baffled
**Member** 
Inactive
Too many stamps too little time
Posts: 23
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Post by baffled on May 7, 2018 4:06:06 GMT
I organizing a number of postal cards and a number of them have a strange mark by them by the stamp area. Originally, though it was just a weird accident but it is on all the duplicates too. It can be seen in the bottom two card examples that were in different. Is this common and what is it? The top postcard is a regular card but it has additional stamps and AIR MAIL stamped on it. I have a ton of these patriotic postal cards like this one but none of the others are cancelled or marked with air mail (unless air mail postcard). Do collectors add stamps to get the airmail mark to collect the mark or make it air mail? Does it make it cancelled? Is the unmarked postcard better to keep/reserved?  |
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Post by feebletodix on May 7, 2018 6:28:07 GMT
Hello Baffled
To my eye it looks like a phosphor band applied to the cover so it can be sorted automatially. A uv lamp in a dark room should make it glow.
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Beryllium Guy
Moderator 
Posts: 5,654 
What I collect: Worldwide Stamps 1840-1930
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Post by Beryllium Guy on May 7, 2018 10:52:12 GMT
Hello Baffled To my eye it looks like a phosphor band applied to the cover so it can be sorted automatically. A uv lamp in a dark room should make it glow. I agree, Gavin ( feebletodix), it looks like phosphor tagging to me, too. I never realized that these kinds of postal cards actually had it, but then, I never studied that area of stamp collecting. Learn something new every day!  |
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baffled
**Member**
Inactive
Too many stamps too little time
Posts: 23
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Post by baffled on May 7, 2018 16:05:10 GMT
They do fluoresce! I had already tried but didn't think about the time they had spent unexposed to light and pulled them out at night with only a nearby lamp before shining a Uv flashlight at one. Don't ask me why I already had a uv flashlight!LOL
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coastalcollector
Member 
Inactive
Posts: 98
What I collect: Worldwide Space, U58, U59 Entires, Machine Cancel Covers, German Private Postage of the late 1890's, Misc.
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Post by coastalcollector on May 7, 2018 16:57:21 GMT
The Paul Revere is printed in Phosphorescent Ink. The two Tourism cards are Phosphorus Tagged. The US started tagging Postal Cards in 1966. What you have are 1971 issues with the two different kinds of tagging.
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,720
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on May 11, 2018 14:34:44 GMT
I think you might find that those two different cards will fluoresce in different colours. The 6 cent card (with the extra stamps) would cover the rate for a regular post card and those will fluoresce green / yellow, whereas the 9 cent card covers the air mail rate, and those cards will fluoresce in red / pink. Leastwise, that's the way the postage stamps of that era work, with normal letter rate stamps glowing green under UV light and air mail stamps glowing red. The US kept up this dual colour scheme for automatic sorting of regular & air mail service levels until 1978 or thereabouts, when they started using green fluorescence on both the regular service and the air mail stamps.
Ryan
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