egertoni

31 Dec 2019
06:54:34pm

I recently acquired this first flight October 1, 1928 cover for the CAM #22 route - San Antonio to Laredo leg. After being flown to Laredo, the mail apparently was trucked to Nuevo Laredo and was then flown to Mexico City on a new internal Mexico route connecting those two cities.



I try, as much as possible, to remove any material inside the covers that I think might deteriorate over time (following the American First Day Cover Society advice about preserving covers (http://afdcs.org/preservingFDCs.html)). In doing so, I've found a variety of things inside old covers ranging from newspaper clippings to stamp dealer advertisements on cardboard to plain pieces of paper.

Once in awhile there's a real surprise. This envelope was fully sealed but appeared to have something inside. I used a paper cutter to slit open (delicately) one end and found the following paper cutouts partly glued to the inside of the envelope - a blue bird and a black airplane.



I think they're pretty cool and certainly air flight related, but they raise the question: why were they placed inside the cover in the first place? They hardly stiffen the envelope (and so wouldn't enhance the postmark). Simply for the fun of it?

I'd appreciate any thoughts on this, as well as any stories of other surprise cover stuffers or stiffeners.

Thanks.

 
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egertoni

02 Jan 2020
02:59:40pm

re: Surprises inside covers

What a wonderful letter! In some way the father was right. This is priceless.

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