Inside Linn’s: The Stamp-Ad booklet saga

By Charles Snee

The Jan. 13, 2020, issue of Linn’s Stamp News just landed on the presses and goes in the mail to subscribers Monday, Dec. 30. And if you subscribe to Linn’s digital edition, you’re at the head of the line with early access Saturday, Dec. 28. Here we entice you with a trio of sneak-peeks of exclusive content available only to subscribers. 

The Stamp-Ad booklet saga: Was it even legal?

Not so long ago, there were far fewer choices when one needed to buy stamps. As Wayne L. Youngblood recounts in The Odd Lot, Stamp-Ad, a short-lived company based in Houston, Texas, tried to alleviate this problem in early 1987, when it began offering booklets of product coupons that came with an added convenience: a booklet of postage stamps. Very few intact Stamp-Ad booklets remain today, and they are highly collectible.

Requesting special handling for fragile items

In Modern U.S. Mail, Tony Wawrukiewicz features a 1960 c.o.d. parcel post tag bearing an unusual “Outside Mail” handstamp. After explaining the postal rate breakdown for the franking on the tag, Wawrukiwicz digs into a 1914 issue of the Postal Bulletin that explains the “Outside Mail” marking: Fragile items that “could damage themselves or other mail matter were to be adequately packed to prevent any such damage.” Furthermore, such items had to be placed outside mail bags.

Kitchen Table Philately: Worldwide stamps issued before 1980

In each weekly issue of Linn’s, either E. Rawolik VI or E. Rawolik VII dissects the contents of a stamp mixture offered to collectors. E. Rawolik is a pseudonym that is also the word “kiloware” (a stamp mixture) spelled backward. This week, E. Rawolik VI sifts through a compact assortment of stamps issued before 1980. Among the 55 stamps reviewed were two attractive Art stamps from France, one of which pictures a stained glass window of the Cathedral of Sens.

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