Impulse buy (not a coin, but you US commem collectors should like it.)

lordmarcovan · February 7, 2018 9:49AM

$3.99? Free shipping? Pow! Done deal!

Love the vintage airplane in the sky. (They probably still spelled it "aeroplane" back then.) I also like my old postcards to have been postally used, like this. I'd rather see a stamp and a postmark and somebody's message than a blank, Mint, unused card.

In my limited experience with old postcards, this seemed like a pretty good price on one of this pre-WW1 vintage, even without the fun Pan-Pac tie-in!

JBK · February 7, 2018 9:56AM

A great card in its own right and underpriced, I would think. The early airplane adds quite a bit of interest. As a companion to a coin collection of PAN PAC material this is fantastic.

Also of note - the card was mailed almost a year before the Expo opened. It was advertising for the expo, not a souvenir of it. That is an interesting insight into how things were promoted back then.

topstuf · February 7, 2018 9:58AM

I once started collecting postcards with neat stuff that had stamps ON them and were used.

The old lady who ran the antiques store that was the ripest for searching saw me turning the cards over and rushed over to see WHAT I WAS LOOKING at.

I guess most postcard collectors only want the picture. I never pursued it past a little stack of old trains and historic California buildings.
They're neat things.

carabonnair · February 7, 2018 10:00AM

I like this, too. I don't know much about the promotion of the fair, but find it interesting that it is from the year before, postmarked in Portland with the Pan-Pac cancellation. The copyright is 1912, so maybe the picture is a mock-up. I admire their "planning ahead".

lordmarcovan · February 7, 2018 10:06AM

@JBK said:
A great card in its own right and underpriced, I would think. The early airplane adds quite a bit of interest. As a companion to a coin collection of PAN PAC material this is fantastic.

Also of note - the card was mailed almost a year before the Expo opened. It was advertising for the expo, not a souvenir of it. That is an interesting insight into how things were promoted back then.

The PPIE cancel on the stamp is cool, too. I also found it interesting that this was mailed in the spring of 1914, right before events in Sarajevo and the rest of Europe changed the course of the century and the rest of history forever.

Here's a glimpse back into to the glimmering old world, mere months before it all got turned upside-down. By the time the exposition opened the following year, the world had changed drastically and irrevocably.

JBK · February 7, 2018 10:11AM

I was so busy looking at the picture and the dates that I missed the great banner postmark. That also adds interest/value, and further shows how big a deal these things were.

Yes, sadly, by 1915 things were going from bad to worse to hellacious in Europe. I wonder if the PAN PAC was impacted by that. Not sure if it was a world's fair of any kind with any European participation. It certainly gave a new meaning to advances in aircraft.

crazyhounddog · February 7, 2018 10:15AM

Wow! What a cool postcard. Yes I would have bought that one too. Great impulse buy my friend.

JBK · February 7, 2018 10:20AM

I'd actually call it an "impulse investment".

lordmarcovan · February 7, 2018 10:22AM

Hey, @crazyhounddog - here's one of my OTHER purchases this morning, from @ad4400 on BST. He credited you for the awesome photography (a strong selling point), and of course your pedigree (ditto).

(PS- this one cost just a tiny bit more than four bucks. LOL.)

divecchia · February 7, 2018 10:25AM

Great pickup on the postcard. I love the bright colors on the early vintage postcards.

Congrats on a nice find.

Donato

Outhaul · February 7, 2018 10:28AM

Beautiful!

oldabeintx · February 7, 2018 1:08PM

Been collecting early Abe Lincoln cards for many years, along with Lincoln cents. Cards are Lots of fun and cheap, thanks to eBay. Will never get my money back but it doesn't matter. I also enjoy eavesdropping on 100 year old correspondence, provides some history and perspective.

panexpoguy · February 7, 2018 1:56PM

In the past I formed what turned out to be the most complete collection ever of postal history related to the Model Post Office at the PPIE Exposition. Worked on it for a decade and once it was complete, sold it in auction. Here are a couple of the items:
This is a registered letter used to mail Commem Coins from the fair. Note the Zerbe autograph on the corner card. Coins not sold at the fair were most often sold through advertisements posted at banks.

This was a letter sent out to guards who had worked the fair and qualified for a medal for having attended the closing day of the fair. Most were transients and had moved on when the fair closed, so many were returned to the MPO. On the lower left of center you can see the imprint of the medal.

This is considered the single most important cover that still exists from the PPIE. Though created by a collector, it has several markings that are otherwise unknown from the expo, including the Parcel Post marking and the Money Order Branch marking.

I have some others that were used to mail the advertising literature for the commemorative coins to the Banks to drum up business. Somewhere I have an image of a Registered Return Receipt sent from the Office of Coins and Medals sent along with a full set of commem coins to someone in China.

asheland · February 7, 2018 2:18PM

asheland · February 7, 2018 2:19PM

asheland · February 7, 2018 6:11PM

Gorham silver factory:

thebeav · February 7, 2018 6:56PM

That's a great card, and addressed to the Mumper's too ! A fine family......
That's fun stuff. I bought a postcard collection, many years ago. It was about enough to fill a shoebox.
The cards were from the 20's and early thirties and documented the falling in love of a young couple. They were separated by 30 or so miles and sent fun postcards to each other. The two ended up together, and that's how the cards got assembled together. They were really a fun read.

ricko · February 8, 2018 7:38AM

Old postcards are a treasure of history. A local friend has a huge collection of postcards that show the history of this little town and surrounding hamlets...Pictures of when the streets were still dirt and horses/carriages were used.... Really interesting. Cheers, RickO

SaorAlba · February 8, 2018 3:08PM

My great great grandmother attended the expo that year and bought some of the bronze replicas of the $50 slugs, I still have them. Also have the Kodak Brownie camera she bought that year and took photos of the fair and her new house with - the camera still has all the receipts and still works - uses 60mm film.

lordmarcovan · February 8, 2018 5:38PM

@SaorAlba said:
My great great grandmother attended the expo that year and bought some of the bronze replicas of the $50 slugs, I still have them. Also have the Kodak Brownie camera she bought that year and took photos of the fair and her new house with - the camera still has all the receipts and still works - uses 60mm film.

Cool! Post pix of that stuff later, if you can.

dcarr · February 9, 2018 3:19AM

@panexpoguy said:
In the past I formed what turned out to be the most complete collection ever of postal history related to the Model Post Office at the PPIE Exposition. Worked on it for a decade and once it was complete, sold it in auction. Here are a couple of the items:
This is a registered letter used to mail Commem Coins from the fair. Note the Zerbe autograph on the corner card. Coins not sold at the fair were most often sold through advertisements posted at banks.

This was a letter sent out to guards who had worked the fair and qualified for a medal for having attended the closing day of the fair. Most were transients and had moved on when the fair closed, so many were returned to the MPO. On the lower left of center you can see the imprint of the medal.

This is considered the single most important cover that still exists from the PPIE. Though created by a collector, it has several markings that are otherwise unknown from the expo, including the Parcel Post marking and the Money Order Branch marking.

I have some others that were used to mail the advertising literature for the commemorative coins to the Banks to drum up business. Somewhere I have an image of a Registered Return Receipt sent from the Office of Coins and Medals sent along with a full set of commem coins to someone in China.

Nice collection. People say that stamp collecting is "dead". But those are examples of the types of items that are still valued and sought-after by collectors.

panexpoguy · February 9, 2018 12:27PM

@dcarr said:

@panexpoguy said:
In the past I formed what turned out to be the most complete collection ever of postal history related to the Model Post Office at the PPIE Exposition. Worked on it for a decade and once it was complete, sold it in auction. Here are a couple of the items:
This is a registered letter used to mail Commem Coins from the fair. Note the Zerbe autograph on the corner card. Coins not sold at the fair were most often sold through advertisements posted at banks.

This was a letter sent out to guards who had worked the fair and qualified for a medal for having attended the closing day of the fair. Most were transients and had moved on when the fair closed, so many were returned to the MPO. On the lower left of center you can see the imprint of the medal.

This is considered the single most important cover that still exists from the PPIE. Though created by a collector, it has several markings that are otherwise unknown from the expo, including the Parcel Post marking and the Money Order Branch marking.

I have some others that were used to mail the advertising literature for the commemorative coins to the Banks to drum up business. Somewhere I have an image of a Registered Return Receipt sent from the Office of Coins and Medals sent along with a full set of commem coins to someone in China.

Nice collection. People say that stamp collecting is "dead". But those are examples of the types of items that are still valued and sought-after by collectors.

Agreed. Top quality stamps and postal history are still in demand and very rare covers in a specific area are closely held.

Impulse buy (not a coin, but you US commem collectors should like it.)

Comments

Leave a Comment