I have been collecting patriotic cancels and notice a few that I have seen posted on ebay that have red pencil lines on the covers Most of those lines are on censored covers. . Is this a way of censorship?
Does it increase or decrease the value of the cover? Thanks for any info
Cheryl
Thankyou Roy... I have seen the envelopes with the blue lines as well..
Does it add to the value of a cover? or does it depend on the collector?
I was wondering if it would deter or add to the Patriotic Display ?
.
One often sees clearly philatelic covers sent as registered mail.
You have to wonder 'why', as the registry markings & endorsements rarely made the cover more attractive or presentable, and registered mail, in & of itself, was hardly rare.
My guess is that the registration was most likely to deter theft ... not because theft was all that likely, but because the sender festooning those covers with excess postage was going to be the one person in any crowd who thought that the cover would be irresistible to mere mortals.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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"I collect stamps today precisely the way I collected stamps when I was ten years old."
"... Registered items were also handled separately so I expect they were much less likely to be damaged than ordinary mail ..."
Yes, and no.
When I was delivering mail, decades ago, registered mail was moved between post offices in its own locked bag.
The fewer pieces you had in that bag, the more likely the bag was to fold over & damage the cover.
Moreover, registered items are handled each time they are handed-over, as they are logged & signed for, one-by-one, again & again.
All that handling is more handling than is afforded ordinary mail, and every time you lay hands on a piece of mail is another chance to dirty it, drop it, step on it, etc.
Today, of course, all bets are off: anything that keeps your mail out of the high-speed high-bending automatic facer-cancelers is gonna be a good thing.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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"I collect stamps today precisely the way I collected stamps when I was ten years old."
