Mystery souvenir cards

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GregAlex

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Posted 1553668699 · Edited	Reply with quote #1

In the process of accumulating images to post in the photo gallery of the SCCS website, I've come across numerous cards that have not been cataloged in the SCCS numbering system. Or at least, I don't think they have. These are cards we will be discussing as the new Cataloging Committee continues to work through numerous tasks. I thought it might be educational to post some of these unlisted cards here; maybe some member can provide further information about them. Some of these may ultimately be deemed non-cards, but if they get numbers I'll post those down the line. Note: None of these cards are in my collection and I have never seen them in-hand, all I have are images and some are low-res. Here are some of the early ones...
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MaineJoe

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Posted 1553777773	Reply with quote #2

Neat Greg! I have seem a few of those pass by on eBay, go figure, right?
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GregAlex

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Posted 1553805294	Reply with quote #3

Quote: Originally Posted by MaineJoe Neat Greg! I have seem a few of those pass by on eBay, go figure, right? Yes, you have! I don't often bid on them, but if the image is high res, I will download it for possible inclusion on the SCCS website. These are often quite rare, so it's important to document them. If anyone comes across early forerunners like this, please PM me. And now here are some more current mysteries that have yet to be cataloged. Not sure if this one is engraved or not: This one was cut down from SO-37 and repurposed for an SPMC banquet. We are working out how to catalog modified card varieties like this. This one certainly looks intaglio -- it appears to have a die impression around the stamps. And there's even a USPS authorization at the bottom. But I've never seen it before. The Christmas Seal Society overprinted a number of different intaglio prints that I think were originally printed by Mike Bean on his spider press. We have to sort out what category these belong to. And then there's this interesting piece. Apparently the ASDA had triptych cards specially printed by American Bank Note for their Man of the Year banquets. I know of at least one more of these from a different year, also with an ABNC vignette. It's definitely a souvenir -- does that make it a semi-official card?
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CurrencyDen1

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Posts: 79

Posted 1554156178	Reply with quote #4

The Centennial Dwight Comp has a twin from Great Falls Co instead. Both these large notes (212x241 mm) are valued at $400 in The Catalog of Printers' Test notes.
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GregAlex

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Posted 1554158525 · Edited	Reply with quote #5

Quote: Originally Posted by CurrencyDen1 The Centennial Dwight Comp has a twin from Great Falls Co instead. Both these large notes (212x241 mm) are valued at $400 in The Catalog of Printers' Test notes. Here's an example -- and I believe there is a third variety, but I don't recall the name of the company. I've been wondering about these cards. I always thought they were souvenirs from the 1876 Centennial Exhibition. But recently saw one described in an auction catalog as a "fabric label" - maybe something that was attached to large rolls. If Centennial was a brand name, then these don't actually qualify as souvenir cards or test notes. More research is in order. EDIT: Just found this on Ebay... https://www.ebay.com/itm/GREAT-FALLS-CO-1876-CENTENNIAL-FABRIC-BOLT-LABEL-ILLUS-PRESIDENTS-/372531510192 and this... https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1876-dwight-co-centennial-advertising-200191809
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bkzoopapa

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Posts: 66

Posted 1556767431	Reply with quote #6

The Collectors Club of Chicago is an interesting place. Great old 4 story brownstone in Chicago’s Gold Coast. The club in open to stamp collectors by invitation only. Has a huge Philatelic library. Informal meetings are held monthly. I was was invited to give a talk on Encased Postage back in the 1980’s to the group of mostly high end stamp collectors. Careen was a prolific philatelic writer and had a stamp column in the Chicago Tribune for over 35 years, gave his house for a permanent home to the club. It’s on the Historic Register now.
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GregAlex

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Posted 1556776175	Reply with quote #7

I would love to visit that place! And I'll be in Chicago in August. So I just need to see if I can finagle in invite. I'm actually an officer of the Northwest Philatelic Library in Portland, so that might be a good may to connect.
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mikelaw

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Posts: 1,601

Posted 1556823434	Reply with quote #8

Good stuff Greg. Love the 1876 centennial cards. A Trevose dealer had sesquicentennial ephemera items from Philly and Chicago at very reasonable prices..$20. Will try to pickup next month and share. Very cool. Keep posting. Link and photo: https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/sesquicentennial-international-exposition/ Attached Images FFA75EF9-5339-4551-BF8B-37909DA6AA09.jpeg (384.44 KB, 36 views) __________________ Mike
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GregAlex

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Posted 1556825959 · Edited	Reply with quote #9

We have managed to assign a couple numbers... This will be F-1994A (1994 MANA “Old Capitol”) And this is now SO-37(a). All of the repurposed cards (cut-down and/or overprinted) will be given small letter suffixes as varieties.
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Berny

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Posts: 320

Posted 1557033584 · Edited	Reply with quote #10

Quote: Originally Posted by GregAlex And this is now SO-37(a). All of the repurposed cards (cut-down and/or overprinted) will be given small letter suffixes as varieties. I sure hope that the "cut-down" cards by dealers, and subsequently TPG'ed will not receive SCCS approval by listing them on the website or elsewhere with their own variety number!? This would encourage further destruction of SC's since they tend to sell at many times their true cost and value.
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GregAlex

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Posted 1557042064 · Edited	Reply with quote #11

Oh no -- no worries there. In this circumstance "repurposed" is the operative word, rather than "cut-down." For a better explanation, let's step into the WayBack Machine… In the 1980s, when ABNC first started producing souvenir cards, they printed them on contract for various organizations like the ANA and the SPMC. So the ANA would take delivery, then sell them at their major shows. They had to guess at how many they could sell and initially they weren't very good at it. With SO-12 (ANA 1980), for instance, they ordered 19,000, but sold less than 8,000. This happened fairly often and after a number of years they were sitting on a stockpile of thousands of unsold cards. Around 1989 someone hit on the idea that they could just trim off the dated portion of the cards, then add some new text on the back and recycle them as giveaway items. They started out doing this for visitors at the ANA Museum in Colorado Springs, then began giving them out at coin shows to promote upcoming ANA conventions. Other groups caught on and did the same thing with their own surplus cards. The first two times this occurred, the SCCS gave these repurposed cards their own catalog numbers (SO-64 and SO-73). But soon after they reversed that decision and have since ignored these cards altogether -- until we came up with a solution earlier this year to treat them as varieties with "sub-numbers." We will be relisting SO-64 and SO-73 as SO-34(a) and SO-12(a), respectively. There are probably a couple dozen of these repurposed cards, mostly from the ANA. I thought they had run out by the early 2000s, but was surprised to see one pop up in 2017. I'll post a few examples. All of these will become varieties of the original cards. As far as cataloging these, we are only concerned with cards that have been cut down by the issuing entity. Dealers who trim down cards for their own purposes won't be getting anything from the SCCS, except perhaps a sniff of disdain.
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CurrencyDen1

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Posted 1559622197	Reply with quote #12

I believe this has Casilear printed at the bottom.
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GregAlex

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Posted 1559804585 · Edited	Reply with quote #13

Good eyes, Roland! I've had the Centennial Share reprint hanging on my office wall for many years, but I never noticed that. George Casilear was one of the BEP's first engravers and went on to become Superintendent of Engraving from 1889 to 1894, according to "The Engraver's Line." Here's a close-up, so everyone can see what we're talking about. This creates another mystery, though -- the Centennial Share certificate was produced for the 1876 Centennial International Exhibition, supposedly 13 years before Casilear was named superintendent.
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