New business reply envelopes from Navigators, Operation Smile feature sticker, preprinted images
A couple of interesting business reply envelopes have shown up in my family’s incoming mail over the past two or three weeks.
The first came from the nonprofit Navigators. It has three stamp-sized designs picturing what I think are purple lilies on a self-adhesive label affixed to the envelope.
Navigators business reply envelope with lilies label
Although I’ve seen a few BREs with labels attached instead of having images printed directly on the envelopes, this is pretty unusual. I like it, though; it gives the artwork more of a real cinderella feel.
The other envelope I have to share today came in a mailing from Operation Smile. Three stamp-sized images are printed on it; they picture a whale, a smiling sun, and a sloth.
Operation Smile business reply envelope with whale, sun, & sloth designs
And that’s it for this time around. Have a great week!
New cinderellas riff on US postage dues, combine triangles and rectangle
I wrote last month about illustrator Donovan Beeson’s Year of the Horse cinderella stamps. Donovan was good enough to share some additional creations with me, and I wanted to illustrate them here.
In the image below, the designs of the top pair of stamps captioned “Good Enough” and “Had Enough” are obviously inspired by the final series of United States postage due stamps. The block of three Mail & Stamp Art is also interesting in that it contains a pair of triangles butted up against a rectangular design, certainly an unusual format.
Good Enough, Had Enough, and Mail & Stamp Art cinderella stamps
If you’re intested in this sort of material, be sure to take a look at Donovan’s Patreon site to see more examples of her work.
International Medical Corps spices up marketing mail with fake postmarks
Here in the United States, it’s quite common to see no postmarks at all on envelopes mailed with Nonprofit Organization stamps. It’s somewhat less common to see mailer’s postmarks cancelling the stamps.
But fake postmarks on such an envelope? I can’t recall ever seeing such a thing until this week when my daughter pulled this piece of mail from the International Medical Corps from our post office box.
International Medical Corps cover with fake postmarks
As you can see, the “postmarks” are in the right area, but they don’t extend onto the stamp because they’re printed directly on the envelope.
Want to know something even more bizarre? I’m not authority on French postal markings, but the lower of the two “cancellations”—the one with legible letters—appears to be from France’s Bouches-du-Rhône department. I don’t know if the choice of a foreign postmark was designed to avoid trouble with the USPS—it’s not a fake US postmark, after all—or just made at random.
Either way, this is one of the more interesting pieces of marketing mail I’ve seen in a long time.
Como Park Post releases set of three stamps depicting Ukraine flag
Back in 2022, Como Park Post released a 3¢ + $1 semipostal stamp to raise funds for Ukrainian relief organizations. The Minnesota-based local post in February returned to that subject with a series of three stamps depicting Ukraine’s flag. The stamps exist with 3¢, 5¢, and 50¢ face values.
Como Park Post Ukraine stamps
Examples provided by Como Park Post’s operator, Tom B., show there are multiple die varieties.
These new stamps, printed from hand-carved dies, look much more like Como Park Post’s usual productions than the earlier semipostal stamp, and they’re something to look for on your incoming local post mail!
This update contains spaces for all the United States postage stamps issued during the first two months of this year. As usual, the supplement is intended only for collectors using The Philosateleian’s recommended quarterly update track. If you use the annual update track, or if you intend to begin using it, skip this update and wait until my full set of pages for 2026 is available early next year.
Thank you as always for your interest and support!
