Page 96 - Demo

Postage Due stamps were first created in the U.S. in 1879, and they remained in use until 1985 when new regulations required full prepayment of postage in all cases. They were affixed by postal clerks to mail containing insufficient postage, and indicated the amount to be collected from the addressee.I received this cover, and the two on the following page, each having multiple Postage Due stamps, as a bonus gift from an eBay seller, when I purchased a large grouping of Last Day Covers at the end of 2020. Each is a Business Reply Envelope that contains the words %u201cNo Postage Necessary If Mailed in the United States.%u201d When the Post Office received a batch of envelopes like this, all to be returned to the same addressee (in this case, the Rural Bankers Life) they applied Postage Due stamps to a single envelope in amount due for the entire batch, and that amount was collected when they were delivered. Over the years there have been four different designs for Postage Due stamps. The ones on these covers are of the third design, and they were introduced in 1925. They were produced in denominations ranging from a half-cent to $5.00, and remained in use until the final series was created in 1959.