A piece of postal stationery is a stationery item, such as a stamped envelope

Stamped envelope

A stamped envelope or postal stationery envelope is an envelope with a printed or embossed indicium indicating the prepayment of postage. It is a form of postal stationery.-Use in the United States:In August 1852 an act of the U.S...

, letter sheet

Letter sheet

In philatelic terminology a Letter sheet, often written lettersheet, is nowadays an item of postal stationery issued by a postal authority. It is a sheet of paper that can be folded, usually sealed , and mailed without the use of an envelope...

, postal card

Postal card

Postal cards are postal stationery with an imprinted stamp or indicium signifying the prepayment of postage. They are sold by postal authorities. In January, 1869 Emanuel Herrmann of Austria described the advantages of a Correspondenz Karte. By October, 1869 the world's first postal card was...

, lettercard

Lettercard

In philately a lettercard or letter card is a postal stationery item consisting of a folded card with a prepaid imprinted stamp. The fact that it is folded over gives the writer twice as much room for the message compared with a postal card. The message is written on the inside and the card is...

, aerogram

Aerogram

An Aerogram, Aérogramme or Air Letter is a thin lightweight piece of foldable and gummed paper for writing a letter for transit via airmail, in which the letter and envelope are one and the same. Most postal administrations forbid enclosures in these light letters, which are usually sent abroad at...

 or wrapper, with an imprinted stamp

Imprinted stamp

In philately an imprinted stamp is a stamp printed on to a piece of postal stationery such as a stamped envelope, postal card, letter sheet, letter card, aerogram or wrapper. The printing is flat upon the surface of the paper, as opposed to an embossed stamp which has a raised relief...

 or inscription indicating that a specific rate of postage or related service has been prepaid. It does not, however, include any postcard

Postcard

A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....

 without a pre-printed stamp.

Format and origin

In general, postal stationery is handled similarly to postage stamps; sold from post offices either at the face value of the printed postage or, more likely, with a surcharge to cover the additional cost of the stationery. It can take the form of an official mail

Official mail

Official mail is mail sent from, or by an authorised department of government, governmental agency or international organization and normally has some indication that it is official; a certifying cachet, return address or other means of identity, indicating its user...

 issue produced only for the use of government departments. It can be an issue of a military force where an army, perhaps in a distant war, issues letter sheets for the use of its troops to write home. Postal stationery can be overprint

Overprint

An overprint is an additional layer of text or graphics added to the face of a postage stamp or banknote after it has been printed. Post offices most often use overprints for internal administrative purposes such as accounting but they are also employed in public mail...

ed by the government or, occasionally, by a private overprint

Private overprint

Private overprints, in philately, are overprints , usually rubberstamped though occasionally applied by some other method, to postage stamps used by some person or entity other than a government or other official stamp-issuing entity...

. In emergency situations, postal stationery has been produced by handstamping envelopes with modified canceling devices; many of the rare Confederate postmasters' provisionals are of this form. Finally, some postal stationery can be printed to private order. In this last case, stamped stationery bearing indicia is applied with postal administration approval and with specified regulations, to paper or cards provided by private persons or organizations. Private impressions result in a wider range of denominations and designs compared with governmental issues.

Stamped envelopes

The envelope form may be called a stamped envelope or, alternatively, a postal stationery envelope (PSE for short). In August 1852 an act of the U.S. Congress authorized the Postmaster General to provide "suitable letter envelopes with such watermark

Watermark

A watermark is a recognizable image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light , caused by thickness or density variations in the paper...

s or other guards against counterfeits... with the addition of the value or denomination of the postage stamps so printed or impressed thereon...". The first result was the 1853 Nesbitt issues of stamped envelopes, named after the private contractor who produced them for the government. When you combine the different envelope sizes, knives

Knife (envelope)

The term knife is used to describe the cutting die for envelope or wrapper blanks. It is called a knife rather than a die in order to reserve the term die to describe the object which makes a embossed printed impression of the stamp or indicium on the envelope. Traditionally, a knife would...

, colors, dies to print the indicia

Indicia

In philately, indicia are markings on a mail piece showing that postage has been prepaid by the sender. Indicia is the plural of the latin word indicium, meaning distinguishing marks, signs or identifying marks...

, and denominations there are literally thousands of different stamped envelopes produced for the U.S.

Postal cards

Postal cards are postal stationery and have a printed or embossed indicium and are sold by governmental postal authorities. In the United States, they were first produced in 1873. Some of the forms taken by postal cards include the regular single card, the attached message-reply cards, airmail postal cards, and official postal cards used for official government business with a "penalty for private use". Postcard

Postcard

A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....

s, on the other hand, is a term used to designate cards prepared by private companies that do not have prepaid franking and readily available at commercial outlets. They are frequently illustrated with pictures or printed advertisements. They are generally not considered postal stationery.

Letter sheets

Before 1845 correspondence was not enclosed in an envelope. Letters were folded, sealed, addressed and postmarked on the outside. This continued even after adhesive postage stamps were introduced. The popularity of folded letters led postal authorities to introduce stamped letter sheets. These became available in the U.S. in 1861, but the first official postal stationery were the 1838 embossed letter sheets of New South Wales. These were followed by the Mulready stationery

Mulready stationery

Mulready stationery describes the postal stationery lettersheets and pre-gummed envelopes that were introduced as part of the British Post Office postal reforms of 1840. They went on sale on 1 May, 1840, and were valid for use from 6 May...

 that was issued by Great Britain at the same time as the Penny Black

Penny Black

The Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system. It was issued in Britain on 1 May 1840, for official use from 6 May of that year....

 in 1840. Since then, most postal services have issued a steady stream of stationery alongside stamps. Often the design of the stationery mimics the contemporaneous stamps, though with less variety and lower printing quality, due to the limitations of printing directly onto the envelope. Much later, 1947 in the U.S., letter sheets morphed into lithographed air letter sheets or aerograms.

Aerograms

The postal services of some countries also offer a form of letter sheet called an aerogram consisting of a blank sheet of paper with folding instructions and adhesive flaps that becomes its own envelope, and carries prepaid postage at either the international airmail letter rate or at a special lower aerogram rate. Letter sheets lend themselves to airmail usage because they are lightweight. Enclosures are not permitted in aerograms. Sales of aerograms in the United States ended in 2006 due to poor sales.

Wrappers

The manufacture of wrappers for the sending of newspapers or periodicals began in the U.S. in 1861. The first wrappers were rectangular pieces of paper with gum to seal it on one end and an embossed envelope stamp or indicium on it. By 1870, the form was that of a rectangle with the narrow side rounded and gummed at the top. They were manufactured from piles of 300 - 500 sheets of paper which were then cut to shape by a knife

Knife (envelope)

The term knife is used to describe the cutting die for envelope or wrapper blanks. It is called a knife rather than a die in order to reserve the term die to describe the object which makes a embossed printed impression of the stamp or indicium on the envelope. Traditionally, a knife would...

. After around 1900, they were cut individually from long ribbons of paper which had been printed with an embossed envelope die.

In the US, they were removed from the items for sale in 1934, though remainders were sold for several years after that. By 1940 most countries had discontinued their production due to declining demand. Because the recipient of a wrapped newspaper often tore it open and threw it away, untorn used wrappers, preferred by collectors, are scarce. Scarcer yet are wrappers with the original newspaper contents. Because of their larger size, even mint copies are often sold folded or creased which is also less desirable to collectors.

Letter cards

A letter card almost has the advantages of a postal card as far as weight and size, but also the advantage of privacy of contents is concerned. It is a double card, folded over, with gum or adhesive applied to the three open edges. It is then opened by the recipient by tearing perforations on the three sides that are on the message side of the gum. The gummed strip around the card is then discarded, giving rise to the problems collectors have in finding intact used cards. The US has never issued any letter cards.

Collecting

Most postal stationery pieces are collected as entires, that is, the whole card, sheet or envelope. However, as the saying goes, one collects today what was saved yesterday. In the 19th century the practice was to collect "cut square

Cut square

In philately, a cut square is an imprinted stamp cut from an item of postal stationery such as a stamped envelope, postal card, letter sheet, letter card, aerogram or wrapper in a square or rectangular shape. An alternative use of the term is simply any stamp, from sheets or postal stationery, cut...

s" (or cut-outs in the UK) which involved clipping the embossed indicia from a postal envelope. This destroyed the envelope. As a result, one cannot tell from a cut square what specific envelope it came from and, many times, the cancellation information. The manner in which the stamped envelope is cut out (defined by the term "knife

Knife (envelope)

The term knife is used to describe the cutting die for envelope or wrapper blanks. It is called a knife rather than a die in order to reserve the term die to describe the object which makes a embossed printed impression of the stamp or indicium on the envelope. Traditionally, a knife would...

") vanishes on a cut square. Thus most collectors prefer entires to cut squares.

Many country-specific stamp catalog

Stamp catalog

A stamp catalog is a catalog of postage stamp types with descriptions and prices.The stamp catalog is an essential tool of philately and stamp collecting...

s include postal stationery in their listings and there are many books devoted to the postal stationery of individual countries. The current, but now dated, principal encyclopedic work is the nineteen volume Higgins & Gage World Postal Stationery Catalog

Higgins & Gage World Postal Stationery Catalog

In philately, the Higgins & Gage World Postal Stationery Catalog is the most recent encyclopedic catalogue of postal stationery covering the whole world...

.

Collectors of postal stationery may seek out postal stationery societies or study groups in other countries. These societies provide information, publications and guidance to those who are interested. They include:

• Australia: The Postal Stationery Society of Australia
• Belgium: Societe Belge de l'Entier Postal
• Canada: British North American Philatelic Society Postal Stationery Study Group
• France: Entiers Postaux Français
• Germany: Berliner Ganzsachen-Sammler-Verein
• Great Britain / UK: The Postal Stationery Society
• Netherlands: Nederlandse Vereniging van Poststukken
• Switzerland: Swiss Postal Stationery Collectors Society / Schweizerischer Ganzsachen-Sammler-Verein (SGSSV)
• United States: United Postal Stationery Society

Further reading

• Huggins, A.K. British Postal Stationery, A Priced Handbook of the Postal Stationery of Great Britain, Great Britain Philatelic Society, 1970.
• Huggins, Alan. & Baker, Colin. Collect British Postal Stationery: A Simplified Listing of British Postal Stationery 1840 to 2007, G. B. Philatelic Publications Ltd. on behalf of The Great Britain Philatelic Society and The Postal Stationery Society, 2007, 151 pages, ISBN 9780907630227
• Higgins & Gage World Postal Stationery Catalog, 19 volumes covering the whole world.
• Perry, Thomas Doane. Guide to the Stamped Envelopes and Wrappers of the United States, 1940.
• Ioannides, Alexander C, & Podger, Christopher J. Cyprus Postal Stationery 1880 - 1992, 1993, ISBN 0-9638547-0-4
• Stieg, Carl L. Victoria Postal Stationery 1869 - 1917, 2001
• Littrell, Robert, Ed.; Postal Cards of Spanish Colonial Cuba, Philippines and Puerto Rico, UPSS, 2010; ISBN 9780980011241
• Bussey, Lewis E., Ed.; United States Postal Card Catalog, United Postal Stationery Society, 2010, 248 pages; A most complete treatment of U.S. postal cards.
• Thy, Peter & Inglefield-Watson, John. The Postal Stationery of the Bechuanalands and Botswana, British Philatelic Trust
  British Philatelic Trust
  The British Philatelic Trust was established in 1981 by the British Post Office. The governing deed was executed on 26 September 1983. The Trust is independent and was registered as an educational charity on 21 November 1983.- Origins :...
  
  in conjunction with The Bechuanalands and Botswana Society, 2004, 184 pages, ISBN 1871777135
• Rodrigo, Chandra, Rodrigo's Catalogue of Ceylon/Sri Lanka Postal Stationery Part I - Air Mail Letter Sheets, Dr Chandra Rodrigo, 2008
• Rodrigo, Chandra, Rodrigo's Catalogue of Ceylon/Sri Lanka Postal Stationery Part II - Postal Cards, Letter Cards, Letter Sheets, Wrappers, P.T.P.O. Wrappers, Dr Chandra Rodrigo, 2010, 224 pages, ISBN 9789555089012
• Hochheiser, Arthur M, Postal Stationery of the Palestine Mandate, The Society of Israel Philatelists, 1984, 97 pages
• Postal Stationery of the Canal Zone; United Postal Stationery Society, 2008
• Deschl, Edward F, The Comprehensive India States Postal Stationery Listing, Edward Deschl, 1994, 323 pages, ISBN 096412890X

External links

• Postal Stationery of Denmark: Internet display of a Danish postal stationary collection, 1871-1905 by Lars Engelbrecht.
• The FIP (Federation Internationale de Philatelie) Postal Stationery Commission: Worldwide
• Postal stationery at postalhistory.org
• Postal Cards of Cuba (1878 -1958): Comprehensive Cuban collection