With 2025 under way, it’s time to show off the first three business reply envelopes of note for the new year.
First is the latest offering from Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch. This envelope features three stamp-sized designs featuring artwork depicting various birds in snowy settings.
Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch business reply envelope with stamp-sized bird designs
Second, my family has already received a couple of copies of this BRE from Shriners Children’s Hospitals. The envelope has three preprinted stamp-sized designs featuring an illustration of a hand with a heart in its palm.
Shriners Children’s business reply envelope with stamp-sized hand and heart designs
Finally, here’s an example that arrived in the mail just today: an envelope distributed in a mailing frrom Operation Smile. This one has three images picturing hot air balloons in a variety of colors and was accompanied by a sheet of hot air balloon return address labels.
Operation Smile business reply envelope with stamp-sized hot air balloon designs
As you can see, it looks like 2025 could be a busy year for BREs, so stay tuned!
2024 annual supplement available for The Philosateleian
2025 is well under way now, and I’m happy to announce the the 2024 annual supplement for The Philosateleian U.S. Stamp Album is now available for you to download and print. This update includes spaces for all United States postage stamps issued last year.
This update is provided as an alternative to The Philosateleian’s recommended quarterly update track. If you’ve already taken advantage of the quarterly updates provided during 2024, you already have spaces for everything, and there’s no need to download and print the annual supplement.
Although I haven’t quite reached The Philosateleian’s 20th anniversary—that’s coming up next year—2025 does mark the 20th consecutive year I’ve offered downloadable U.S. stamp album pages for free. Whether you’ve been using my pages for a month or for nearly two decades, I thank you for your interest, and I thank all those who have supported my project.
The single 14¢ American Indian stamp exactly pays the surface transportation rate then in effect for a letter weighing up to four ounces: 5¢ for the first ounce plus 3¢ per ounce for each of the additional three ounces.
14¢ American Indian cover mailed from New York, New York
A marking on the front of the envelope indicates it traveled aboard the SS Deutschland, a German ship that maid its maiden voyage from Hamburg to New York in 1924. An air attack in 1945 sank that vessel.
I have one other cover in my collection that shows the 14¢ stamp used by itself to pay this exact rate, albeit on an envelope mailed to China, but this is just about as scarce as they come!
Shriners Children’s squeezes in final BRE for 2024
We’re just about at the end of 2024, and there’s one more business reply envelope to share this year: one distributed in a Shriners Children’s mailing that I received in the mail last week.
Three stamp-sized designs are printed on the front of this envelope: one picturing a tree with heart-shaped leaves in several different colors; one picturing pink, orange, and purple balloons; and one picturing a pink butterfly and flowers.
Shriners Children’s business reply envelope with stamp-sized designs
As far as BRE designs go, these are rather muted, but they represent a variation I had not seen previously.
Purgatory Post commemorates Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh
With the end of 2024 drawing near, New Hampshire-based Purgatory Post recently issued a stamp commemorating musician Phil Lesh (1940–2024), who died October 25 at the age of 84.
The stamp was issued December 12.
Purgatory Post Phil Lesh stamp
Lesh was a founding member the Grateful Dead and bass guitarist for the group from its 1965 inception through its final performance in July 1995.
Purgatory Post’s new stamp has a face value of 11 sola. The stylized lettering including Lesh’s name and years of his birth and death is reminiscent of band posters and album art of the 1960s.
