowl. It is US Scott RW64 issued and valid from July 1, 1997 through June 30,1998 picturing the Canadian Goose that year. What? I did not say Scott 64 we all know that is a three cent not fifteen dollar stamp

Can anyone else report such an RW postage due usage?

Very nice! I'm jealous.