Going Postal

[Colpy]

i recently inherited a massive amount of "stuff" from my Mom's old house.....including about 350 old post cards......mostly post marked between 1904 and 1915. So I got looking......at post marks....Good Lord!!!!

Check it out!

1910: the card dated by the writer Nov. 3.
Post Marked "Boston MASS" Nov 4
Post Marked "Elgin NB" Nov 5!!!!!!!

(Elgin is about 15 klicks outside of Petticodiac, it is back in the hills of New Brunswick!)

One day delivery from Boston to Nowhereville NB. WOW! In 1910.

One day is a little quick.

Two days is standard, card after card after card!

1906 - Same Day post marks Saint John and Fredericton.

1904 - 2 day delivery between Niagra NY and Petticodiac, NB

1910 - 1 day delivery Halifax NS to Elgin NB

1910 - 5 days Winnipeg Manitoba to Elgin NB

1910 - 9 days Edgewood BC to Elgin NB

Now, this cost all of 1 cent postage.

And, to compare, it takes AT LEAST a week for my letters to get from Saint John, NB to my brother in Toronto. AT LEAST a week, two more days than it took to get a letter to Back Woods NB from Winnipeg.......

in 1910! You know, trains chugging, spilling huge clounds of cinder bearing smoke into the air, firemen stripped to the waist, blacked, shoveling coal into the boilers.....straight out of the old western movies.........

I am Gobsmacked........

 

[Kreskin]

Pretty cool stuff Colpy.

 

[lone wolf]

Any good condition collection-worthy stamps?

 

[Colpy]

Any good condition collection-worthy stamps?

I think that is what the cards were kept for, as there are also envelopes....no letters, just the envelopes. As for stamps, they are pretty well all the same....the King, you know, on a 1 cent stamp. Some of the later 1914 to 1918 ones have two stamps, one marked "WAR TAX". Also there is a wide variety of US stamps, relatives down in MASS...

As for value?

I wouldn't have a clue.....

 

[lone wolf]

Fortunately, you have the world at your fingertips....

Sux to realize the postal service was faster by baggage car than by Boeing. In comparative value, it wasn't any more expensive either.

 

[JLM]

Yep, that's amazing. I mail stuff from the interior of B.C. to Calgary quite often and have yet to see it get there in less than one week.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

Have a look at this, Colpy: CanadaRevenueStamps: Search Results.

You might be sitting on a fair pile of money there.

 

[karrie]

It seems incredible to consider that it was so quick alright. But, I bet the mail service also wasn't clogged with domino's flyers and credit card pre-approvals.

 

[Colpy]

Have a look at this, Colpy: CanadaRevenueStamps: Search Results.

You might be sitting on a fair pile of money there.

Thanks Dexter! Kudos to you and Lone Wolf....I would never be a success as a business man.....the idea this stuff was worth money had never even occured to me!

And it is: I have dozens of stamps listed at some quite impressive prices on the site.........

 

[karrie]

No... you don't. You have nothing of value in your home Colpy. Nothing to see there folks. Go about your business.

 

[Colpy]

It seems incredible to consider that it was so quick alright. But, I bet the mail service also wasn't clogged with domino's flyers and credit card pre-approvals.

True enough....but there was incredible volume. In a situation where you or I would just pick up the phone to say "Hi", people in that day sent off a post card....the messages are, in some cases, hilarious.

Jan 2 1910 (to my Grandfather, when I knew him a strict, tee-totaling Baptist, in 1910 all of 21 years of age - from his friend)

"How are you feeling? I am only able to take a little nourishment this morning"

:lol::lol: That is the entire body of the message.

Think they spent New Years together????

 

[Colpy]

No... you don't. You have nothing of value in your home Colpy. Nothing to see there folks. Go about your business.

Relax, Karrie.

Even if they could find me, people don't try to steal from me.

And it is not THAT impressive a haul....thanks for your concern, though.

 

[karrie]

True enough....but there was incredible volume. In a situation where you or I would just pick up the phone to say "Hi", people in that day sent off a post card....the messages are, in some cases, hilarious.

Jan 2 1910 (to my Grandfather, when I knew him a strict, tee-totaling Baptist, in 1910 all of 21 years of age - from his friend)

"How are you feeling? I am only able to take a little nourishment this morning"

:lol::lol: That is the entire body of the message.

Think they spent New Years together????

maybe that's the day he became a teetotaler. lol

 

[Nuggler]

Relax, Karrie.

Even if they could find me, people don't try to steal from me.

And it is not THAT impressive a haul....thanks for your concern, though.

Hey, $3.98 will getcha rolled these days.

Lube up the Uzi, Colpy.