Postal stationery

 

Postal stationery has been in use since at least 1608 with folded letters bearing the coat of arms Venice. Other early examples include British newspaper stamps that were first issued in 1712, 25-centime letter sheets that were issued in 1790 by the government of Luxembourg, and Australian postal stationery that predated more well known issues like the British Mulready stationery that was introduced in 1840.^[1]

The first modern form of postal stationery was the stamped, or postal stationery, envelope created by the United Kingdom around 1841.^{[citation needed]}. Other countries quickly followed suite. Including the United States , which released the Nesbitt series of stamped envelopes in 1853.^[6] A variation of the stamped envelope, a registered envelope, has been widely used throughout Great Britain and the British Commonwealth. Although none of have been issued in the United States due to differences in mail registration procedures. Another form of stamped envelopes are so called wrappers, a form of postal stationery envelope that can be used to prepay the cost of delivery for a newspaper or periodical. Wrappers were first introduced in 1961 by the United States, which was followed by 110 other countries in total. Although all the countries have stopped producing then due to declining sales. With Cyprus being the last country to stop their use in 1991.

The next innovation in postal stationery came in 1869 with the introduction of the postal card in Austria-Hungry.^[7]. Postal cards are a type of cardstock that contains an imprinted stamp or indicium. They quickly caught on due to being mostly uniform and less bulky then traditional letters. To the point that Great Britain, Finland, Switzerland and Württemberg had all issued postal cards by 1871. Followed by the United States in 1873.^[8]

Despite it's popularity, the postal card was soon followed by the letter card. A letter card is a postal stationery item consisting of a folded card with a prepaid imprinted stamp. The format was first issued by Belgium in 1882. Great Britain issued their first official letter cards in 1892 and Newfoundland introduced small reply cards starting in 1912. Letter cards had the advantage of providing twice the room for writing a message then postal cards and were more private due to being folded over.^{[citation needed]}. A variation of the letter card called an aerogram was introduced in 1933 by a Lieutenant Colonel while he was doing a tour in the Middle East theatre. Although the format was not officially endorsed by the Universal Postal Union until 1952. An aerogram is a thin, lightweight piece foldable paper that is used for writing letters and sending them via airmail. Although unlike letter cards they can come unstamped and be issued by private companies.^{[citation needed]}.

Most postal stationery pieces are collected as entires, that is, the whole card, sheet or envelope. In the 19th century the practice was to collect "cut squares" (or cut-outs in the UK)^[7] which involved clipping the embossed indicia from a postal envelope.^[4] This destroyed the envelope. As a result, one cannot tell from a cut square what specific envelope it came from and, many times, the cancellation information. The manner in which the stamped envelope is cut out (defined by the term "knife") vanishes on a cut square. Thus most collectors prefer entires to cut squares.

Many country-specific stamp catalogs list postal stationery and there are books devoted to the postal stationery of individual countries. The current, but now dated, principal encyclopedic work is the nineteen volume Higgins & Gage World Postal Stationery Catalog.

Collectors of postal stationery may seek out postal stationery societies or study groups in other countries. These societies provide information, publications and guidance to those who are interested. They include:

• Australia: The Postal Stationery Society of Australia
• Belgium: Societe Belge de l'Entier Postal
• Canada: British North American Philatelic Society Postal Stationery Study Group
• France: Entiers Postaux Français
• Germany: Berliner Ganzsachen-Sammler-Verein
• Great Britain / UK: Postal Stationery Society of Great Britain, The Postal Stationery Society
• Netherlands: Nederlandse Vereniging van Poststukken
• Switzerland: Swiss Postal Stationery Collectors Society / Schweizerischer Ganzsachen-Sammler-Verein (SGSSV)
• United States: United Postal Stationery Society

• Higgins & Gage World Postal Stationery Catalog
• Postal stationery, a collector's guide to a fascinating world-wide philatelic pursuit
• The collectors' guide to postal stationery

• British Postal Stationery, A Priced Handbook of the Postal Stationery of Great Britain
• Collect British Postal Stationery: A Simplified Listing of British Postal Stationery 1840 to 2007

• Guide to the Stamped Envelopes and Wrappers of the United States
• United States Postal Card Catalog

• The Comprehensive India States Postal Stationery Listing
• Pandya, Prashant H, A Guide to Modern Indian Postal Stationery, 1947-2003, Vol. 1 (Envelopes)

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Postal stationery.

• British Postal Stationery from 1971
• Catalog of Postal Stationery Items
• Postal Cards of Cuba (1878 -1958): Comprehensive Cuban collection
• Postal Stationery of Denmark: Internet display of a Danish postal stationery collection, 1871-1905 by Lars Engelbrecht.
• Postal stationery at postalhistory.org
• The FIP (Federation Internationale de Philatelie) Postal Stationery Commission: Worldwide