Air Mail was formally established as a new class of service by the Post Office Department on May 15, 1918, with the inauguration of the Washington–Philadelphia–New York route for which the first of special Air Mail stamps were issued.
Us airmail $0.07 stamp series#
Letters and parcels intended for air mail service were marked as "Via Air Mail" (or equivalent), appropriately franked, and assigned to any then existing class or sub-class of the Air Mail service.Īfter an intermittent series of government sponsored experimental flights between 19, domestic U.S. United States airmail was a service class of the United States Post Office Department (USPOD) and its successor United States Postal Service (USPS) delivering air mail by aircraft flown within the United States and its possessions and territories. PHILA." "– FIRST TRIP" "PHILA." (Type: USPOD CDS w/killer bars) Air Mail stamp, the 24 Cent "Jenny"(C-3).
Easy peasy.Cover flown on the first day of scheduled Air Mail Service in the U.S. (Aside: Back when I was in the States and regularly sending snailmail to my Norwegian beau, a domestic stamp was 22 cents and an airmail letter to Europe was 44 cents. Of course, that also means that cheaper seamail rates are all but extinct. Nearly all intercontinental mail, and the lion’s share of the international mail that stays on one continent, goes by plane. Very little mail goes by sea any more, even parcel post. I said that, well, none of the pile of thirty-odd cards I sent had those stickers on, so why did only nine get returned? She told me, and I am not making this up, that those nine probably had the misfortune of being sorted by someone who really needed a hobby Then she gave me enough of the stickers to last me for at least a couple of Christmases… When I took them back to the post office to ask why, the clerk said that it was probably because they didn’t have the blue Par Avion stickers. Some of the Christmas cards I sent Stateside from Troll Country last year were returned to me. Nonetheless, they’re still printing those blue “Par Avion/Air Mail” stickers, and the clerk at my local station insists on including one on every First Class International parcel I send. Maybe there is a good GQ question in asking why the airplane symbol is on the 90c stamp if there is no longer any such thing as airmail. They are a relic of a past that no longer lives. I don’t really care how Scotts classifies anything. Priority Mail® International Flat Rate Envelope Mail to other countries is now called First Class Mail® International.Įxpress Mail® International Flat Rate Envelope No, I mean that the USPS has completely eliminated any category of service that is called airmail. The big problem with criteria used by Scott for US stamps is that they don’t work for other postal countries, where stamps can be issued with pictures of planes at air-mail rates, and they are regarded by all as just ordinary stamps. However, I don’t think the US has ever issued such stamps. (2) denominated with an amount for air-mail postage.įor me, a real “air-mail stamp” would be one that could only be used for air-mail. While I know Scott’s does class them as air-mail stamps, they really are just ordinary stamps: They can be used for domestic use as well, and perhaps that is what you meant by there being no such thing as airmail. Airmail stamps can be distinguished by the small aircraft silhouette printed on the stamp. The 90c stamp cited is considered to be an air mail stamp (by Scotts and by other major stamp catalogues throughout the world). You are incorrect when you say there are no air mail stamps. You are right in that any postage adding up to the correct rate can be used to send mail overseas.