Scott Catalog And Airmail Cover

I have no examples to add that I recall, although I do not file in a way that would make this specific search very quick.

For the International Mail brochure, I see the following editions here:

"International Mail" / July 1960 / IS-1
"International Mail" / Sept 1961 / PI-7
"International Mail" / June 16, 1968 / POD Publication 51
"International Postal Rates and Fees" / Publication 51 / March 1981
"International Postal Rates and Fees" / Publication 51 / October 1986
"International Postal Rates and Fees" / Publication 51 / February 1991
"International Postal Rates and Fees" / Publication 51 / April 1993
I may have some other editions but housecleaning for the holidays means some resources are not readily accessible until after the new year.

I realize and readily admit my opinion on items such as this is not worth much at this point, being new to stamp collecting, but I think you did well picking this up for the price. It's a nice clean organized looking cover posted with a couple high value stamps. The Nimitz stamp was issued between 1980-85 according to Scott's, and the cover is from 1993, so its somewhat interesting to me that the stamp was not that current. But I guess stocks of higher value stamps like that don't get used up at the P.O. that quickly, and may lay around for years. Or maybe what I just said is meaningless.

Ah, but it was. If one reads more closely. The range of Scott numbers #1844-#1869 were issued between 1980 and 1985. The original Nimitz stamp was issued in 1985, and like most definitives was on sale for many years. With a second version released in 1992 (#1869e), which remained on sale in the Philatelic Sales catalog through the 3rd quarter of 1998 after which is disappears without notice.

You mean that fine print, lol? So the last printing of it was in 1992, but it remained available until 1998, well I'll be...

John Becker, can I ask you what stamps you collect? I looked on the "what our members collect" page and I didn't see your name listed, or maybe I didn't read the "fine print".

Parcelpostguy, I got my copy of "Parcel Post - A Postal History" delivered a couple days ago, and I am about halfway through it. Great book, thank you very much for suggesting it to me. My Beecher rate book is being delivered today!

U.S. postal history. I have never maintained a formal stamp album - not even as a kid.
And on that tangent, as a kid I never had a Playskool Postal Station, so I just bought myself one for my birthday.

Which edition did you get? That is important for me being able to direct you to the
of which there is a lot which has much important information.

Regarding the books, the second edition covered into 1999. It does have a small amount of information about delivery confirmation service with includes Recorded Delivery. The third edition which covers into 2011 has only slightly more information on delivery confirmations services. There what is shown are computer created labels indicating the service as embedded within the postage and fees paid. Neither book shows nor lists in the index any reference to "Recorded Delivery" or its numbered labels. That itself is an indication such items are scarce. If fact if Tony was still alive, I would have sent the cover to him for reference. (see next paragraph)

The third edition includes for the first time a simplified chart of rates and fee to foreign destinations. While quite useful it does not have the detail level to address the various delivery confirmation flavors for international mail. As my cover is international, I would have expected it to be pictured in the online updates Tony keep for the International Rate book.




[Edit to add from here:]
and


Oops, 1993 it is not 1999 as I first read and wrote.

[To here.]

In addition to when the issue is available (being sold), another measure of currentness or in-periodness is when the same denomination is finally issued in the next regular series. You mentioned Prexies and from memory I say the 11 cent was the last value replace by the Liberties which is why the prexie can be found paying the international 11 cent airmail postcard rate in period. Also Scott is not carved in stone. The Parcel Post and PPPD on cover listings are for the date range of 1913-1925. Yet the seventy five cent Q-11 PP stamp was on sale for years beyond 1925 per the philatelic division order sheets of the time.

Lastly you have every right to state or guess about an item. If corrected that is how one learns. If not corrected, one can think one was correct and learn from that too. Of course when starting out, you have seen far fewer items that someone who has been looking for years, such as dealers or philatelic scholars. Thus you need to allow for you on lack of experiential information as you evaluate and item. Plus those others have likely read or wrote the fine print at one time or another.

Here is what I have found (provided to me) so far. it is the description of Recorded Delivery as of 2003, four years after it started in 1999. The start date has yet to be proven, but so far no prior to 1999 Publication 51 as Recorded Delivery listed. This also provided the exact name as on the Label, RECORDED DELIVERY and thus shows that this an international service while the collective term for domestic delivery was generally delivery confirmation.






EDITED to direct your attention back to the edit I just made on my post showing the Recorded Delivery item.

When did Recorded Delivery service begin? I would propose January 1, 1991, on paper, and shortly thereafter in reality. (See W&B, chapter 25)

Specifically, Postal Bulletin #21778 dated December 13,1990. Pages 7-9 describes changes to the International mail regulations effective January 1, 1991. It includes on page 8-9, the following pertaining to Recorded Delivery:




Postal Bulletin issue #21779 dated December 27, 1990 provided a recap of the service and update on pages 19-20, with this excerpted from the top of page 20:


The PB text is consistent with this copy of Form 8099 with revision date of November 1990 and a printing date of 1991, see back



Skimming later Postal Bulletin issues, it appears that each country had to opt-in to using Recorded Delivery as the PB's provide periodic lists of approved countries which clerks should accept.

I had to study the date myself for a half minute to be sure what it was also.

Mike Ludeman confirms it is not mentioned in the 1986 Pub. 51. I am still lacking the year 1987-1993 Pub. 51 versions.

As to the "W&B, chapter 25" I will first look in the International, then the domestic.

More later as I must run, real life calls.

And, thank you John Becker for your addition above. The curtain may be fully pulled back from this mystery eventually.

Third. That's a heavy book, must be all that fine print packed in there.

I believe John Becker is correct. In the International Rate Book, Chapter 25, Tony cites the precise PB issue and page that John displayed.

As I followed the "Recorded Delivery" updates through the Postal Bulletin, I read that the original plan was to implement Recorded Delivery to all countries (or possibly all UPU members, memory fails me), but many countries refused to agree to participate, so it went into a mode of countries being added, and countries being removed from the program from time to time. I suspect that many countries did not want to have the responsibility of handling the delivery securely and keeping the records, as the associated fees were fairly inexpensive..

The Publication 51, International Postal Rates and Fees, was a pamphlet that included only the basic international rate information, and this information was extracted from the International Mail Manual, which first was issued about 1982. This Publication 51 continued until May 11, 2009, when the USPS announced that it was being discontinued (in PB 22258)

For those familiar with the USPS Ratefold Notice123 pamphlet, we have a series of these on Stamp Smarter between 1995 and present, which can be found here: https://stampsmarter.org/learning/PostalRates.html

I don't have the information offhand when it was started, but in all issues prior to May 12, 2008, it consisted only of the domestic rates. Then beginning with the May 12, 2008 issue, the international rates were added, this making Publication 51 obsolete. Also beginning at this time, the Notice123 pamphlet began to grow in size form an average fo 8-10-12 pages to the current size. The Draft Notice 123 for new rates effective Jan 24, 2024, is 68 pages.

Edited to add:

The Ratefold Notice 123 was introduced in the Postal Bulletin 21854, dated Nov 11, 1993 for rates effective Nov 21, 1993. I have extracted these pages from the Postal Bulletin, and we will add these to the Stamp Smarter page with the other Notice 123 publications.

Mike

Been collecting coins nearly all my life, and I was never a formal coin album guy either. I always just bought what appealed to me, and my interests were all over the place. Filling holes in an album wasn't my cup of tea. I'm sure that I will be the same with stamps, I think some binders with Vario pages will be all I'll ever need.