While I’ve never really gone out of my way to acquire first day covers (other than those included in my 14¢ American Indian collection), a few have made their way to me over the years. The most recent came courtesy of longtime reader Kenneth M., who had a FDC bearing the Loggerhead Sea Turtle stamp issued in June sent my way. The stamp was issued in Corpus Christi, which is a couple of hours down the road from me.
Loggerhead Sea Turtle Forever stamp on first day cover
In addition to the sea turtle stamp, the cover has a printed impression of a 2¢ George Washington stamp from the third Bureau issue. This was neither valid nor required to pay postage, of course—the Forever stamp took care of that—but it did make the envelope stand out in my post office box! Receiving the cover was a nice surprise.
As far as the first day postmark goes, it seems on the heavy side to me. The stamp itself is already dark, and planting a big dark blob on top of it doesn’t do it much good. That’s not Kenneth’s fault, of course, just an observation regarding how the stamp was canceled.
Three charities distribute new business reply envelopes
I’ve spent a lot of my “stamp time” over the past two or three months working on my landscape stamp album pages, but with that project just about wrapped up (more on that at a later date), it’s time to work through the interesting material that has been sitting in my mail tray for weeks or months on end. Today, the focus is on new business reply envelopes bearing stamp-like preprinted images.
We’ll kick things off with this envelope that arrived in a mailing from The Alzheimer’s Disease Fund. The roughly stamp-sized images picture a hiker standing on a rocky outcropping in the mountains, the U.S. Capitol, a head comprised of gears, and the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C.
National Police Association business reply envelope with America-themed images
If you think that man in the mountains looks vaguely familiar, you’re right. Exactly the same image was used on the BRE enclosed in a National Police Association mailing that I mentioned back in July! I’m not aware of any connection between the two organizations, but I presume they must be using the same outfit to prepare their mailings, and that outfit is apparently reusing some of their graphics.
Next up is an envelope that came from the American Parkinson Disease Association. It features three copies of a design picturing yellow flowers on a blue background--two oriented vertically and the other horizontally—that I originally saw used on an envelope in conjunction with other designs over the summer. At that time, I thought perhaps the magenta ink had been exhausted when that envelope was printed, but this example makes it seem as though the light color scheme was intentional.
National Police Association business reply envelope with flower images
Finally, we conclude this batch of BREs with two different examples that were enclosed in mailings from Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch. One of the envelopes has three copies of an image picturing a yellow rose, while the other envelope has three copies of a stamp-sized photograph of a yellow flower.
Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch business reply envelope with rose imagesCal Farley’s Boys Ranch business reply envelope with flower images
And that brings us up to speed on business reply envelopes. I have more things to write about, but that will have to wait until next time.
High temperatures seem to be declining slightly here in South Texas. It’s still hot, mind you—highs are still in the 90s here—but there’s at least a thought that autumn is on the way.
The United States Postal Service has been exceptionally busy when it comes to issuing new stamps over the past three months, and while I haven’t seen any of them show up on my incoming mail just yet, that seems likely to happen sooner or later. With that in mind, the Fall 2024 Supplement (138 KB, 2 files, 16 pages) for The Philosateleian U.S. Stamp Album is now available for you to download and print at your convenience. It includes spaces for all United States postage stamps issued from June through August along with a space for this year’s duck stamp.
If you spot any errors in this update, please let me know so I can correct them. Thank you for your continued support and for your interest in The Philosateleian!
Renaissance hotel decor salutes Phoenix history through stamps
During a recent work trip to Arizona, I stayed at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel. Although I didn’t have time to do any exploring, my room did contain an interesting piece of decor which included an oversized reproduction of an air mail special delivery cover from the 1930s.
Philatelic decor in room at Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel
I wasn’t expecting to find anything philatelic in my room, so this was quite a surprise. The cover reproduction’s corner card identifies it as originating at the Hotel Adams, which, it turns out, no longer exists.
According to a Wikipedia article, the Hotel Adams was built in what is now downtown Phoenix in 1896. The hotel burned to the ground in 1910, killing two people, but a replacement was built the following year and served the Phoenix area until 1973.
It was in that year that the second Hotel Adams was demolished, to be replaced by the Adams Hotel that opened in 1975. Since that time, the hotel has been through several name changes, the most recent of which made it the Renaissance.
Considering that the original Hotel Adams and its replacement, which was in operation at the time the envelope on which the artwork was based would have been mailed, originally stood on the site of what is now the Renaissance, I thought this piece of decor was a lovely salute to the past—and for a stamp collector far from home, it was a lovely connection to my hobby.
New business reply envelopes feature tropical, police designs
It feels like July has been an absolutely jam-packed month for me. Here we are almost into August already, but at last I have time to sit down and write up a couple of business reply envelopes that have recently arrived in the mail.
The first of these items is an envelope enclosed in a fundraising mailing from the American Kidney Fund. It bears four preprinted faux stamp designs depicting flamingos, tropical fish, a sailtboat, and plants.
American Kidney Fund business reply envelope with tropical-themed images
The other BRE from the National Police Association also has four preprinted faux stamp designs on it, but these naturally feature primarily police- and America-themed images including a bald eagle in front of an American flag.
National Police Association business reply envelope with police- and America-themed images
You probably noticed the designs on the first envelope are exceptionally narrow, while those on the second envelope are more or less square; neither have the same aspect ratios of typical postage stamps. Still, both have simulated perforations, so they’re obviously intended to mimic stamps. Interesting material!
