Stamp and Postmark Primer
Matthew E. Liebson
Stamp and Postmark Primer
Stamps
Postmarks
This page serves as an introduction to the stamps and types of postmarks that you are likely to encounter on vintage United States postcards.
Of course, the introduction also works just fine for covers from the first half of the 20th century. This is just an introduction--there are books written about most of these
topics, some of which I've referenced below. Also, these categories are not exhaustive! Rather, I'm just trying to set out some basic material to help you understand what you are looking at.
I welcome questions, comments, additions, corrections, etc. via email.
Shall we get started? To begin, when philatelically evaluating a postcard, there are two main things to look at: the stamp and the postmark. Each is covered below. It never hurts to read the message, though. They are
sometimes quite interesting! Also, take note of the destination of the postcard. Cards sent to a place like Alaska, or Indian Territory, or foreign locations may well be worth a premium.
Stamps
Postal Rates
Definitives
Coils and Booklets
Commemoratives
Special Postal Services
Seals
Perfins
Back to Top
Everything you really need to know about stamps may be found in the Scott Standard Catalogue of Postage Stamps, which you may well find in your local library. United States is in volume 1; the introductory material is valuable. If you can find a copy of Scott's Specialized Catalogue of U.S. Stamps, so much the better.
Postal Rates
Back to Stamps
Postcards are often called "penny postcards" for a reason. For most of the first half of the 20th century the postcard rate was one cent. There are a few exceptions to this: a special World War I rate of two cents was in place from November 1, 1917 through June 30, 1919; a two-cent rate was also in place for picture postcards from 1925-1928. Nothing can last forever--the rate went up to two cents in the early 1950s and it has climbed ever since. It would now cost 20 cents to mail a regularly sized postcard.
WWI 2-cent rate
If your card bears more than one cent in postage and does not fall within any of the increased rate periods mentioned above, there are several possible explanations. The first is simple overpayment--the sender did not have the right stamp on hand so used a higher value. Another possibility is that the card was not properly mailable at the one cent rate. For example, the post office prohibited the mailing of cards with items attached to them (such as photographs). Those cost the letter rate--2 cents at the time. Or, if the card was larger than a certain size extra postage was required; a common example of this is the "folder" postcard which became popular in the 1920s.
A third possibility is that the card was not sent as regular first-class mail (see "special services below).
No stamps on your card? That's a possibility as well. One common explanation is that the stamp has been removed or fallen off--that's normally obvious from the presence of a partial postmark or other traces that a stamp was once present.
However, it's also possible that the card was in fact mailed free--usually by a soldier during WWI or WWII.
WWII free card
Definitives
Back to Stamps
A "definitive" is a basic workhorse stamp; they are of small size and relatively plain design. In the first half of the 20th century, if the stamp is a one-cent value and not small size and does not show Washington or Franklin, then it's not a definitive.
The most likely stamps you'll see are shown below:
Because millions of postcards were mailed, most of these basic one cent stamps are very common (and so are the 2-cent stamps that you will sometimes see on cards).
However, there are always a few things to look for. Each of the designs was issued imperforate as well as perforated; the imperforate stamps (which had to be cut apart) are worth a premium, though not always a large one (if the stamp does not have perforations on some, but not all, sides, look at "booklets and coils" below).
Some of the stamps of the 1908-9 issue (with the "one cent" spelled out at bottom) were printed on bluish paper, which usually looks a lot more gray than blue. The paper was made partially with rags as opposed to all wood pulp, in an effort to avoid uneven paper shrinkage. If your stamp was used from Washington DC in early 1909, you may want to look closely--the blue paper stamps are expensive!
The so-called "Washington-Franklin" issues of 1908-1922 were produced during a time of experimentation at the post office and the stamps exist with a variety of gauge of perforation, watermark, and so forth. Some of them are major rarities, but it takes a specialist to properly identify them.
imperforate
Coils and Booklets
Back to Stamps
If the stamp on your postcard does not have perforations on all four sides it may be from a coil or booklet. However, some regular sheet stamps have a straight edge on one or two sides if the stamp is from the edge of the sheet. The same is true of booklet stamps, so they can be difficult to tell apart from stamps from the edge of a sheet.
Coil stamps are a bit easier, though, because they have perforations on one set of opposite sides (either top and bottom or left and right), and straight edges on the other sides. If you have a coil stamp and the postmark is earlier than 1914 the stamp is probably worth at least a few dollars; if before 1918 at least a slight premium over a normal stamp. Later coils are mostly common.
As with the sheet stamps, there are a number of varieties depending on perforation gauge (some coils were perf. 8.5; those are pretty easy to spot) and watermark.
You may also run across some strange looking stamps that have large slot-like perforations on either side, or if you are lucky, other strange-looking perforations. These may be stamps dispensed by a vending or affixing machine. Any such item on a card or cover is a premium item; only the Shermack "slot" type catalogs under $20 and are the only type you're likely to encounter.
Shermack Coil
Commemoratives
Back to Stamps
A commemorative stamp is usually larger than a definitive and honors a person or event. Some of the early commemorative stamps that you are likely to see on postcards appear below; a wider variety of them were issued in later years. The early ones are worth a premium, though not usually very much--a few dollars at most.
Special Postal Services
Back to Stamps
Not all postcards were mailed at the regular one-cent rate. Sometimes cards were mailed "special delivery" or "registered" mail, though this is quite uncommon. Such cards will bear additional postage (either regular stamps or stamps specially inscribed for the required service) and additional markings indicating the handling of the item (see "auxiliary markings" in the postmarks section below).
If the sender didn't affix the proper postage to the card, you may also find a reddish "postage due" stamp. These are premium items but the value will depend widely on the particular stamp, rate, destination, and postal markings.
You might also encounter a red "parcel" post stamp. These are worth a slight premium but are not uncommon; parcel post stamps were allowed to be used as regular postage starting in mid-1913. The same is true for green "parcel post postage due" stamps, though if you find one on a postcard you are lucky indeed!
Seals
Back to Stamps
Every now and then you may locate something that looks like a stamp on your postcard that is not in fact a stamp. Usually it will be a Christmas seal, though sometimes it will be a seal that honors something else, such as an exposition, etc. These are worth a premium--minimum of several dollars apiece, I'd say, but only if the seal is "tied" to the card. That is, the postmark must touch both the card and the seal--that proves the seal belongs there, and was not added later.
1922 Christmas Seal
Perfins
Back to Stamps
"Perfin" is a philatelic term of art that stands for "perforated insignia", or "perforated initials". I don't suppose that helps much. A perfin is a group of holes punched in a stamp, usually by a corporation or government office to indicate ownership. They were used as a security device to prevent employee pilferage. That makes for fun with postcards--if you find a perfin on a personal postcard, then the employee likely "liberated" it from his or her workplace!
Specialized literature is available to determine what company used the particular set of initials on a given perfin; some are quite scarce.
Postmarks
Still under construction!
Back to Top
A Word About Condition
Post Offices
Hand Cancels
4-Bars
Doanes
RFD Markings
Territorial Markings
RPO Markings
Auxiliary Markings
Machines
Exposition Markings
Military Markings
Precancels
The terms "postmark" and "cancel" are similar, but not quite interchangeable. A "cancel" is anything that defaces (or is intended to deface) a stamp; a "postmark" contains information such as the town name, date, time, etc. But both are "postal markings", which is what I'm really concerned with here.
There is tremendous variety to be found out in the postcard junk boxes. The information below should help with some general categorization, though. Specialized literature exists for most of these categories and I have listed some of them in the appropriate section.
Can't figure out what you're looking at? See a category of markings that should be here but aren't? Drop me an email!.
A Word About Condition
Back to Postmarks
Just as postcards and stamps command higher prices when in better condition, so do postmarks. A postmark that is fully struck, and easily legible is more valuable than a spotty or partial strike, or one that "runs off" the edge of the card. Most collectors prefer that the postal markings are not "overstruck" by other postal markings, and are not rendered harder to read by covering underlying writing, printing, or stamps.
Moreover, if the marking was intended to be used as a regular origin marking, collectors prefer that it be used as such. A postmark from a small discontinued post office is generally worth more if the card was SENT from that town, rather than received at that town.
Post Offices
Back to Postmarks
As an initial matter, you should always look at the town name of the postmark, if there is one. Postmarks from small or discontinued post offices are generally more popular, and more valuable, than those from larger towns.
At the turn of the 20th century in most states, there were several times the number of post offices that there are now. For example, Ohio had over 3300 offices in 1900, compared with under 1150 in 1979. Just because an office is discontinued doesn't make
it rare or expensive, but it is a factor to consider. Specialized literature exists for most states that gives post office listings and dates of operation, sometimes with scarcity indexes. Richard Helbock has begun a massive undertaking to list every post office that has operated in the United States, with scarcity ratings, in an 8-volume set.
The first two volumes, which cover from Texas to North Dakota and everything to the West, have already been published and are quite useful. Two more volumes are expected each year; they cost about $30 and are well worth the money!
Hand Cancels
Back to Postmarks
A hand cancel, predictably, is one that was impressed by hand. While sometimes this was actually done longhand, with a pencil (see RFD below), usually this means an inked handstamp device. Hand cancels are usually smaller than machine cancels, and may often not be parallel to the top edge of the card. Most are "duplex" markings; there is a postmark section (usually circular), and an attached "killer" cancel meant to deface the stamp.
This will frequently take the shape of a barred oval, sometimes with a numeral. Sometimes you may also see a target, or a blob produced by a cork cancel.
Be sure to look below for some specialized types of hand cancels. Value for cancels such as the ones illustrated here will depend largely on the town; most are common but as always, watch for small or discontinued post offices. Also, unusual shapes and colors of markings will often command a premium. Most handstamps were distributed to post offices by the government in various "standard" shapes and sizes. Some markings don't conform to the normal appearance
of markings; the so-called "nonstandard" markings are often worth a premium.
4-Bars
Back to Postmarks
A "4-bar" postmark is a type of duplex handstamp (see hand cancels above). They were made of rubber and are characterized by a circular postmark section, along with a "killer" of four short horizontal bars.
They started coming into use at the height of the postcard "craze", circa 1908, and were mostly used at smaller post offices. A few are shown below. Be careful! If you see a numeral in the killer bars, it's not a 4-bar, but a "Doane".
Doanes
Back to Postmarks
A "Doane" is similar to a 4-bar, only with a numeral in the bar killer. They were also made of rubber, and were issued to mostly smaller post offices starting in 1903, though a few may be found used as late as the 1950s (most were not used after 1920).
They were a post-office experiment to see how rubber handstamps would hold up in a variety of conditions; the 4-bar cancels are essentially the step-children of these markings.
Doane markings are so named because of philatelist Edith Doane, who was among the first to research these now popular markings. Three major types exist; they are shown below.
Doane Type 1
5 thin bars |
Doane Type 2
4 hollow bars |
Doane Type 3
4 solid bars |
Be careful! Doanes are often poorly struck and difficult to decipher, especially when on a dark stamp. The numerals often "hide", which can give a collector major headaches when trying to differentiate a type 3 Doane and a 4-bar! A catalog of Doane markings does exist, with national listings; however, so much research has been done since the catalog came out that the listings are hopelessly inadequate. Much of the new information is published in the philatelic journal La Posta, or in state postal history society journals.
Most states have a coordinator who keeps records of known Doanes for that state, along with periods of use. Value depends on the size and continued operation of the post office, as well as state; some are more popular than others. Some Doanes can fetch very high prices; the most common will retail for at least $2-$4 if clearly struck.
RFD
Back to Postmarks
"RFD" is short for "rural free delivery", which began shortly before the turn of the century and was responsible for the closing of hundreds of small post offices across the country. A wide variety of markings exist, which are cataloged in Richow's Encyclopedia of R.F.D. Cancels. Most handstamped RFD cancels were made of rubber and will include the initials "RFD" in them; the bulk of the handstamps you are likely to see look similar to the one shown below. There are plenty of "non standard" RFD markings and many of them are quite scarce. RFD markings are notorious for their poor strikes and illegibility; a clear strong strike of an RFD marking
is almost always something you should be glad to have (retail is usually $5 and up for clear handstamp RFD markings). Many manuscript RFD markings also exist, ranging from full town name and date to a mere pencil scribble. The "scribbles" are still RFD markings but aren't much collected; the more elaborate ones are worth more.
Handstamp RFD
Territorial Markings
Back to Postmarks
At the height of the postcard "craze", around 1907-1915, some of the Western States were still territories; Oklahoma achieved statehood in 1907; Arizona and New Mexico in 1912; Alaska and Hawaii in 1959. Accordingly, you may find early postmarks bearing postmarks of some of these territories; most are worth a premium. The majority will be hand cancels, though a few cancelling machines did find their way to each of the territories' larger offices. Some of the small, short-lived post offices are quite valuable!
Orchard Park, NM Terr. |
Nome, Alaska Terr. |
RPO
Back to Postmarks
"RPO" stands for Railway Post Office; there are literally thousands of different markings used on different railroad routes that carried mail. They range from extremely rare to extremely common, with a wide middle ground. City names are often abbreviated and thus difficult to discern; excellent catalogs exist that, while expensive, are exhaustive of this field and not only list and give scarcity ratings for markings, but also illustrate most of them.
Many RPO markings will show "RPO" in the postmark or "RMS" in the killer; you may also see transfer clerk markings with a "Trans. Clk." abbreviation.
RMS duplex |
transfer clerk |
A popular subset of RPO markings are "streetcars", used on electric trolley lines in some cities. A cancel that says "Circuit RPO" is usually a streetcar, though often the only way to identify a streetcar is to know the route name. Streetcar markings also exist as machine cancels; among the most popular (and most common) is the Pittsburg PA "Streetcar RPO" flag cancel, which is readily identifiable as a streetcar marking.
Baltimore streetcar
Auxiliary Markings
Back to Postmarks
Auxiliary markings cover a tremendous range of ground; in a general sense they are anything that was not meant to be a postmark or a cancel. They were often used to indicate an improper address, a deficiency in postage, mishandling of an item, and other such irregularities. These are fun to collect but usually very affordable. One is shown below.
It's also worth mentioning "received" and "transit" markings here. Pieces of mail were often handled by multiple post offices, and prior to 1913 the receiving post office was supposed to mark the mail with the date and time received. Postcards may often be found with multiple markings, some of which may show a "recd." or "received", or "transit". Regular postmarks were also often used as these so-called "backstamps" (a bit of a misnomer, since the markings can--and do--appear anywhere and everywhere on a card). Most such markings may make an item more interesting, but rarely much more valuable.
Machines
Back to Postmarks
The United States Post Office began using machine power to process and postmark mail as early as the 1870s, but it was only in the 1890s that their use became widespread. The early 20th century featured a number of competing companies vying for post office contracts; their legacy is a huge range of attractive and unusual markings. They are a major field unto themselves, and while most are quie common there are some major rarities to be found.
It's still possible to make major discoveries in those postcard junk boxes--this card, probably worth a few hundred dollars, was a $0.30 postcard find!
Machine markings are characterized by their normally even and clear impression, and their size--often 90 mm or more long. It's easy to tell machines from handstamps with just a little bit of experience.
Among the makers you will be likely to see are American, Barry, Columbia, Cummins, Doremus, Ielfield, International, Time-Marking, and Universal. Less common on postcards are manufacturers such as Barr-Fyke, Perfection, and Pneumatic. There are also some very scarce experimental markings from small companies. The Machine Cancel Society is the leading publisher of specialized machine cancel literature, with catalogs available for most of the listed companies. The Society also publishes a handbook, which serves as a good general introduction to machine cancels in general. The beginner may also find
Hanmer's A Collector's Guide to U.S. Machine Postmarks 1871-1925 of use.
A detailed machine cancel page is under construction.
Expos
Back to Postmarks
A wide variety of postal markings were used in conjunction with the early 20th century's World's Fairs and Expositions. Among the ones you may see are the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Expo (St. Louis), the 1905 Lewis&Clark (Portland OR), the 1907 Jamestown (Norfolk VA), the 1909 Alaska-Yukon (Seattle WA), the 1915 Panama-Pacific (San Francisco CA), and the 1915 Panama-California (San Diego CA). There, of course, others, both earlier and later.
At the outset it's important to distinguish between exposition ADVERTISING markings and exposition markings themselves. Many expositions were advertised in various machine cancels, sometimes for years before the actual event. These tend to be much more common than markings used at the expositions themselves. Markings used on the exposition grounds are generally in both machine and hand cancel form; the handstamps are always scarce. Machines vary widely, but a few of the most common may be had for under $10. Most exposition markings actually used at the exposition will contain the words "Exposition Station" or an abbreviation.
As you might suspect, exposition postcards are a natural place to hunt for exposition markings!
Jamestown Ad
Jamestown Expo Station
Pan-Cal Ad
The standard reference in this field is Bomar's Postal Markings of United States Expositions. The second edition of this excellent work, only three years old, is already out of print and sells for above the cover price on the secondary market.
Military Markings
Back to Postmarks
A variety of markings may be found from both naval ships and from army bases and other installations, in both handstamp and machine form. Such items are mostly seen around the WWI and WWII periods.
For WWI markings, the word "branch" in a cancel is strongly suggestive that it is a military camp marking. For ships, the "USS" is generally a giveaway. Wartime military postmarks are often accompanied by other auxiliary markings, usually when the mail was censored by military authorities.
Like most other categories, the value of markings runs the gamut from abundant to extremely rare.
Army Camp Marking |
Naval Ship Marking |
Precancels
Back to Postmarks
"Precancels" are stamps that are postmarked prior to their actual use. They saved the post office and the postal customer processing time. Most of them were used on corporate mail, so use on a postcard is not common. Postage due stamps (see "special services" in stamps, above) were often precancelled.
Postcard Primer
Back to My Home Page
E-mail Me!
