Letter Writers Alliance

Holiday Postmarks

If you are interested in getting a lovely finish on your cards with a hand-stamped cancellation, all you really need is time. The post office recommends sending your re-mailings no later than December 7th; so get on it! You have to prepare your mailings and then send them all of for their special markings, and then they get mailed out from the post office or crazy mail-obsessed person you sent them too. Only then do they start the journey to their final destination. 

Here's how to do it. If you design or add mail art to your envelopes, make sure to leave an empty space of at least three and a half inches to the left of the postage stamp. You should also affix your stamps about a quarter inch from the top and right edge of your envelope. This will allow for the best cancellation for your collection. Just pack up your covers inside another envelope (or box) with your cards to the address you want your postmark from. Then you wait. And hopefully, you end up having sent out some super special mail.

For a North Pole Postmark, send to:

NORTH POLE POSTMARK
POSTMASTER
4141 POSTMARK DR
ANCHORAGE AK 99530-9998

There are also a plethora of postmark cities that are holiday-appropriate. You can send mail to the postmasters at the following ZIPs for cancellation and re-mailing as well. Enclose stamped cards or letters addressed to yourself or others and put them into another envelope or box labeled to "Christmas Postmark" and send on to one of these options:

Angels Camp, CA 95222	Berry, AL 35546	Bethlehem, CT 06751
Bethlehem, KY 4000	Bethlehem, MD 21609	Bethlehem, NH 03574
Bethlehem, PA 18016	Deer Park, AL 36529	Evergreen, AL 36401
Faith, SD 57626	Garland, NE 68360	Garland, NC 28441
Garland, PA 16416	Garland, TX 75040	Garland, UT 84312
Holly, CO 81047	Holly, MI 48442	Hope, AK 99605
Hope, AR 71801	Hope, ID 83836	Hope, KS 67451
Hope, MN 56046	Hope, NM 88250	Hope, ND 58046
Joseph, OR 97846	Joseph City, AZ 86032	Joy, IL 61260
Nazareth, KY 40048	Nazareth, PA 18064	Nazareth, TX 79063
Nazareth MI 49074	Noel, MO 64854	Partridge, KS 67566
Partridge, KY 40862	Pine Hill, AL 36769	Saint Joseph, IL 61873
Saint Joseph, MI 49085	Saint Joseph, TN 38481	Saint Mary, KY 40063
Saint Mary’s, KS 66536	Santa, ID 83866	Santa Claus, IN 47579
Shepherd, MT 59079	Spruce Pine, AL 35546	Snowflake, AZ 85937
Snowville, UT 84336	Spruce, MI 48762	Star, TX 76880

St. Patricks Postmark

Mark your calendars and notate your address books, specialty postmark lovers. According to the U.S.P.S. Instagram account*, the tiny town of St. Patrick, Missouri offers special cancellations for St. Patrick's Day. You can request your mail get this seasonal mark by sending your S.A.S.E. (Self Addressed Stamped Envelopes) to:

Postmaster

St. Patrick Post Office

2 Erin Cir.

St. Patrick, MO 63466-1000

They do offer the mark for the entire month of March; so there's still time if you want to grace your mail with a bit 'o luck.

 

*Part of me loves reading the comments because most of them are lovely, but there's always the person that has lost a package and is freaking out. It makes me sigh and shake my head. Leave the poor social media people alone. They can't help you. In the comments, no one can hear you scream.

Pictorial and Appropriate Holiday Cancellations

I do a lot of holiday card mailing. One year, I even managed to do so well with my cards that I was able to finish them and get them sent off for a pictorial postmark from my favorite re-mailers, The Olathe Poste. If you are interested in getting a lovely finish on your cards with a hand-stamped cancellation, all you really need is time. You have to prepare your mailings and then send them all of for their special markings, and then they get mailed out from the post office or crazy mail-obsessed person you sent them too. Only then do they start the journey to their final destination. The card in the photo, for example, was mailed to me last year. I got it... last month. But I did get it! And it looks gorgeous!

If you do decided to send off your cards for re-mailing, here's how to do it. If you design or add mail art to your envelopes, make sure to leave an empty space of at least three and a half inches to the left of the postage stamp. You should also affix your stamps about a quarter inch from the top and right edge of your envelope. This will allow for the best cancellation for your collection. Just pack up your covers inside another envelope (or box) with your cards to the address you want your postmark from. Then you wait. And hopefully, you end up having sent out some amazing mail.

The mailing address for the Olathe Poste is P.O. Box 707, Olathe, CO, 81425, USA

There are also a plethora of postmark cities that are holiday-appropriate. You can send mail to the postmasters at the following ZIPs for cancellation and re-mailing as well. Enclose stamped cards or letters addressed to yourself or others and put them into another envelope or box labeled to "Christmas Re-Mailing" and send on to one of these options:

Angels Camp, CA 95222	Berry, AL 35546	Bethlehem, CT 06751
Bethlehem, KY 4000	Bethlehem, MD 21609	Bethlehem, NH 03574
Bethlehem, PA 18016	Deer Park, AL 36529	Evergreen, AL 36401
Faith, SD 57626	Garland, NE 68360	Garland, NC 28441
Garland, PA 16416	Garland, TX 75040	Garland, UT 84312
Holly, CO 81047	Holly, MI 48442	Hope, AK 99605
Hope, AR 71801	Hope, ID 83836	Hope, KS 67451
Hope, MN 56046	Hope, NM 88250	Hope, ND 58046
Joseph, OR 97846	Joseph City, AZ 86032	Joy, IL 61260
Nazareth, KY 40048	Nazareth, PA 18064	Nazareth, TX 79063
Nazareth MI 49074	Noel, MO 64854	Partridge, KS 67566
Partridge, KY 40862	Pine Hill, AL 36769	Saint Joseph, IL 61873
Saint Joseph, MI 49085	Saint Joseph, TN 38481	Saint Mary, KY 40063
Saint Mary’s, KS 66536	Santa, ID 83866	Santa Claus, IN 47579
Shepherd, MT 59079	Spruce Pine, AL 35546	Snowflake, AZ 85937
Snowville, UT 84336	Spruce, MI 48762	Star, TX 76880

The Scourge of the Spray-On Postmark

For the month of September, most First Class mail in the U.S. will feature a special postmark. It's a lovely script that says "Thinking of You." "Thinking of You Week" at the end of September is an initiative of the Greeting Card Association which does sort of make me roll my eyes a bit. Just giving those "holidays were only invented to sell greeting cards" yahoos more fuel for their conspiracy theory fires; but, hey, it seems like a happy, fun thing and I do like postmarks. Well, I like nicely stamped, legible postmarks like the design they show here.

Except that's not what we get. What we get is a sprayed-on ink jet cancellation mark which is fuzzy at best and a blurry smear at worst. The ink is never dry quick enough on the slickness of the stamps which inevitably leads to a blobby mess as the mail piece zips along through the rollers of the automatic postal machines. Thanks, I hate it! 

According to Arago, the U.S.P.S. started using spray cancellations in 2006. I see examples from all over the world. Check out these from CanadaPost from way back in the mid 1990s. I'm aware that spraying on the cancellation is the most efficient way to encode the information needed in a postmark with the constantly updating and continually moving system that is the mail. The technology behind it is really fascinating in fact. Take a moment to marvel at these hand-held ink jet spray printers for example.

Linn's Stamp News seems to agree with me: "The sprayed-on cancel does a fairly good job of canceling the stamp. But the blurry and messy cancellation is not very aesthetically pleasing, and the postmark part and slogan, if there is one, are often nearly illegible."  Spray cancels are so gross looking on mail and it makes me so sad. That postmark shown above is really sweetly designed and its delicate curves are done no favors by the method of marking. It makes you wonder why they bother with pictorial spray cancels at all. 

What do you think? Love em? Hate em? Tell us why!

 

Collecting Pictorial Postmarks

Our article on the special eclipse postmarks prompted a lot of excitement. Perhaps you'd like to know that there is a great resource out there called Collect Postmarks. Pretty straightforward, huh? There's an illustrated calendar of available marks, a how-to guide, a postage calculator, and more. Geez. What a cool site. If you want to collect special postmarks, then that is the place for you.

Sending First Day Covers

Ever wonder how people get their awesome FDCs? That's "First Day Covers" for us non-philatelic folks. It's an envelope that has been stamped and cancelled on the first day of that stamp's release. The U.S.P.S. offers multiple cancellation options these days, from the classic looking barred example of above to elaborate color digital cancellations that are designed to compliment the stamp design. 

 

Ordering First-Day-of-Issue Postmarks
Customers have 60 days to obtain the first-day-of-issue postmark by mail. They may purchase new stamps at local Post Offices or from the U.S.P.S. website. They should affix the stamps to envelopes of their choice*, address the envelopes to themselves or others and place them in larger envelopes addressed to the various postmaster assigned to a particular stamp release. *Yes, that means you can make mail-artified or otherwise decorated envelopes for this purpose, and you can address them to people other than yourself, like the one I received in the photo above.

The U.S. Postal Service also sells its own FDCs for a premium over the face value of the stamp; however, those covers are blank, and do not have the cachets—that is the designs printed or painted on the left side of, or all over, the cover—that most collectors prefer. The cover also will need an address to which it should be returned. Since unaddressed covers are the standard collecting form for FDCs, a peelable label is the suggested form. Each cover must have inside a filler card of index or postal card thickness, with the envelope either sealed or with the flap tucked in—the latter being the preferred collecting format.

After applying the first-day-of-issue postmark, the Postal Service will return the envelopes through the mail. There is no charge for the postmark up to a quantity of 50. For more than 50, there is a 5-cent charge per postmark. To send the cover to the address to which it must be sent for the FDOI cancel, your FDCs should be sent in an outer envelope. Nowadays, to prevent an additional cancellation’s being applied in transit, or other damage to the cover, some collectors send along another return-addressed envelope in which the FDC can be returned by the USPS.

Stamp News Now has a calendar up of the 2017 releases which they seem to be keeping fairly current. Send your covers to:

FDOI - [Name of Stamp Issue]
USPS Stamp Fulfillment Services
8300 NE Underground Drive, Suite 300
Kansas City, MO 64144-9900

If you're a collector of FDCs, kindly share your tips and experiences in the comments! 

Scouting and Philately

One of my U.K. pen pals, Julia,  is also an active Girl Guide leader. She sent me some pictures of some postcards that were recently sent to her from Japan where the 23rd World Scout Jamboree was held this year. 

"I've taken some pictures, because - how cool - special edition stamps, postcards and cancellations if posted on the Jamboree site - how totally fab!!! My friend posted cards from a Jamboree in Canada last year too, they had official postcards but I don't think they had an official stamp - I'll have a rummage around and see if I can find them and let you know.  Maybe it's a Jamboree thing???"

Stamps commemorating scouting are certainly nothing new. The U.S.P.S. just had another one issued in 2012. Other countries also having stamps for scouting. A little searching later, and I found a whole bunch of different Jamboree specific first day covers and postcards from all over the world.  Scouting is a very popular topic. In fact, when people collect philatelic material related to a particular subject, it's called "topical" collecting. I love to see that the tradition of special stamps and cancellations for the Jamboree is still going on. Julia, it's definitely a Jamboree thing and I hope it continues to be one. Thanks for sharing!

 

P.S. Got a fun thing to share with us? Let us know! We love hearing from our members! (And I love help writing this blog three times a week!)

Digital Color Cancellation Design

Despite my growing collection of collections, I am forced to admit that I cannot have ALL OF THE THINGS! One of those collections I don't collect is color First Day of Issue cancellations.  There are a number of goodies one can acquire to commemorate the release of a stamp: the stamp(s) itself, promotional material for the stamp, and First Day of Issue cancellations available in black or, recently, in "digital color." Digital color cancellations began in 2005 and cost a little more to procure than the regular black ink issue. This feature provides artists with another opportunity to celebrate the subject of the stamp. I enjoyed this recent article from the U.S.P.S. stamps blog which talks with some digital color cancellation designers about their work. Do you collect color cancellations? Do you collect cancellations at all?

 

North Pole Postmark Available

It's that time to start planning your holiday postmarks! There are numerous quaintly-named cities which will accept your holiday cards and letters for remailing. All you need to do is place your properly stamped letters into a box or envelope and mail them to that particular city care of the Postmaster. Addresses can be found readily online. One of the more popular ones is for North Pole, Alaska:

North Pole Holiday Cancellation
Postmaster
4141 Postmark Dr
Anchorage AK 99530-9998

The deadline for specialty postmarked cards is the 10th of December for holiday delivery. Best get to writing!

{Image from Your Postal Blog}

Anti-Valentine's Postmarks

We've told you before about the fun practice of sending your valentines to a Postmaster in order to get a neat cancellation mark from a place like Loveland, CO or Valentine, NE. But what if you can't stand that lovey-dovey, hearts and flowers stuff? Never fear, there are postmarks for you too! Postal News Blog listed some great anti-Valentine's cities. To obtain the town's postmark, address your valentine, affix a First-Class Mail postage stamp and put it into a larger envelope, also with postage (probably $0.66), and address it to VALENTINE’S DAY POSTMARK, POSTMASTER, and then add any of the addresses below.

1701 S MAIN ST	BROKEN ARROW OK	74012-9998
4722 WAISANEN RD	EMBARRASS MN	55732-9998
101 S EDWARDS ST	INDEPENDENCE CA	93526-9998
1701 EL NIDO	DIABLO CA	94528-9998
665 6TH ST	SOUR LAKE TX	77659-9998
3701 US 52 HWY	COWARD SC	29530-9998

(Shredded heart valentine from CarbonNYC on Flickr under a Creative Commons Usage)