Interesting way that person got them onto the envelope! I don't think I've received souvenir sheets on cover like that. I'd be more inclined to cut the stamp wide and use just that. Seems these are nothing more than postage today. I bought a discount postage lot and got ten each of the souvenir sheets going back to the late 1930s.
"It did not actually occur to me that souvenir sheets could, or would, be used for postage"
I love souvenir sheets especially if used on non FDC. I have about 8000 souvenir sheets in my collection. I collect then mint, used, FDC, general covers and any unusual pieces I.e. special cancels). A while back, I purchased a whole batch of general postally used from Roy's CoverBox. I get a lot of very nice SS covers from Roy. I wish I could afford all of the ones he has.
Jack
It just demonstrates what a bad investment these sheetlets turned out to be. The post office is counting on a great number of them being stuck in the back corner of a desk draw and either forgotten or damaged beyond use.
Here's a big lot of cheap postage stuff, there are at least ten of every US sheet included.
Those souvenir sheets are available by the thousands. I have used them quite often, especially on larger envelopes and packages.
Hey post office..bad news...i picked up a Gimbels sheet file book full of olympics stamps that someone paid 15 cents apiece for in 1980...why would someone do that ? I have enough of them to mail letters for years !
Here's a big lot of cheap postage stuff, there are at least ten of every US sheet included.
Say, if you've got any 1933 Fort Dearborn sheets in that mix, I'll be glad to take 'em off your hands! (Very glad ...)
One of the strangest post office used souvenir sheet I ever got was the Bugs Bunny Imperforated Pane (sc #3138).
The sender actually cut through the sheet to use the picture and the imperforated stamp for postage on the letter I received. I guess he used the perforated 9 other stamps elsewhere.
I did not pay attention (at the time I did not even look at US stamps) and soaked the sheet from the envelope, but it has a perfect cancellation smack in the middle! (I guess I am lucky it was not a sharpie cancel)
So I am the proud owner of the 10th stamp the imperforated one, cancelled on a severed sheet.
Sadly I don't have the whole sheet with the tenth stamp imperf, only the pane of 10 with all ten stamps perforated!
Wonder if Scott covers this oddity for valuation!
rrr...
This was the oldest sheet I got in the eBay hoard. Scott 797.
Found this one in the dollar bin of a stamp show I attended. Couldn't resist. Postmark is May 29, 1964.I know it's an FDC and not postage per se but thought I'd share.
Here is a cut piece with two 1967 Columbia souvenir sheets (Scott C496a) used on a mailing out of Medellin in August of 1968. They were in my late father's collection.
At least the above looks like an in-period use of the sheets. Philatelic and late usages would likely be far more common. If you've ever looked at those US mint auctions on Ebay from vendors like nystamps you'd see they throw in 10 of each of the common sheets such as Bugs Bunny. Many collectors have multiple copies of these sheets that are sadly more effort than they're worth to use on mail.
I have often used sheetlets or parts of sheetlets
for genuine postage.
Once someone offered about ten mint Capex sheets
for $5.00. I knew that its mint value was $1.58Cdn
which converted to nearly $1.75US at that time.
Over the next year I used the stamps sheetlets
to cover all or part of the S&H charge from Canada,
or as fractional currency with Canadian sellers.
I always did the conversion from printed Cdn$ to
equivalent US$ reasonably liberally, I believe.
I am quite sure that I salvaged about $12.00US
value from my five dollar investment, plus
acquired several very fine postally used Capex
sheetlets.
Last week I bid on and won an Australian lot
containing a sheetlet with seven $0.30A mint stamps.
It happens that these are seldom used postally and
I do not have then in my album, yet. When I receive them
from a nearby US seller I'll sever about half of them
and prepare them to be used on the envelope that I expect
to later receive from a friendly Australian seller.
While there may not have been any significant monetary
advantage this time, with good fortune, I'll acquire a
decent set, or most of a set, of stamps otherwise
printed with unobtainium ink.
Got sixteen of these half sheets from a large package from Turkey, there were more but they went to charity, I'm just wondering what the top halves were used for, I guess local postage.
I'm wondering: Can the souvenir sheet be used if sender trims away all but the postage?
Bruce
Can the souvenir sheet be used if sender trims away all but the postage?
I suppose someone could think that a cancellation was removed..
Oops!
Imagine my excitement when I found a cover in a NOJEX 25c box that was just perfect for this thread!
Only, yeah, oops, that's not a souvenir sheet, that's a minisheet.
Not a problem, though; fifty years in, and I'll get the hang of this stamp collecting thing any day now.
That the sender of the cover is the firm of Jacques C Schiff Jr adds a nice element to the 'find'; he was an important figure in my youth because he took me seriously. I'd sit there in the front row, all of fourteen or fifteen years old, bidding with the big guys, and pulling down EFO lots for U$D 2.00 here, and U$D 3.50 there. What a hoot!
Presenting the 1967 UN Chagall Windows minisheet, postmarked 19790424.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey (who still gets a thrill when people take him seriously)
.
https://www.ebay.com/str/battlestamps had this souvenir sheet on cover. I bought it for this thread.
First Days (the journal of the American First Day Cover Society) had a recent (and kinda torturous) article on how to decide if a cover is philatelic.
This cover is festooned with stamps, which is an important clue
Then, there is the return address: Rajesh Kumar Lodha / GPO Box 3609 / Kathmandu Nepal
Googling, I found him in Number 29 1st Quarter 1982 of Postal Himal; both in the credits (India Rep), and in an ad on page 9.
(POSTAL HlMAL is the quarterly publication of The Nepal and Tibet Philatelic Study Circle.)
So ... could it be philatelic?
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
there's a distinction between a philatelic cover and one sent by a philatelist, although they can be one and the same.
most of my philatelic creations don't look like them, and intnetionally so; many of my business letters look as if created by a madman.
look as if created by a madman.
I resent that, what's wrong with being
a madman ?
.
Shipments from https://www.ebay.com/str/battlestamps always arrive festooned with stamps:
BUT one of these stamps is not like the o-thers ...
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
"Germany, Federal Republic
50th Anniversary of Liberation of Concentration Camps
Catalog codes:
- Michel DE BL32
- Stamp Number DE 1896
- Yvert et Tellier DE BF31
- Stanley Gibbons DE MS2633
- AFA number DE 2734
Issued on: 1995-05-05
Expiry date: 2002-06-30
Size: 105 x 70 mm
Perforation: frame13¾
Printing: Offset lithography
Face value: 100 Pf. - German pfennig
Print run: 8,050,000
Paper: fluorescent"
For international traders, like me, using SS as postage is a common practice.
I’ve been wondering about this for days. I’m glad I found this thread even though it’s rather old. Any new information would be appreciated. I’m thinking about sending this in for an authentication and then asking Scott for a valuation. It has to be rare right ? I’m amazed this hasn’t been a serious issue long ago and not addressed. Should I spend the money and try it ? I initially thought it was fake and for those of you who don’t know or actually what I think it is: is a stamp that was created for a souvenir sheet or mini sheet that was later or at the time depending on the cancel used to mail a letter. Then came the cancel erroneously or intentionally applied. Dunno Not familiar with New York cancellations. That was one long sentence earlier wasn’t it ? I think I’ll leave it. Please do not hesitate to add your thought and ideas. Thanks.
.
I bought some stamps recently on eBay, and when the envelope arrived, it was franked with the entire sheet of the "Celebrate the Century 1990's", which was heartbreaking; I wish I had that sheet mint.
Well this sheet mint I already have. That’s how I was somewhat familiar with it. Just think the stamp is probably more rare and valuable on cover then the sheet itself. Not sure of that particular sheet exactly. But in my case this sheet is only 1.00 I do believe so anything different adds value in my book.They need to start a new category for this type of thing. Since most aren’t really valuable, I think that if one were used to mail and used outside the intended purpose would make it more valuable IMO. Some would disagree I’m sure.
They did actually make this stamp in black. And it was used for regular postal service.
Genuinely Postally Used copies of this stamp might be relatively unusual, but the value is (as always) what the market will bear ... which I suspect will not be much, especially as double cancels are not greeted as warmly as, say, nice, clean cancels.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
I can understand from an authentication standpoint perhaps. But if it could be authenticated then I don’t see how it’s not much rarer then a double struck stamp. Depending if it was machine made or not I suppose. Just an idea. As for mine it came in a large collection. And I highly doubt it was false. But not positive. Not even sure how this cancel was applied. Hand or machine ?
Not sure about the last one (maybe it should be in a new thread), but first and foremost, postage stamps are meant for just that, postage, and souvenir sheets are just a special way of "confectioning" them. What I (as a collector of used stamps only) find much more tragic is that if several stamps are on an item, not all of them are postmarked/cancelled because the machinery is unable to detect all of them, such as in the case of the letter that IkeyPikey has shown. Even now with inkjet cancels they are only slowly catching on, and those are often hard to read. Moreover, some souvenir sheets are too big for ordinary letters even if they provide the postage for them. I find that really silly.
-jmh
Well everybody has a different opinion about these Souvenir Sheets as Postage.
But I wish I had these in my collection :
Odd or not.......
I was browsing through my collection and this is what I found.
Not really top quality. (That is why I stored them in another album)
I think they saved these letters in a photobook or something.
With so-called photo corners.
And all letters went through the post. (There are cancellations on the back of the letters!)
It did not actually occur to me that souvenir sheets could, or would, be used for postage. That was cleared up today when this cover arrived with TWO souvenir sheets. My 2007 Scott Catalogue indicates a value of .20 used -- same value unused. So Scott anticipates the phenomenon.
I mean, they do take up quite a bit of the envelope. My address was behind the glassine window to the left. I would guess this seller has quite a few of these to unload.
(US Scott 1311 (2), and a snowman.)
Begs the question, just how many souvenir sheets is it possible to put on one cover?
Cheers!
Eric
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
Interesting way that person got them onto the envelope! I don't think I've received souvenir sheets on cover like that. I'd be more inclined to cut the stamp wide and use just that. Seems these are nothing more than postage today. I bought a discount postage lot and got ten each of the souvenir sheets going back to the late 1930s.
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
"It did not actually occur to me that souvenir sheets could, or would, be used for postage"
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
I love souvenir sheets especially if used on non FDC. I have about 8000 souvenir sheets in my collection. I collect then mint, used, FDC, general covers and any unusual pieces I.e. special cancels). A while back, I purchased a whole batch of general postally used from Roy's CoverBox. I get a lot of very nice SS covers from Roy. I wish I could afford all of the ones he has.
Jack
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
It just demonstrates what a bad investment these sheetlets turned out to be. The post office is counting on a great number of them being stuck in the back corner of a desk draw and either forgotten or damaged beyond use.
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
Here's a big lot of cheap postage stuff, there are at least ten of every US sheet included.
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
Those souvenir sheets are available by the thousands. I have used them quite often, especially on larger envelopes and packages.
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
Hey post office..bad news...i picked up a Gimbels sheet file book full of olympics stamps that someone paid 15 cents apiece for in 1980...why would someone do that ? I have enough of them to mail letters for years !
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
Here's a big lot of cheap postage stuff, there are at least ten of every US sheet included.
Say, if you've got any 1933 Fort Dearborn sheets in that mix, I'll be glad to take 'em off your hands! (Very glad ...)
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
One of the strangest post office used souvenir sheet I ever got was the Bugs Bunny Imperforated Pane (sc #3138).
The sender actually cut through the sheet to use the picture and the imperforated stamp for postage on the letter I received. I guess he used the perforated 9 other stamps elsewhere.
I did not pay attention (at the time I did not even look at US stamps) and soaked the sheet from the envelope, but it has a perfect cancellation smack in the middle! (I guess I am lucky it was not a sharpie cancel)
So I am the proud owner of the 10th stamp the imperforated one, cancelled on a severed sheet.
Sadly I don't have the whole sheet with the tenth stamp imperf, only the pane of 10 with all ten stamps perforated!
Wonder if Scott covers this oddity for valuation!
rrr...
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
This was the oldest sheet I got in the eBay hoard. Scott 797.
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
Found this one in the dollar bin of a stamp show I attended. Couldn't resist. Postmark is May 29, 1964.I know it's an FDC and not postage per se but thought I'd share.
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
Here is a cut piece with two 1967 Columbia souvenir sheets (Scott C496a) used on a mailing out of Medellin in August of 1968. They were in my late father's collection.
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
At least the above looks like an in-period use of the sheets. Philatelic and late usages would likely be far more common. If you've ever looked at those US mint auctions on Ebay from vendors like nystamps you'd see they throw in 10 of each of the common sheets such as Bugs Bunny. Many collectors have multiple copies of these sheets that are sadly more effort than they're worth to use on mail.
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
I have often used sheetlets or parts of sheetlets
for genuine postage.
Once someone offered about ten mint Capex sheets
for $5.00. I knew that its mint value was $1.58Cdn
which converted to nearly $1.75US at that time.
Over the next year I used the stamps sheetlets
to cover all or part of the S&H charge from Canada,
or as fractional currency with Canadian sellers.
I always did the conversion from printed Cdn$ to
equivalent US$ reasonably liberally, I believe.
I am quite sure that I salvaged about $12.00US
value from my five dollar investment, plus
acquired several very fine postally used Capex
sheetlets.
Last week I bid on and won an Australian lot
containing a sheetlet with seven $0.30A mint stamps.
It happens that these are seldom used postally and
I do not have then in my album, yet. When I receive them
from a nearby US seller I'll sever about half of them
and prepare them to be used on the envelope that I expect
to later receive from a friendly Australian seller.
While there may not have been any significant monetary
advantage this time, with good fortune, I'll acquire a
decent set, or most of a set, of stamps otherwise
printed with unobtainium ink.
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
Got sixteen of these half sheets from a large package from Turkey, there were more but they went to charity, I'm just wondering what the top halves were used for, I guess local postage.
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
I'm wondering: Can the souvenir sheet be used if sender trims away all but the postage?
Bruce
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
Can the souvenir sheet be used if sender trims away all but the postage?
I suppose someone could think that a cancellation was removed..
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
Oops!
Imagine my excitement when I found a cover in a NOJEX 25c box that was just perfect for this thread!
Only, yeah, oops, that's not a souvenir sheet, that's a minisheet.
Not a problem, though; fifty years in, and I'll get the hang of this stamp collecting thing any day now.
That the sender of the cover is the firm of Jacques C Schiff Jr adds a nice element to the 'find'; he was an important figure in my youth because he took me seriously. I'd sit there in the front row, all of fourteen or fifteen years old, bidding with the big guys, and pulling down EFO lots for U$D 2.00 here, and U$D 3.50 there. What a hoot!
Presenting the 1967 UN Chagall Windows minisheet, postmarked 19790424.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey (who still gets a thrill when people take him seriously)
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
.
https://www.ebay.com/str/battlestamps had this souvenir sheet on cover. I bought it for this thread.
First Days (the journal of the American First Day Cover Society) had a recent (and kinda torturous) article on how to decide if a cover is philatelic.
This cover is festooned with stamps, which is an important clue
Then, there is the return address: Rajesh Kumar Lodha / GPO Box 3609 / Kathmandu Nepal
Googling, I found him in Number 29 1st Quarter 1982 of Postal Himal; both in the credits (India Rep), and in an ad on page 9.
(POSTAL HlMAL is the quarterly publication of The Nepal and Tibet Philatelic Study Circle.)
So ... could it be philatelic?
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
there's a distinction between a philatelic cover and one sent by a philatelist, although they can be one and the same.
most of my philatelic creations don't look like them, and intnetionally so; many of my business letters look as if created by a madman.
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
look as if created by a madman.
I resent that, what's wrong with being
a madman ?
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
.
Shipments from https://www.ebay.com/str/battlestamps always arrive festooned with stamps:
BUT one of these stamps is not like the o-thers ...
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
"Germany, Federal Republic
50th Anniversary of Liberation of Concentration Camps
Catalog codes:
- Michel DE BL32
- Stamp Number DE 1896
- Yvert et Tellier DE BF31
- Stanley Gibbons DE MS2633
- AFA number DE 2734
Issued on: 1995-05-05
Expiry date: 2002-06-30
Size: 105 x 70 mm
Perforation: frame13¾
Printing: Offset lithography
Face value: 100 Pf. - German pfennig
Print run: 8,050,000
Paper: fluorescent"
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
For international traders, like me, using SS as postage is a common practice.
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
I’ve been wondering about this for days. I’m glad I found this thread even though it’s rather old. Any new information would be appreciated. I’m thinking about sending this in for an authentication and then asking Scott for a valuation. It has to be rare right ? I’m amazed this hasn’t been a serious issue long ago and not addressed. Should I spend the money and try it ? I initially thought it was fake and for those of you who don’t know or actually what I think it is: is a stamp that was created for a souvenir sheet or mini sheet that was later or at the time depending on the cancel used to mail a letter. Then came the cancel erroneously or intentionally applied. Dunno Not familiar with New York cancellations. That was one long sentence earlier wasn’t it ? I think I’ll leave it. Please do not hesitate to add your thought and ideas. Thanks.
.
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
I bought some stamps recently on eBay, and when the envelope arrived, it was franked with the entire sheet of the "Celebrate the Century 1990's", which was heartbreaking; I wish I had that sheet mint.
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
Well this sheet mint I already have. That’s how I was somewhat familiar with it. Just think the stamp is probably more rare and valuable on cover then the sheet itself. Not sure of that particular sheet exactly. But in my case this sheet is only 1.00 I do believe so anything different adds value in my book.They need to start a new category for this type of thing. Since most aren’t really valuable, I think that if one were used to mail and used outside the intended purpose would make it more valuable IMO. Some would disagree I’m sure.
They did actually make this stamp in black. And it was used for regular postal service.
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
Genuinely Postally Used copies of this stamp might be relatively unusual, but the value is (as always) what the market will bear ... which I suspect will not be much, especially as double cancels are not greeted as warmly as, say, nice, clean cancels.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
I can understand from an authentication standpoint perhaps. But if it could be authenticated then I don’t see how it’s not much rarer then a double struck stamp. Depending if it was machine made or not I suppose. Just an idea. As for mine it came in a large collection. And I highly doubt it was false. But not positive. Not even sure how this cancel was applied. Hand or machine ?
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
Not sure about the last one (maybe it should be in a new thread), but first and foremost, postage stamps are meant for just that, postage, and souvenir sheets are just a special way of "confectioning" them. What I (as a collector of used stamps only) find much more tragic is that if several stamps are on an item, not all of them are postmarked/cancelled because the machinery is unable to detect all of them, such as in the case of the letter that IkeyPikey has shown. Even now with inkjet cancels they are only slowly catching on, and those are often hard to read. Moreover, some souvenir sheets are too big for ordinary letters even if they provide the postage for them. I find that really silly.
-jmh
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
Well everybody has a different opinion about these Souvenir Sheets as Postage.
But I wish I had these in my collection :
re: Souvenir Sheets as Postage, The Horror
Odd or not.......
I was browsing through my collection and this is what I found.
Not really top quality. (That is why I stored them in another album)
I think they saved these letters in a photobook or something.
With so-called photo corners.
And all letters went through the post. (There are cancellations on the back of the letters!)