Page 2 - Demo

The Postal Bulletin, October 24, 1921.The Stewartsville Post Office, in Posey Co., was establishedin 1852, and became a DPO in 1982.*Technically, a Last Day Cover can also commemorate the last day a stamp was on sale,the last day of a particular postal rate, or the last day of some other significant postal event.With openings, closings, and name changes, there have been over 200,000 Post Offices in the United States. Most are now closed. As local populations fluctuated, some were around for a few years, then not, then reopened again later. Currently, more than 30,000 Post Offices are in operation nationwide. The earliest Post Offices helped establish towns, aided community growth, and provided a solid sense of identity. When one shut down, it often reflected the area%u2019s loss of hope and vitality%u2014and it became a Dead Post Office (DPO) to philatelists. When announced in The Postal Bulletin, a closing was done with little fanfare%u2014and certainly no indication of the turmoil inflicted locally. In Indiana, at one time or another, there were more than 4,000 Post Offices, most of which are now DPOs. A cover with a cancellation on a last day of operation is, not surprisingly, known as a Last Day Cover.* This album contains a selection of Last Day Covers, all from Indiana Post Offices. Each can be found in a comprehensive list containing opening and closing dates, titled Indiana Post Offices, published by the Indiana Postal History Society. To cover collectors interested in postmarks, there are two terms that are routinely used interchangeably, but have different definitions%u2014a postmarkand a cancel. A postmark contains both the location of the Post Office and a date, while a cancel is what defaces the stamp to prevent its reuse. Sometimes, a postmark can also be the cancel. When separate from the postmark, the cancel is called the killer. The two markings are generally produced by the same device. The specific type of postmark/ cancel can be significant to some collectors. For example, a Doane%u2019s cancel has 4 or 5 killer bars to the right of the postmark, with a numeral