We’re not quite into October yet, but Christmas-themed mailings are already showing up from various nonprofit organizations. I received a pane of this year’s Christmas Seals from the American Lung Association just last week, and the business reply envelopes enclosed in two other mailings are also holiday-related.
The first envelope is from Shriners Children’s Hospitals. It bears three preprinted stamp-sized designs picturing Santa Claus, a Christmas tree, and a reindeer.
Shriners Children’s business reply envelope with Christmas designs
The second BRE came from Operation Smile, and at first glance I thought the preprinted designs on it were ones I’d seen previously. It turns out I was wrong, however; the envelope I received last fall bore images picturing a fat dove, a skinny Christmas tree, and the word “peace.” This year’s envelope replaces the “peace” design with one reading “joy”; meanwhile, the fat dove on last year’s is replaced by a skinny dove, and the skinny Christmas tree on with a fat one.
Operation Smile business reply envelope with Christmas designs
I do like how the simulated die cut border gives these designs the appearance of being coil stamps; that’s a level of detail that doesn’t seem to be especially common on BREs. The only way it could be better is if there were actual cinderella stamps attached!
Philosateleian Post introduces updated Return to Sender label
Earlier this month, Philosateleian Post, a private local post based in Floresville, Texas, introduced a new Return to Sender label. The label, which was first used September 11, replaces an earlier label initially released in January 2017.
Philosateleian Post Return to Sender label
Philosateleian Post’s Return to Sender labels are used primarily on mail addressed to previous post office boxholders or other individuals not at the proprietor’s home address. As service labels, they have no stated face value.
Technical Specifications
Format: sheets of 36 (4×9). Plate number: P240909. Design size: 42×23 mm. Overall size: 45×26 mm. Separation method: perforated 12. Adhesive: water-activated dry gum. Printing method: laser.
Philatelic Services
To receive a mint single of Philosateleian Post’s Return to Sender label, send either $2 or a self-addressed stamped envelope and your request to:
Kevin Blackston
Philosateleian Post
PO Box 217
Floresville TX 78114-0217
United States of America
Como Park Post releases stamp, seal with raised ink
The latest mailing I’ve received from Minnesota’s Como Park Post contained a couple of interesting local post items. They appear to be new varieties of a 3¢ local post stamp originally issued on January 3 and an official seal I first reported in April 2023.
Como Park Post 3¢ stamp & official seal
A couple of things are different. First, both the stamp and the seal have glossy ink raised well above the surface of the paper. It reminds me somewhat of the t-shirt paint my sister and I used to create custom t-shirts when we were kids. Additionally, unlike earlier versions of the seal that I’ve seen have an image of George Washington printed within the circle near the left edge of the design; this new variety has no such image.
Como Park Post’s operator, Tom B., included no details about how he created his new stamps, but I’m curious to learn what his process was for applying the raised ink.
It took almost exactly one year, but earlier this month—at long last—I finally completed my goal of creating album pages for all the stamps in my landscapes collection. What a huge project that turned out to be!
I ended up with just over 300 distinct LibreOffice files. Some contain a single page with spaces for a stamp or stamps from a single country; here’s an example for Trinidad and Tobago.
Trinidad and Tobago landscape stamp album page
Other files contain multiple pages for stamps from a single state or province, or even pages for stamps picturing a single location. For example, here’s my page for Denali in Alaska.
Alaska landscape stamp album page
I printed my pages on 65 lb. Astrobrights cardstock. I’m not quite as pleased with how these look as I was with the half-sheet pages I had previously created for part of my collection. Full-size pages do hold more stamps, and having a page for a state or country takes up less space than half a page for each individual site, but even with that, the new pages fill three Scott Specialty binders. (A big thanks to Purgatory Post’s Scott A. for hooking me up with those!)
As for how many stamps and postal cards are housed on those pages, I really have no idea. There are hundreds, obviously, but how many hundreds I don’t know.
There was, quite frankly, a little bit of a sense of relief that accompanied completing the last of my landscape album pages. I have a tendency to start projects that take far too long to complete, and this certainly seems to qualify. But I’m happy to finally have it done. With my landscape stamps completely organized, they now seem less like a simple accumulation or hoard and more like an actual collection.
When I posted a week and a half ago about a big stack of business reply envelopes that were sitting in my mail tray, I thought I was all caught up on such things. That was until last week when a couple more such items showed up in my post office box, and then today a third arrived in our home mailbox.
The first is from SPCA International. It bears four stamp-sized designs picturing a beagle, a kitten, a golden retriever, and a white horse.
SPCA International business reply envelope with preprinted stamp-sized animal designs
This envelope has a very similar appearance to one I wrote about in May, but with different preprinted designs.
The second BRE is from Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch. This envelope has three copies of a yellow rose design printed on it. Those images are very similar to ones used on one of the envelopes I mentioned earlier this month, but on the new envelope, shading completely surrounds each envelope.
Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch business reply envelope with rose images
Finally, our third BRE arrived today in a mailing addressed to my wife. This envelope from Navigators has three images of a cup with orange leaves and the wording “Hello Autumn.” The border around the center design is in a different color than those around the other two images.
Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch business reply envelope with autumn images
And just in case you’re wondering, yes, this envelope was folded in half in the mailing we received.
