Taking Time Off

Hello all! I apologize for my lack of writing on here. I really had hoped to continue doing more regular posts, yet it seems everything was pushing against that recently.

My lil buddy Carter has been sick, I'm behind in my mail and it seems that a lack of desire has struck me. However, I am hoping to change that come April. That should give me some time to get organized and come up with a more reasonable posting schedule.

I thank you all for your patience and look forward to seeing you in April!

Postage Stamp Contest

Ok..the postage stamp contest I held (ending on the 17th) was a bust. I got one person who emailed me a picture of a stamp she drew. So congrats to Shannah! She won the giveaway. I am still not sure what all will be included..but some neat stuff for sure. Including some vintage stamps. =)

Here is her winning sketch:

I think it turned out lovely! I would definitely purchase this stamp! =)

** I am slowly getting back into blogging..and while I have been an awful blogger lately, I have been a good letter sender. I am slowly catching up with my mail. More awesome posts including a look at the answers to the questionnaire coming soon. Thanks for continuing to stop by and for being such patient blog readers. I really appreciate it.**

St Patricks Day

Above is a stamp featuring St. Patrick treading on snakes. Are you wondering why the stamp is set in blue and not green? Well, the truth is that St. Patrick was originally associated with blue! Over the years we have changed that to green and my guess is that it has something to do with the Shamrock legend. You see St. Patrick once used the 3-leafed shamrock to explain the holy trinity to the pagan Irish. Makes sense right?

While St. Patrick died in 461, it wasnt until the 1600s that it was made a holy day for Catholics. And even then it wasn't made an official public holiday in Ireland until 1903. And though St. Patricks Day is not an official holiday here in the states, it is still one of the most celebrated holidays in the country. As the saying goes, everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day!

Amazing Young Man

Usually I would read the article (which I have done) and then summarize it here for you...but I just found it again and I am due to go back on shift. SO...I thought I would post the link and then you can do the reading yourself.

It truly is an amazing story I hope you will take a bit of time to look at it. =)

Another Counterfeit Story

In 1976 in my home state of Ohio, they arrested a man in Columbus for counterfeiting postage stamps. He was found with 350 13cent liberty bell stamps (which were the first class rate stamp for the time). The fakes were nearly perfect, in fact the postal inspectors said the only things that were difference was that the color was lighter and the perforation was off.

The Liberty Bell 13 cent stamps were issued in a booklet form. Which means they would only be perforated on three sides at most. Not all four. The counterfeiter apparently didn't do his homework on this, and that is part of what allowed them to catch him.

Counterfeiting these stamps was not something that only happened here in Ohio. In fact they know that some were issued in Boston and Chicago as well. Sorta makes you wonder what possessed those individuals to counterfeit them. I wonder how often this happens today. I doubt they would counterfeit the new releases..though I could see where people would still counterfeit the older ones and sell them to people who use them for art. Or perhaps try to pass them off to people who are just starting to collect stamps.

Operation Cornflakes

If you follow the right blogs, or even if you follow postal news you have probably read this but I wanted to share for those who might not have seen it.

In 1945 we were still in the midst of World War II. The allies were close to winning the war, but were still using anti Nazi propaganda to win over the minds of German citizens. In January of 1945 the allies started an operation that would allow for them to "mail" this propaganda to German citizens without the postal service knowing about it.

First the allies bombed mail trains and then had planes drop bags of mail that was properly addressed complete with stamps. However, the stamps were actually forgeries. Some of the stamps looked much like the ones the German post office was using at the time, but there was one stamp that was interestingly redrawn.

Their plan worked and the German postal service delivered such propaganda to their own citizens without even being aware of it. That first drop, on January 5, 1945 saw 3,800 letters addressed and affixed with faux postage.

Interesting how fake stamps show up in history isn't it?

Postage Stamp Contest

This weekend marks St. Patricks day. Which means the last day to submit a faux postage stamp to the stamp contest here on the blog. I have been working on my postage, but still haven't perfected it yet. I should have it done before Saturday.

What are you waiting for? Submit a postage stamp and we will have a contest. =)

Letter Writer's Questionnaire

I finally took the time to type out my answers to the questions from the LWQ that I sent out. I figure I will wait for the ones I sent postally to start arriving before I even look through the responses I have gotten from the google form.  In the meantime you can take a look at my answers by clicking the link here.

Happy reading!

Letter Writer's Questionnaire

Alright, all but two questionnaires have been postally mailed out to people. The other two will be in the mail tomorrow morning. Anyone who emailed me and wanted one by email has gotten it..if I missed you somehow, let me know.

For everyone else..there is a google form that you can access and enter your answers. And it will allow for Anonymous answering. =)

The form can be found here.

I will be sharing my answers in the coming days. Hopefully before Saturday, but this week has been a killer thus far. Can we all say..9 in a row? UGH.

Ok enough whining! I hope everyone is having a beautiful week filled with lots of mail!

Today in Postal History

On this date in 1845 an act of Congress established consistent postal rates. Basically this act meant the mailing a letter for a distance of 300 miles or less was 5 cents per half ounce. For any distance over that it was 10 cents per half ounce. And drop letters (for local delivery) were charged 2 cents.  Before that those rates were highly inflated and almost made up by the person accepting the mail.

Even though that act allowed for consistent postal rates...government postage itself was not issued until March 3, 1847. However, a postmaster could in fact issue his own stamps or stamped envelopes at the above denominations. These items are called Postmaster Provisionals. And  they were only valid if used at the Post Office where they were purchased.

Interesting right? Well the more interesting part is that prepaid postage was not required until the 1850's. You could simply send a letter and the person on the other end was supposed to pay to receive it. Can you imagine if it was that way now?

After the issuance of government postage, local post offices were no longer allowed to issue provisionals. That is why they are an important but rare piece of our philatelic history.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Today would have been Dr. Seuss' 108th birthday. Crazy huh? We celebrate it every year at the library, but I never would have imagined that he would be that old. I am not sure why. Haha

That stamp was released in 2004 and is a lovely one. I wonder why I never knew about it. For those who don't know I have a slight obsession with Dr Seuss. I have lots of the book. The oldest being a 1960s copy of If I Ran A Zoo. I also have lots of Dr Seuss stuffed things, my most recent addition was the Lorax, though that has been quite a while ago.

This wasn't meant to be a long post. I was more curious as to which (if any) Seuss books are your favorites?