Back-of-Book

The Blog

Advertising Covers - A Fascinating Collectible

Attached is a presentation that I delivered at the Philatelic Gathering on March 23, 2024. It's the final version of a presentation that...

Funding the Spanish-American War

Between April and August 1898, the U.S. and Spain fought a war that Spain lost and that resulted in the U.S. taking over Cuba, Puerto...

"My Darling Leila": A Confederate Civil War Cover from 1863

The Confederate States of America (CSA) was formed by seven seceding states on February 8, 1861. Four more states joined the CSA after...

Unusual Use of "Parcel Post Postage Due" Stamps from 1913

(This article was published in The United States Specialist, March 2024, Vol. 95, No. 3, Whole Number 1129, pp. 113-114. A PDF is...

Genealogical Research Circa 1880

Stamped envelopes are considered "back of book," or "BOB" items. These are philatelic items that appear after regular stamp issues in...

A Boyhood Letter That Didn't Get Delivered, 1947

In December 1947, John Schott was an 11-year-old living in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. If he was a baseball fan - and I suspect he was...

An Order for a Replacement Part from 1891

This 1-cent postal card shown in Figure 1 was issued by the Post Office in 1886. In the US Scott Catalog, it is number UX9. It is a...

Official Stamped Envelope from 1988

In the 1870s and again in the 1980s, the Post Office issued stamps and stamped envelopes that were used by agencies of the Federal...

A "Special Delivery" Cover from 1902

The stamped envelope in Figure 1 has an embossed stamp that I believe is design U80 in the US Scott Catalog. The envelope color is not...

Who Butted Whom with a Gun? A Letter Sheet Mystery from 1886

Between August 23, 1886 and June 30, 1894, the US Post Office issued a 2-cent letter sheet with an imprinted stamp that depicted Ulysses...

E-COM: An Early Form of Electronic Mail from the Post Office, 1984

This cover will not be found in the Scott catalog (if it were, it would definitely be a "back of book" item), but it was a step in the...

Philadelphia Merchant's Promissory Note from 1798

Between 1798 and 1800, the US and France engaged in an undeclared naval war, the so-called “Quasi War.”[i] Tensions between the US and...

Revenue Stamp on Bank Check from 1864

During the Civil War, one of the ways the Union raised funds was to require the payment of taxes on documents like bank checks and bonds...