United States Meter Postage - Show Yours!

The non profit organization version of the M11B discussed above.

I've moved a thread on U.S. meters that we had on the Modern board to this one and locked it so that future meter posts could continue on this thread.


[UPDATE: The two threads have been merged in order to keep the information together in a single thread.]

This is probably one of the most ubiquitous meters used in the United States.  It's use started in 1940 and versions of it are still in use today.

This particular meter is catalog#:  IA3. Pitney Bowes  

This particular meter is a slogan meter.  The owner of the meter machine could arrange to have a separate die added to the machine to make a separate impression along with the meter itself.  These additional dies usually sported sales slogans or pictures of products of the companies whose meter machine it was.  In this case, the meter machine is owned by the War Department - Strategic Air Command, United States Air Force.  They choose to add a slogan with a logo and the initials.  

Slogan meters are very collectible, and are usually collected on cover or piece along with the meter indicia and the corner card indicating which company or organization the meter came from.




There is a lady from Italy who collects worldwide meters but only those whose slogan sports a turtle.  Have a look:  Turtle Meter Stamp Website

The DB series of US postage meters were the first to be made to look like postage stamps with frilly borders made to look like perforations.  This is an example of a multiple fixed-value die meter.  Each indicia (of the three) has a fixed value.  But the meter allows for multiple fixed values to be imprinted at once.  In this case 3¢, 3¢ and 2¢ to make up the 8¢ airmail rate.

Catalog# DB1. Pitney Bowes

Type D
Saint Paul, Minnesota

The slogan is a bit light but it says Vacation in Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes.  In the picture is two guys in a canoe on a lake.  One has a rod and the other is taking a fish off that rod that was recently caught.  As a side note, the University of Minnesota has some farms right in the middle of the city (it's an odd sight to see fields and a barn in the middle of a suburban neighborhood.  Their most important work as far as I am concerned  is creating a wine grape that is hardy enough to survive our weather extremes and shorter growing season.  

Minnesota already has a dozen wineries or so.

Here's something I've never seen before (which doesn't mean much).
Meter Postage Due, Boston 1956

In an email exchange regarding this meter with Rick Stambaugh, co-author of the 1994 The United States Postage Meter Stamp Catalog, I was provided this link to his update of the 2001 online catalog.

The revised catalog, which is still under construction, uses a new, more logical, decimal system for assigning Type numbers; type numbers that are different from the earlier edition show the previous designation.

This meter is identified as type QA7.5 in the updated catalog.

As time permits, I'll go back through the previous posts and update the 2001 types shown o conform with the new system.

The below Neopost digital indicium with 2D barcode was imprinted by a postage meter of the “IS-280, IN-300/-600/-700/-5000/-6000" series on November 11, 2018 and is designated QA7.3. The imprint was not listed in the 2001 edition of the U.S. Postage Meter Stamp catalog.

Another presorted first class MAIL meter imprint from a Hasler WJ Pro (QA6.1). The mailing category differs from those previously shown (i.e., PRSRT-FIRST-CL).

Received this meter imprint on a mail piece that arrived today. I'd never seen a meter from a quadient machine before and wondered if a new player had taken the field. A little Googling revealed that Neopost changed its business name to quadient on September 23, 2019. This imprint is categorized as QA9.5.

Meter postage...

What do you think about the custom(ized) postage [named "personalized stamps", or "personalised stamps", in about 60+ countries]?

USPS referred to them as "meter postage with an image".

It stopped all such programs in USA in June 2020.

I still have such "personalized stamps" that I designed at Zazzle, endicia, and stamps.com, in USA.
Also, at Australia Post, Royal Mail UK, and TNT Netherlands.

Here's an example of what I designed in USA, "a meter stamp with an image":
link.medium.com/yHDFxbkj9lb

Then I created the above non-traditional maxicard, with that Eminescu "personalized stamp".

Received in yesterday's mail, a Pitney Bowes digital frank with 2-D barcode from the Datamatrix series, identified as QB1.5A.

This frank is similar to previous QB1 types but the arc over the eagle's head contains 3 stars on either side of "PITNEY BOWES."

Two wing feathers appear above a large "US POSTAGE" and stubs of two other feathers appear under the eagle's beak.

The "A" designation is associated with identification numbers "02 1P" over 10-digit numbers starting with 00011, 00012, 00026 and 00035.

Digital stamps generated by personal computer software or online are listed in Group PC in the U.S. Postage Meter Stamp Catalog.

This frank, generated from Pitney Bowes software, is identified as PC-D5.7B. As shown, data is stacked to the left of the Datamatrix barcode: Pitney Bowes / the value figures / US POSTAGE (A) or US POSTAGE IMI (B) / a mail class statement / the identification number with 026W prefix / a ten-digit number starting with "3" / the zip code / the date.

The stamp began with the partnership between eBay and Pitney Bowes for "eBay delivery service" shipping. This stamp is on an eBay standard envelope.