Philatelic company serves up apology on 1967 meter stamp

U.S. Stamp Notes by John M. Hotchner

You would think that anyone or any institution connected with stamp collecting would use stamps on their mail, or at least some sort of decorative substitute in the customized postage line. Of course the latter didn’t exist in 1967 when the postage meter stamp shown here was used.

I pick up the occasional postage meter stamp if it relates to one of my topical collections: lawn mowers, blood, refugees, and death and dying.

This example has no connection to any of those, but still, I had to buy it. Why? The message is an apology.

Here is what it says: “Please forgive us … For using our mailing machine instead of applying stamps to your package. Today we are behind in our shipments, and in order to provide you with faster service, this is necessary.”

It is signed, “ABC Stamp Company.” Presumably this is the ABC Stamp Company of San Francisco, Calif., where the postage meter stamp was used on Feb. 1, 1967.

The company could have been behind because business was really good or because it was inefficient. We will never know.

The last mention of this company I found on the Internet was a 1974 ad offering approvals in Popular Mechanics. I assume that the company is no longer in business.

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