Day 10: Cinderella Stamps: Part III
Part I and Part II
Officially Issued Cinderellas
Some Cinderellas are issued by official government agencies, but not for postal purposes. For example, Railway Stamps.
Railway Stamps
These are specialized stamps issued by railway companies, either private or state run, to pay for letters, parcels, and newspapers by rail rather than the national postal services. All of mine are Belgian dating from the 1920s into the 1940s. Spoorwegen is Railway.
Railway Stamps emerged in Britain in 1891, allowing letters to be carried by rail, alongside a regular postal stamp. An earlier form was the 1835 sticker used by the Stockton & Darlington Railway. These traditional paper Railway Stamps have mostly disappeared, although some restored or preserved heritage railways issue them as collectibles.
Non-Government Issued Cinderellas
Fundraising or Charity Stamps
You probably receive some fundraising “stamps” in the mail a few times a year. While not as common as they used to be, organizations still send out stamps in hopes you’ll donate to their cause.
Easterseals (formerly Easter Seals) is a U.S. nonprofit founded in 1919 that provides disability services to children and adults.
Christmas Seals
Introduced in Denmark in 1904, Christmas seals raise funds for tuberculosis (TB) care. In 1907 the first seals were issued in the US, and now over 130 countries issue them. In 1919 the American Lung Association took over the program in the U.S. Funds support research and programs aimed at preventing and treating not only TB, but lung diseases such as asthma, lung cancer and the effects of air pollution. I have Christmas Seals from the US and three other countries.
A Boys Town fundraising stamps from 1967, the 50th anniversary.
Religious Cinderellas
Grace Lutheran Sanatorium in San Antonio, Texas served patients with tuberculosis and other chronic illnesses. The site now houses the Texas Diabetes Institute.
This from 1910-1930 has an misprinted apostrophe, which was not uncommon for the time period.
Miscellaneous Cinderellas
In 1961 and 1962 TOPPS inserted two baseball stamps into wax packs of baseball cards. This one is from 1961.
This Cinderella is a personalized decorative sticker from a UK Royal Mail “Smilers” sheet, used for bulk commercial and promotional mailing c. 2002. Smiler Sheets contain first-class postage side-by-side with personalize labels. This particular Smiler as used on Club 18-30's summer holiday booking brochure.
Those of us of a certain age will remember our mothers collecting either Blue Chip Stamps, or S&H Green Stamps. Those were Cinderellas. My mother collected Blue Chip Stamps, my friends' mothers must have shopped in different stores, as they saved Green Stamps. In the 1960s S&W produced more stamps than the US Post Office. Blue Chip Stamps peaked in the 1970s, when I collected them. I still use a pie server with my last name initial on it I got with the stamps!
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