After doing a bit of research on the internet, my conclusion is that these are private labels intended for bulk stamps. Normally the words "Postage Paid" and "Australia" would be printed on the envelope, but it seems that Australia Post has given its blessing over these stamplike things. One person on a French discussionboard claims the bird "stamps" were made by and for Reader's Digest Australia.
It seems there are quite a few of them, see this picture:
Something similar exists in the Netherlands:
Jan-Simon
Apparently, several countries have turned over all or part of their postal operations to private entities and thus those companies are printing stamp-like labels that, at least, bear a logo that helps determine who done what, and why.
I have several from New Zealand as well as similar item that have to be of Dutch origin. Those that are genuine and perform postal duty will have to be called private stamps and catalogs will have to make some accommodation for them.
This new adventure in philately opens up whole new fields for our collections.
When the private stamps began to appear many years ago, Scott began to list them. Howver it was quickly stopped and Scott issued a statement saying that they were not going to list these items, because they were private in nature and cataloging them would be impossible as there would be thousands of people/companies making them as would placing a value on them. You could have many people manipulating the market with "unique" issues and "EFOs". None of the other major catalogs list these for the same reason.
The closest they come to this type of stamp are the personalized stamps. My opinion on this is I would rather that personalized stamps not be in the main postage section, but in a separate listing section of the catalog.
re: Australia
After doing a bit of research on the internet, my conclusion is that these are private labels intended for bulk stamps. Normally the words "Postage Paid" and "Australia" would be printed on the envelope, but it seems that Australia Post has given its blessing over these stamplike things. One person on a French discussionboard claims the bird "stamps" were made by and for Reader's Digest Australia.
It seems there are quite a few of them, see this picture:
Something similar exists in the Netherlands:
Jan-Simon
re: Australia
Apparently, several countries have turned over all or part of their postal operations to private entities and thus those companies are printing stamp-like labels that, at least, bear a logo that helps determine who done what, and why.
I have several from New Zealand as well as similar item that have to be of Dutch origin. Those that are genuine and perform postal duty will have to be called private stamps and catalogs will have to make some accommodation for them.
This new adventure in philately opens up whole new fields for our collections.
re: Australia
When the private stamps began to appear many years ago, Scott began to list them. Howver it was quickly stopped and Scott issued a statement saying that they were not going to list these items, because they were private in nature and cataloging them would be impossible as there would be thousands of people/companies making them as would placing a value on them. You could have many people manipulating the market with "unique" issues and "EFOs". None of the other major catalogs list these for the same reason.
The closest they come to this type of stamp are the personalized stamps. My opinion on this is I would rather that personalized stamps not be in the main postage section, but in a separate listing section of the catalog.