Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
And, yes, every one of them has two punch holes!
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Great set, keesindy!
I go out of my way to collect postal cards with pre-printed commercial messages; I avoid the staggeringly expensive advertising cards in favor of the staggeringly varied meat-and-potatoes stuff of commerce: offers, orders, receipts, etc.
For example, back in the day, rural electric cooperatives would use message-and-reply "doubles" to get a meter reading from each customer; one imagines that they would send a meter-reader-auditor out once in a while, just to keep folks honest, but being expelled for cheating would have been a pretty drastic penalty, so maybe not?
Ditto, fuel (eg kerosene) companies would send a message-and-reply card asking the customer to mark the fuel level in their tank; rural roads being what they were, no cost-conscious supplier would send a fuel truck out to a farm before it was necessary.
I hope you get the broader bug, and join me in the hunt.
You certainly have a nice start!
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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Hey ikey, I can remember reading my own electrical meter and filling out those reply cards for Reddy Kilowatt.
And, keesindy, I would suggest that most of these items were retained as proof of payment for memberships, maybe for tax purposes (presuming that professional memberships were tax-deductible in that era). The punched holes seem to suggest that some of these items were kept in a rol-o-dex type of filing system...
The receipts for payment are interesting, too. Kind of a lost service in this era of instant, on-line payments...
-Paul
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"back in the day...?" I was still filling in hydro cards for Ontario Hydro in the late 80's/early '90s (not for long), and my dad would do his own dips for the heating oil dealer well into the early 1980s (of course, they were very close friends, though).
Hmm...is 30-40 years ago "back in the day?" My history students certainly think so...
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Thanks for sharing these images!
Despite the punch holes, these cards are also a treasure trove for postmarks - it might be a good idea to submit scans of the latter to one of the online postmark archives.
Jan-Martin
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ikey, this would have been a very nice start for someone with time to put a collection together. I appreciate the fact that Dad hung on to these, but I prefer to let others enjoy the thrill of finding and holding these in their collections. Over the past several years, I have occasionally posted some of these for sale on eBay. I haven't done that in 2-3 years and need to find time to get a few more of them into the market.
Tom
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Paul, I agree with your assessment of how Dr. Chenoweth handled these. For all I know, Uncle Bob may have found them in a rolladex type holder.
I should also point out the vast majority were/are receipts from various drug and equipment companies. Many duplicates of those whereas the subscription and membership type receipts tended to be one-of-a-kind.
Tom
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Jan-Martin,
Yes, it's too bad about the punch holes, but these seem to be scarce enough that collectors can overlook that defect.
I became a member of the Indiana Postal History Society when I inherited Dad's postal history accumulation. I didn't collect postal history and knew nothing about it. I needed an education and got one! In return, the other members had an opportunity to add a few of these postcards and postal cards with Indiana postmarks to their collections.
Tom
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Thank you, doomboy & pigdoc, for clarifying the timeline.
I've only seen these cards bearing 1c & 2c postage.
Q/ Did either of you see BRM (Business Reply Mail)? Or, was the customer always expected to dig-up a postcard-rate stamp?
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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My uncle found a stack of dozens of these postcard receipts, probably in the 1960s. He gave them to Dad and I inherited them from Dad. All were addressed to Dr. F. A. Chenoweth who practiced medicine in Winchester, Indiana. There were many duplicates that he received regularly over a few years. Most of those were repeat orders from manufacturers. Others were receipts for journal subscriptions and organization memberships. I think the earliest postmarks were from 1905 and the latest were from 1917-18.
And, yes, every one of them has two punch holes!
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re: Early 20th century medical postcard receipts
Great set, keesindy!
I go out of my way to collect postal cards with pre-printed commercial messages; I avoid the staggeringly expensive advertising cards in favor of the staggeringly varied meat-and-potatoes stuff of commerce: offers, orders, receipts, etc.
For example, back in the day, rural electric cooperatives would use message-and-reply "doubles" to get a meter reading from each customer; one imagines that they would send a meter-reader-auditor out once in a while, just to keep folks honest, but being expelled for cheating would have been a pretty drastic penalty, so maybe not?
Ditto, fuel (eg kerosene) companies would send a message-and-reply card asking the customer to mark the fuel level in their tank; rural roads being what they were, no cost-conscious supplier would send a fuel truck out to a farm before it was necessary.
I hope you get the broader bug, and join me in the hunt.
You certainly have a nice start!
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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03:03:54pm
re: Early 20th century medical postcard receipts
Hey ikey, I can remember reading my own electrical meter and filling out those reply cards for Reddy Kilowatt.
And, keesindy, I would suggest that most of these items were retained as proof of payment for memberships, maybe for tax purposes (presuming that professional memberships were tax-deductible in that era). The punched holes seem to suggest that some of these items were kept in a rol-o-dex type of filing system...
The receipts for payment are interesting, too. Kind of a lost service in this era of instant, on-line payments...
-Paul
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re: Early 20th century medical postcard receipts
"back in the day...?" I was still filling in hydro cards for Ontario Hydro in the late 80's/early '90s (not for long), and my dad would do his own dips for the heating oil dealer well into the early 1980s (of course, they were very close friends, though).
Hmm...is 30-40 years ago "back in the day?" My history students certainly think so...
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02:08:48am
re: Early 20th century medical postcard receipts
Thanks for sharing these images!
Despite the punch holes, these cards are also a treasure trove for postmarks - it might be a good idea to submit scans of the latter to one of the online postmark archives.
Jan-Martin
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this post
re: Early 20th century medical postcard receipts
ikey, this would have been a very nice start for someone with time to put a collection together. I appreciate the fact that Dad hung on to these, but I prefer to let others enjoy the thrill of finding and holding these in their collections. Over the past several years, I have occasionally posted some of these for sale on eBay. I haven't done that in 2-3 years and need to find time to get a few more of them into the market.
Tom
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this post
re: Early 20th century medical postcard receipts
Paul, I agree with your assessment of how Dr. Chenoweth handled these. For all I know, Uncle Bob may have found them in a rolladex type holder.
I should also point out the vast majority were/are receipts from various drug and equipment companies. Many duplicates of those whereas the subscription and membership type receipts tended to be one-of-a-kind.
Tom
Login to Like
this post
re: Early 20th century medical postcard receipts
Jan-Martin,
Yes, it's too bad about the punch holes, but these seem to be scarce enough that collectors can overlook that defect.
I became a member of the Indiana Postal History Society when I inherited Dad's postal history accumulation. I didn't collect postal history and knew nothing about it. I needed an education and got one! In return, the other members had an opportunity to add a few of these postcards and postal cards with Indiana postmarks to their collections.
Tom
Login to Like
this post
re: Early 20th century medical postcard receipts
Thank you, doomboy & pigdoc, for clarifying the timeline.
I've only seen these cards bearing 1c & 2c postage.
Q/ Did either of you see BRM (Business Reply Mail)? Or, was the customer always expected to dig-up a postcard-rate stamp?
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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this post