Recycle bin find turns out to be postal counterfeit
During a stop at my local post office to check my PO box earlier this month, I spotted in one of the recycle bins a fragment of an envelope that had a stamp on it. Even though it looked like a common flag definitive, I retrieved it; after all, modern used stamps of any sort are a welcome treat! Something about the stamp didn’t feel quite right to me, but it wasn’t until I got home and had a chance to take a closer look that it clicked: I’d fished out a postally used counterfeit.
Counterfeit United States Forever flag stamp
I mentioned something didn’t feel right about the stamp, and I mean that literally: the surface of the paper is way too slick, almost soapy feeling. The color is off a bit, too. But the real clincher? The stamp has two USPS microprints! One is near the right edge of the first white stripe below the top right corner, while the other is near the right edge of the second red stripe from the bottom right corner. Genuine copies of this stamp have a single smaller microprint in one of those two locations, but not in both.
Sadly, as I mentioned, this counterfeit was on a fragment of an envelope rather than on a complete cover, so I couldn’t identify who mailed it, or from where.
I’ve heard from other collectors that they find a number of postal counterfeits when going through incoming office mail or processing kiloware, so it certainly pays to pay attention. In many cases, the people using the stamps bought them on eBay at a discount off face value and don’t even realize they’re bogus, which was the case with a different counterfeit version of this stamp that I received on a mailing nearly three years ago. It’s a pity because the people printing the counterfeits are stealing, out and out defrauding the United States Postal Service of revenue, and that can only make things more expensive for the rest of us.
On February 1, the United States Postal Service issued its first new nonprofit stamps since 2017: a pair of non-denominated coil stamps picturing two varieties of garden flowers, scbiosas and cosmos. I figured it might be a while before I began seeing these on inbound mail, but used examples of each turned up on mailings this month from Meals on Wheels San Antonio.
Meals on Wheels San Antonio cover bearing 2022 Nonprofit Scabiosas stamp
After five years of the Patriotic Nonprofit stamp, the new designs are a bit of a breath of fresh air. We may all very well eventually grow bored of these, but for now, they’re something new and therefore exciting.
The new nonprofit issue includes two different designs, which seems like a step in the right direction toward providing some variety. As someone who receives quite a bit of “junk mail” from various charities, though, I would really like to see even more. Why not five, 10, or even 50 different designs in a single issue? Considering how infrequently the USPS updates its nonprofit stamps, we would have several years to collect the whole set.
New Hampshire-based Purgatory Post on March 3 issued its latest local post stamps, a pair of 14-sola designs picturing two American authors and poets: Jack Kerouac and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
Purgatory Post 14-sola Jack Kerouac & Lawrence Ferlinghetti stamps
Kerouac (1922–1969) achieved the greatest notoriety for his 1957 novel, On the Road, while Ferlinghett’s (1919–2021) best-known work is A Coney Island of the Mind, a collection of poems published in 1958. Both men are recognized as being part of the post-World War II “Beat Generation” of authors.
The typewriter-style font that Purgatory Post operator Scott A. used ties in very well with these stamps and looks like a good choice to me.
Minnesota’s Como Park Post last month issued a new 5¢ local post stamp featuring an interesting “punched-out” design. It’s a feature I’ve never previously seen on a local post stamp.
Como Park Post 5¢ stamps with punched-out designs
Como Park Post operator Tom B. explains that each stamp is comprised of two layers of paper, and he did the punch-outs from the top layer prior to gluing the two layers together. While the bottom layer appears to be a consistent orange, Tom used several different colors and textures of paper for the top layer, and in my opinion, the lighter colors show off the punch-outs most clearly.
I’ve shared examples of Tom’s work here in the past, and his dedication to handcrafting each of his designs is impressive.
Jefferson Territory Ghost Post celebrates LPCS anniversary
World Local Post Day came in January, but new stamps commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Local Post Collectors Society are still showing up in the mail. The latest entry is from Colorado-based Jefferson Territory Ghost Post, which on February 22 issued a black and red .01-dwt Au stamp celebrating the LPCS’s golden jubilee.
Jefferson Territory Ghost Post Local Post Collectors Society 50th Anniversary stamp
