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629th Tank Destroyer Battalion


disneydave
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Dave,

 

Were these stamps a patriotic sort of thing you would put on your mail?? I've never seen these before.

 

Thanks,

Jim

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Hello Jim.

 

They were a money making, circulation boosting, marketing venture employed by the Hearst newspaper chain.

 

Hearst published a total of five insignia stamp albums. Each album had a space for 50 differed gummed stamps and each space contained a paragraph or two about the unit featured in the esign.

 

The albums were sold for 15 cents each by the different Hearst newspapers across the United States and were imprinted on the top of the front cover with the name of the newspaper.

 

The newspapers had an insignia column in which they reprinted black and white versions of the insignia stamps. The readers were supposed to cut these out and send them to the newspaper, who in turn would send the color, gummed stamp back to the customer.

 

For the most part the designs offered were created by the Disney Studio, and to a lesser degree other famous cartoonists including Walt Lantz, Pat Sullivan and George McManus.

 

Here is a breakdown of the Disney designs per volume:

 

1) Volume One: 16 Disney designs

 

2) Volume Two: all 50

 

3) Volume Three: 44

 

4) Volume Four: 48

 

5) Volume Five: only 1

 

The stamps have also appeared glued to the front of war era envelopes, although that was not their intended purpose.

 

The stamp albums can be found with frequencey on eBay and usually sell in the $25 - $50 range each, depending on condition and completeness.

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Well, you do learn something new everyday.

 

These are pretty cool, I can't believe I've never seen these. I'll keep an eye out for them.

 

What scares me a little is I can remember all those cartoonists. Lantz especially for Woody Woodpecker.

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Hey, I remember Woody Woodpecker too ......... now I'm scared too! :blink:

 

Thanks for the explanation on these designs and stamps.

I love it.

 

Erwin

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