Don't Believe Everything You See - Postal History Sunday

It's time for Postal History Sunday on the Genuine Faux Farm blog!  Let's see what kinds of new things we can all learn while I share something I enjoy.

Before we get started, let's take a moment to put on some baseball cleats - preferably the steel cleats.  Please note, you should put these on AFTER you get outside.  Some who live in your home may not appreciate the damage those cleats might do to floors and carpeting.  Take your troubles and worries and throw them to the ground.  Then, take a few moments to thoroughly tenderize them by marching on them for a while with your cleats.  They rarely look as intimidating after that treatment.

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This week, I wanted to accomplish two things.  First, I wanted to show everyone that postal history does NOT require that you collect mail from the 1800s.  It may prefer items from the 1850s to the 1870s - but many people find interesting things to explore that are much "newer" or "older" than that.  And second, I wanted to illustrate that sometimes what you see on a piece of mail can be misleading.

Well, I DID warn you that I was going to show something that was not all that old - especially compared to what I normally show here.

If you think this is a piece of "junk mail," you would be absolutely correct.  The contents are promoting a home equity credit line and the cover letter is dated "July, 1988."  If you'll recall, we had a Postal History Sunday last September that discussed reduced postage rates for printed matter in the 1800s.  Even then, post offices recognized the value of providing mail services to those who were interested in "mass mailings."  

Once we get into the 1980s, the US Postal Service provided many levels of discounts depending on how the sender organized the mail to be sent.  The piece of mail shown above would have qualified for the Third-Class Bulk/Quantity discount.  When this class of rates was first established in 1952, a mailer could qualify if they mailed 200 or more identical pieces of mail or 20 pounds of identical pieces in one mailing.  The weight amount had increased to 50 pounds by the time we reach 1988, but the 200 piece minimum still held true.

There were bulk rates for mailers who did not pre-sort any of their mail and there were lower rates for those who would sort the mail they were sending to make it easier for the postal service to get the mail sent on its way.   The item shown above used a sorting technique known as the "5-digit presort."  Essentially, the mailer put the envelopes in bundles of 10 or more with each item in that bundle having the same five-digit zip code.  Because this reduced some of the labor for the postal service, they qualified for a lower rate.

The rate for a piece of mail using the Third-Class, Bulk Rate with 5-Digit Presort was 13.2 cents per piece of mail.  This rate was effective from April 3, 1988 to February 2, 1991.

Let's look at the stamp that was used to show that the postage was paid for this item.

The overprinted words "Bulk Rate" confirm for us that this was, indeed, a Third-Class, Bulk Rate item.  But, the stamp indicates that 10.1 cents were paid in postage.

That's not 13.2 cents!  What's up with that?

First off - the new 13.2 cent stamps were not released for use until July 19, 1988, that's more than a couple months after the new rate was put into effect.  So - the postal service didn't have stamps available with right postage amount on them for mailers to use even though the postage rate had changed.

Second, bulk mailers would often buy large stocks of the stamps needed for mass mailing.  Rather than "sticking" their customers with a bunch of postage that no longer worked, they would allow the use of the older stamps for the same rate during a grace period.  The period for the 10.1 cent Oil Wagon stamp lasted until October 9, 1988.  Bulk mailers would simply pay the postal service the difference after the postal increase and then they would be allowed to use up their old supplies during the grace period.

There you have it.  A 10.1 cent stamp that actually indicated that the mailer paid the 13.2 cents required.  You just can't believe everything you see when it comes to postal history.

Here's another example from the same mailer.  This time, the piece of mail was sent as a Third-Class, Bulk Rate, but it was sent under the rules for a "Basic Presort."  This rate was a bit more expensive because the mail was not sorted in bundles of 10 by the 5-digit Zip code.  

The contents showed that this was mailed in April of 1988, so it falls into the same rate period as the last item, but the rate for a "Basic Presort" was 16.7 cents.  Just like the last example, the new stamps were NOT available until July.  So, an old 12.5 cent stamp was used to show that the item was properly paid.

Let's go backwards in time 123 years to the year 1865 and we can look at a letter that originated in British Columbia, went through San Francisco and New York, and then went on its way to Liverpool, England.

Unlike the first two items, this is a piece of letter mail, not an item that qualified for a reduced rate.  Because the letter started its journey outside of the United States, the postage for British Columbia had to be paid.  Mail from the Cariboo Region (Williams Creek) to New Westminster cost 6 pence and an additional 3 pence was required to pay the foreign mail rate to San Francisco.  This 9 pence rate was assessed for every half ounce of weight and was effective from May 2, 1864 until December 31, 1865.

The pink stamps were the postage that was available for mailing in British Columbia.  If you look carefully you will see that their value is 2 pence & a half penny (2 1/2 pence).  So, the total postage paid looks like 7.5 pence.

That's not 9 pence!

Well, this situation was similar to the first two cases.  The rate had changed, but 3 pence stamps were not available.  So, the 2.5 pence stamps were pressed into service to indicate payment of 3 pence each.

The 24 cent stamp showed the US postage of 24 cents per 1/2 ounce for mail that would go from the United States to England.  At least in that case, the face value of the stamp was consistent with the amount of postage paid!

This piece of postal history is a wonderful item with a much bigger story.  Perhaps it will get its own Postal History Sunday later this year!

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Thank you again for joining me for Postal History Sunday!  I hope you learned something new or - if you didn't learn something new, you enjoyed reading about things you already knew.  Whatever works!

Have a great remainder of the weekend and wonderful week to come. 

Resources

For those who might like to explore more.

The book U.S. Domestic Postal Rates, 1872-1999 (2nd edition) by Henry Beecher and Anthony Wawrukiewicz is an excellent resource for anyone looking for modern postal rates.  A third edition through the year 2011 is now available.

Steve Walske's fine work titled Postal Rates on Mail from British Columbia and Vancouver Island via the United States 1858 - 1870 and some direct assistance from Mr. Walske have helped me to undertand the last item in this post.  This article is hosted by the Western Cover Society.

If you would like to learn more about the Transportation Series of stamps, the National Postal Museum has a brief summary for each stamp issued for that design group.