2025 is my 20th consecutive year of providing free United States stamp album pages (though not the 20th anniversary just yet—that’s next year). Many people over the years have shown their support for The Philosateleian by sending kind words or stamps or even a few dollars my way. I want to thank everyone who has done that, and I thank you for your interest in my project.
Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch BRE features butterfly on flower
My post office box is full of “junk mail” pretty much every week when I go to check it, and things were no different this week. In spite of that, there was only one mailing with a business reply envelope I hadn’t seen previously, one originating from Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch.
The BRE in this mailing has three stamp-sized designs picturing a butterfly sitting on a flower.
Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch business reply envelope with stamp-sized butterfly & flower designs
Other business reply envelopes in the mail I received over the past week also featured preprinted designs, but they were all repeats of artwork the same nonprofits have used in the past.
Today’s mail brought my wife a single business reply envelope I had not seen previously in a mailing from the American Bible Society, and while the stamp-sized designs printed on it are simple, I think they’re sufficiently attractive to share a scan here.
American Bible Society business reply envelope with patriotic designs
Each of the four designs on the envelope are patriotic with red, white, and blue colors. Three of the four feature some variation on the American flag, and the other depicts stars and the Statue of Liberty’s silhouette. All four designs have printed faux perforations.
I also checked my post office box today, and while there was the usual array of notepads, return address labels, and greeting cards enclosed in mailings from other nonprofits, there were no new business reply envelope designs in that pile of mail, so the BRE pictured above is all for now.
Business reply envelopes from first week of February 2025
Last week’s mail brought a couple of new business reply envelopes my way.
The first example originated in a mailing from Veterans of Foreign Wars. The envelope bears five preprinted stamp-sized designs depicting the American flag.
Veterans of Foreign Wars business reply envelope with preprinted United States flag designs
The second example came from Prison Fellowship and features three preprinted and overlapping flower designs. If they were actual postage stamps, that would be against USPS regulations, but as graphics with no postal value, I guess it’s a case of no harm, no foul.
Prison Fellowship business reply envelope with preprinted flower designs
World Local Post Day 2025 is nearly two weeks in the past now, but several first day covers bearing stamps issued in conjunction with the annual local post event have arrived in my post office box since then. We’ll do a quick review of those here.
First, naturally, is a cover bearing a copy of my own Philosateleian Post’s National Monument to the Forefathers stamp that I issued January 27. The United States postage stamp is tied to cover by my Floresville, Texas, mailer’s postmark, and my local post stamp is surprisingly undamaged!
Philosateleian Post National Monument to the Forefathers FDC
Next up is New Hampshire-based Purgatory Post’s contribution, a 25-sola stamp that reproduces the design of the Scott-listed McGreely’s Express local stamp issued in Alaska in 1898. Although the stamp’s vignette shows a dog sled in motion, mail and packages transported by the operation were actually carried by motorboat.
Purgatory Post World Local Post Day FDC
Finally, Bat’s Private Post in Beverly Hills, California, released a pair of stamps with 10¢ and 83¢ face values for World Local Post Day. Each stamp features the design of the 2½-anna blue peafowl stamp issued by the Indian feudatory state of Jaipur in 1931. That stamp was part of a series valid for postage only in Jaipur, which makes it a local post stamp.
