In a lot of Christmas seals I found two similar envelopes, each franked with a commemorative stamp of the late 50s and a block of four of a 1959 seal (for seal collectors, it’s WX198, the perf 12.5 variety). They were both mailed from Alameda, New Mexico, on December 22, 1959, at 11:30 AM according to the machine cancel that neatly ties the stamp and the seals to the cover.
Some of us collect seals tied to cover. “Tied†indicates that some postal marking links the seal to the envelope to which it’s affixed. For some of us, this is important because, without it, what’s to stop someone from adding a seal at some later date. Anyway, seal cover collectors tend to value a tied seal far more than a seal not linked to the envelope.
These seals are nicely tied. The circular date stamp clearly puts it in the proper year (another important restriction) and during the pre-Christmas season. This particular envelope is especially nice because it represents only one of 11 known covers with New Mexico postmarks. That’s 11 for the entire 104-year history of US Christmas seals. Put another way, I own 18% of all known seals mailed from New Mexico. I imagine some of you are pretty impressed. Enough imagining; back to our story.
But, something is not right with this envelope. I’m going to conclude the article now and, in my best imitation of John Carpenter, ask you to see if you can figure out the problem. Postal historians should have much less trouble; regular Janes and Joes, while able to tell us who Prince Harry married (it was Harry, right?) or list the cast of Dallas or tell us what happened to Laika, will likely shrug their shoulders and get on with life.
I don’t blame you a bit, and I won’t be hurt if you don’t look at the next installment; but think of how empowered you’ll feel at your next cocktail party with the fascinating trivia that awaits your next click: http://juicyheads.com/link.php?PLGMISJN
Of course, I welcome your speculations here. Or any further discussion. But I hope you enjoy it regardless.
David Teisler, writing in Juicyheads in the column: Kicking Mule
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"Save the USPS, buy stamps; save the hobby, use commemoratives"
Support the Hobby -- Join the American Philatelic Society 10 Jun 2011 10:18:53am
re: Christmas seals from 1959
I'd probably also go for the "handback" explanation.
There is no reason why only hand cancelled covers can be handbacks, but not machine cancelled covers. In the late 50's, cancellation machines were in the backroom of every postoffice. Mail was postmarked on the premise; postal centralization was still only in the beginning stages if at all. So there is no reason why a clerk would not take a stack of 50 or 100 prepared covers to the backroom and run them through a cancellation machine --especially a uniform run of like covers, which is perfect for machine cancelling, and also considering that at least two strikes of a hand cancelling device would have been needed here to cancel the stamp and "tie" the seals.
Moreover, I am not even sure what the postal regulations said (if anything) about "cancelling" seals. Maybe it was not even "legal" (or proper) to purposefully cancel non-stamps. So the only way to legitimately tie a seal to the cover might have been by applying a postmark large enough to "incidentally" touch the seal.
The ink smudges on the back are probably not transferred from another cover, but likely come from the machine's transport rolls. The covers show a clear run-off of the machine cancel at the right such that a portion of the wavy lines did not end up on the cover but on the opposing roll pressing the envelope against the canceller. That ink then was transferred onto the back of the next envelope coming through.
Finally, as for peelable address labels in 1959 -- self-adhesive labels were certainly not as common back then as today. I am not saying that it is not possible, but the absence of a return address in combination with the absence of any indication (residue, damage) that a label once was placed on the front prompts me to go with the more likely explanation -- a blank handback cover.
In any event, it is an interesting discussion piece ... Thanks for showing and sharing!
I don't mind at all, Steven, I am, in fact delighted to see it.
My friend George Painter maintains a census of all known tied US Christmas seals, and i'll gladly add this to it.
We know of only 130 (well, now, 131) seals from 1944 tied to covers, and we know that, other than California, Oregon has the most tied seals from the west coast. Yours is a relatively early usage (November 19 is the current EKU for 1944). And yours is a great airmail usage (right when rates went up, for a short span).
One's also got to love the return address on a WWII-era cover: Victory Street.
David
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First, because the original article has generated some interest, and because we have lost the old images stored elsewhere and because we can't edit them, i am re-illustrating this article here.
The top image is one with address; the middle and bottom are images of a similar cover without address, shown front and back, respectively.
The discussion of their possible creation and importance is carried above.
David
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"Save the USPS, buy stamps; save the hobby, use commemoratives"
