East Putney, Vermont

Here's a cover with a cancellation that seems to have it all.  It's a County cancel, plus an oval and a star killer.   Only the second county cancel recorded from this post office.

See the information:  http://www.vermontps.org/CountyPostmaster/VTCountyPostmaster.html

The star killer shows better in this scan from the retroreveal website:

Office Request Envelopes: RFD Usages

Office Request Envelopes:

RFD usages

(this originally appeared in the August 2014 The Vermont Philatelist)

I know of no one other than myself who collects this area.  These are envelopes with a pre-printed return address that only included blank lines and the post office name.  Of course, individuals or companies could have their full names and return addresses printed on government envelopes for a fee in addition to the postal cost.

However, if a postmaster ordered at least 500 such envelopes at one time  with  the Office Request in the upper left, the cost to the postmaster was only the cost of the imprinted stamp.  This service was available from the 1880s through the 1930s.  

In the 1922 Postal Guide the advantages were enumerated:  “The use of ‘office-request’ stamped envelopes by patrons of the Postal Service should be encouraged by postmasters. The presence of the blank return card is of much mutual benefit to the public and the Postal Service; when purchasers of these envelopes complete the cards by writing their names and local addresses on the blank lines, it provides prompt return of undelivered letters to the senders, lessens the work of the Division of Dead Letters, and tends to encourage the use of return cards on other mail.”

Listing of items in my collection:

Bristol:  “R.F.D. Route No.....” (1904) Bridport:  “Rural Free Delivery Route No.....” (1903) Hinesburg:  “R.F.D. Route No. 1” (1904) Jericho: “Rural Free Delivery Route No. 2” (1903) Richmond:  “Rural Free Delivery Route No. 1: (1901) West Salisbury:  “Rural Free Delivery Route No. ....” (1904)

Burlington Station No. 4

As the largest population center in Vermont, it’s to be expected that Burlington would have more than one post office to serve its population.  According to Vermont Postal History: The Branches, Stations & CPO of the Green Mountain State (Abajian, Granger, 2000), Burlington has had 32 subsidiary offices since the late 1890s.  

In their 2000 listing, Abajian and Granger noted that six of the offices had no known postal cancels:  Station No. 1 (Elmwood Ave.)(1897-1939), Station No. 2 (1899-1920s), Station No. 2 (Andersons) (1951-1960), Station No. 3 (1916-1927), Station No. 4 (1901-1927), and Station No. 5 (1902-1918).

We can now show a postal marking from Station No. 4, which was located at 1 Church Street.  

Stations such as this probably had no postmarking devices but rather generic Burlington postmarks. However, they did need red concentric cancels for use on official documents, registered mail and other such uses.

The Taxman Cometh

                                              

It seems that taxes are a periennel condition of life as evidenced by this tax notice from 1866.  “all income for the year 1865; also, a list of taxable Carriages, Gold Watches, Piano Fortes, or other Parlor Musical Instruments, Gold and Silver Plate, Billiard Tables--kept for use--Yachets &c., &c.” 

                  

The tax notice was included in this cover from West Charleston to Brownington in May 1866. The two-cent Black Jack was canceled by an inverted “PAID” killer, probably left over from stampless period

Previous owner noted that there is a double transfer and that also a possible triple transfer at the lower right.

 

The previous owner also included this note:  “On July 1, 1862 Congress enacted the first income tax to meet Civil War requirements.  The rate, at first three per cent, was later raised, made progressive for a time and then returned to a propotional ten per cent figure with a 25% late fine in 1865!

(This originally appeared in the August 2013 The Vermont Philatelist, published by the Vermont Philatelic Society.)

Crossroads Stamp Show Purchases

The Crossroads Stamp Show held the 1st Saturday of April and October is usually a great place to find postal history.  Here are two items that I purchased from Vermont postal history dealer, Paul Abajian.

According to an article in The Vermont Philatelist, there are about 4 examples of this wonderful oval known.  The name of the town is in italic letters which is quite unusual.  South Strafford is still post office in Orange County.  Another nice item for my oval collection.

I have a small collection of postmarks showing the VERMONT completely spelled out. And the killer is a nice little fancy cancel also. This example from North Tunbridge, another post office in Orange County, is unusually fancy for such a small town. North Tunbridge existed as a post office from 1853 to 1911.

February 2014 Vermont Philatelist

Here's the Table of Contents for the February 2014 issue of The Vermont Philatelist

Vermont in the War of 1812   1

Cover of the Issue (Newfane RFD?)   3

Vermont Connection: Sir Wilfred Grenfell by George McGowan   4

Post Horn, The by Bill Lizotte   7

West Enosburgh: A Postal History by Bill Lizotte 12

Index to Volumn 58 17

2013 Pictorial Postmarks — 4th Quarter 21

Other Vermont Collecting Interests: PAID 3 in arc (1850s) by Glenn Estus 22

VPS Auction #113 24

Prices Realized VPS Auction #112 26

Post Offices from the Past: Center Rutland 26

UpDates and New Dates: North Montpelier Rural Station 27

Northeast Postal History and Ephemera Show 28

Crossroads Postcard and Stamp Show 28

The Freedom Train in Vermont

When I recently saw the list of exhibits at the Southeastern Stamp Show held in the Atlanta, Georgia area. I was surprised to see an exhibit about the Freedom Train.  Here's a short article I wrote in the May, 2009 issue of The Vermont Philatelist.

One of the major events of the USA Bicentennial commemoration held from 1970 through 1981 was the American Freedom Train tour of the continental United States in 1975 and 1976.

According to the website, http://www.freedomtrain.org/ “the display cars of the AFT were outfitted with the 500+ artifacts of Americana that they carr(ied) around the nation. Among them were the Bill of Rights, the Louisiana Purchase, Judy Garland’s dress from The Wizard of Oz, Joe Frazier’s boxing trunks, Abe Lincoln’s stovepipe hat, and even a rock from the moon.”
The tour began in Wilmington, Delaware April 1, 1975 and ended on December 31, 1976 in Miami, Florida. Over 7 million visitors viewed the exhibits. Burlington, Vermont was the 3rd stop on the two-year national tour. The train was in Burlington April 11-12, 1975.

At each stop a special commemorative postmark was used. It seems that this was mostly overlooked by the Vermont philatelic community. There is no mention of the cancel in contemporary issues of the Vermont Philatelist. Even when Paul Abajian published his initial listing of The Special Cancellations of Vermont in 1997, this cancel was missing.

In the decade since less than 5 covers bearing the cancel have been reported. Even collectors who specialize in this issue don’t seem to have a Burlington example. All examples seen are dated April 11. It’s not known if there are April 12 examples in existence.