Postal stationery

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.[4] Enclosures are not permitted in aerograms. Sales of aerograms in the United States ended in 2006 due to poor sales.

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.[6] 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.[7] 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.[1]

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.[8] 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 that was issued by Great Britain at the same time as the Penny Black in 1840.[4] 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.

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.[9] 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".

Postcards, on the other hand, are 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.

A strong envelope with an imprinted stamp sold only for use with the registered mail service. Confusingly, these are usually marked Registered Letter but that term strictly only relates to a normal letter or packet that has extra postage and markings applied so that it may travel under the registered mail service.

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 watermarks 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 contractor who produced them for the government.[10] Considering the different envelope sizes, knives, colors, dies to print the indicia, and denominations there are literally thousands of different stamped envelopes produced for the US[11]

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.[8] 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. After around 1900, they were cut individually from long ribbons of paper which had been printed with an embossed envelope die.[11]

In the US, they were removed from the items for sale in 1934, though remainders were sold for several years after that.[12] 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.[12] 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.

• Gage, Alexander D., Edward G. Fladung & Melvin Feiner (Eds.). Higgins & Gage World Postal Stationery Catalog. Pasadena: Higgins & Gage, 1964-89. (19 volumes covering the whole world).
• Melville, Fred. J. Postal Stationery. London: Philatelic Institute, 1924 12p. Series Title: Philatelic Institute papers; no. 14.
• Mott, Rodney L. Postal stationery, a collector's guide to a fascinating world-wide philatelic pursuit. Bloomington: United Postal Stationery Society, 1968 28p.
• Mott, Rodney L. What do you know about postal stationery? Bloomington: United Postal Stationery Society, 1971-85 8p.
• van Gelder, Peter J. The collectors' guide to postal stationery. Shrewsbury: Squirrel Publishing, 1997 ISBN 0947604073 88p.

• Huggins, A.K. British Postal Stationery, A Priced Handbook of the Postal Stationery of Great Britain, Great Britain Philatelic Society, 1970.
• Huggins, Alan. & Colin Baker. 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 978-0-907630-22-7

• Perry, Thomas Doane. Guide to the Stamped Envelopes and Wrappers of the United States, 1940.
• 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.

• Deschl, Edward F, The Comprehensive India States Postal Stationery Listing, Edward Deschl, 1994, 323 pages, ISBN 0-9641289-0-X
• Pandya, Prashant H, A Guide to Modern Indian Postal Stationery, 1947-2003, Vol. 1, Envelopes, 2003, Softbound, 132 pages, Covering Independent India Postal Stationery Envelopes.