My Interesting Mail Collection - from an Envelope Collector

Inez is an envelope collector but she collects USED ENVELOPES - what a fantastic idea! Most pals, who store the letters they've received, would keep the envelopes -- but Inez goes above and beyond as pals send her used unusual envelopes! I'd love to see this envelope collection -- wouldn't you? Wendy

By Inez McCann, NB Canada

Nearly everybody collects something. Some collections are beautiful and some are very valuable. I can’t say that my collection is either valuable or beauftful but some of it is pretty. The best word to describe it is interesting.

I collect used envelopes, but not just common everyday ones. The ones I collect are different or unusual in some way. Like many collections, it wasn’t planned - it just happened. It really started because of three of my other interests - stamp collecting, penpalling and stationery decorating. Through my stamp collecting, I began to get a few First Day Covers and Souvenir Covers. Then I began to exchange stamps with foreign penpals and I saved all those envelopes. When I started exchanging hand-made greeting cards, the envelopes were usually decorated with pretty designs. I kept them also and before I knew it, it had become a collection.

I have envelopes made from wallpaper, calendar pages and even road maps. One red envelope has written on it “It’s a red letter day,” and it really was because the writer beame a long-time pen friend.

Many envelopes have special cancellations. My particular favorites are rthe ones about stamp collecting. “Falling love with stamp collecting.” “Splash into an ocean of fun - collect stamps.” “Philately is a family hobby.” “Do something wild - collect stamps.” One from England says “Collect British stamps.”

There is an amusing story about one of my First Day Covers. Years ago, my late husband, Murray and I owned a service station. One day a tourist who was having car trouble stopped there. He was on his way home from vacation and in a hurry because he needed to be back home in time to go to work. It was almost closing time, but my husband, being kind-hearted and obliging, worked long after hours to get the car fixed. The man was very grateful and told Murray that to show his appreciation he would send him a little gift in the mail. A few days later an envelope arrived. It was a First Day Cover from Providence, Rhode Island. The caption on it says “This envelope was processed by the First Fully Automated Post Office in the United States, October 20, 1960.” Murray, who had no interest whatever in stamp collecting and didn’t even know the meaning of First Day Cover, was not very impressed with his “gift” but needless to say I was happy to add it to my collection.

Some of the envelopes are included in my collection because of mistakes by the Post Office. One letter was mailed tome from Ontarion. When I received it, I found written on it “Mis-sent to London, England.” It had travelled across the Atlantic Ocean and back again before o got it. One letter slipped through the Post Office with only a one-cent stamp on it. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could mail every letter for just one cent? I have one envelope that was mailed with one United States stamp and one Canadian stamp. Another was mailed with one Canadian stamp and one British stamp. In both cases the numbers added up to the correct total for postage. The postal workers who handled these letters would get an A for math but maybe they should study a little more geography.

One letter must have survived some very rough treatment, because it arrived in my mail box in a plastic “body bag” with apologies for its condition from the United States Post Office.

I have several envelopes which had been returned to their sender because of insufficient postage. They added the extra stamps and then mailed them to me again. This usually happens when there is a postal increase.

One of my oddities is a Japanese one. I bought a package of bulk used stamps on paper from a stamp company. In it I found an envelope with Japanese stamps on it. I couldn’t read the address. It was written in Japanese.

Among my special postmarks are two Christmas ones. One is postmarked Christmas, Florida, and the other, Christmas Island, Nova Scotia. One of the oldest ones I have is postmarked Coronation, Alberta, at the time of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953 and it has the coronation stamp on it. If you would like a special postmark on an envelope, check out the article on Page 13 in your Jan/Feb issue of Inky Trail News. That article was about Valentine postmarks, but you can follow the same instructions to get your letter postmarked anywhere you choose.

On a sadder note, I have an envelope I mailed to a penpal, and it was returned to me marked “Deceased.” Another was returned marked “Moved - no forwarding address.” write to anyone, and in return I receive lots of pretty ones. To mention a few, I have angels and Santa Claus, snowmen and hearts, Easter bunnies and Jack-o’-lanterns, as well as all kinds of flowers, butterflies and birds. My daughter who is a bird-watcher puts a different bird on each letter.

Not all the envelopes are addressed to me. Friends and penpals sometimes give me some. A penpal sent me one the other day with some very nice stamps on it. It was addressed to her from her daughter who lives in Senegal.

As I was getting a letter ready to mail one day, I looked at it and I thought to myself “I wish someone was sending that envelope to me,” and then I thought of a way to make it happen. Sometimes it is necessary to send someone a SASE (self addressed stamped envelope). Now that is the way to get any decoration you want and it’s the kind of “Return to Sender” that you like to receive. To date I have three of them and I am expecting more.

It is amazing to think that a collection that started in a shoe box has now grown to fill eight scrapbooks.

--Inez welcomes letters, and promises that your reply won’t come in a plain old envelope with only the address and a stamp.