Cinderella Stamps, Faux Stamps and Artistamps

[Speicher3]

A new sheet fresh from the perforating machine.

[Maddymail]

I’ve been following this thread for sometime. Interested in some of these stamps and their stories,
I’ve never seen Cinderella’s before until realising I have a sheet of Cinderella’s buried in a storage box with ‘First Day Covers’ that need to be sorted.

Back in 2008, I visited the Bluebell Heritage Museum Railway in Sussex, southern England, on the train the guard/conductor came round selling FDC’s & stamps of the railway known as ‘Bluebell Railway Letter Stamps’

This the 2008 issue for when Southern Railway West Country Express locomotive ‘Blackmoor Vale’ was returned to steam.

There where quite a few in the series issued between 2002 & 2013 usually when a steam locomotive was restored and returned to steam, or when a milepost in the railways history was reached.
On subsequent visits I have been told the Volunteer at the railway that produced the covers is sadly no longer present. However private FDC producers such Buckingham Covers still produce railway themed covers for the railway.

https://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/letter-service.html

https://www.buckinghamcovers.com/search/bluebell/index.php?topsearch=Bluebell

[jeffbh]

Here’s a plate of Cinderellas issued to promote the 1956 release of a record by Thelonious Monk. Apparently people thought the stamps were legitimate and some were sent through the mail, complete with postal cancellations. The F.B.I. found out about the issue and told the record company to stop distributing the stamps, or face legal action. As a result, the record company destroyed the remaining stamps, thus apparently making the surviving stamps valuable. (This block of eight was being offered for $6,500.00)

[lemontoffy]

I looove these

[roxsm]

I absolutely love Mr. Zip! I have quite a few of these. I never intended to collect these, but there goes my little collection growing on accident! Are these, though, technically considered gutter stamps?

[jeffbh]

Here’s a set of Cinderellas that were included with a vinyl record called Tropics and Meridians released by the band June of 44 in 1996.

[vireolanius]

I (when I remember) put them on the postcard or envelope as well. Cool bit of history to include.

[jeffbh]

For all those Postcrossers who are members of the sick, twisted, cult of Mr. Zip, here’s an early “music” video for you.

(198) Zip Code Song - YouTube

[roxsm]

Why do you call it sick and twisted? Just curious.

[jeffbh]

I was actually just kidding. (I’m a fan of Mr. Zip, myself). By the same token, however, if you watch the previously attached video, featuring a demented version of Peter, Paul and Mary, times two, only in this case, they’re not singing about Puff the Magic Dragon, they’re instead dancing around like deranged maniacs singing about the virtues of putting zip codes on your letters, while in the background there’s about thirty smiling Mr. Zips all with their eyes wide open as though they’d just ingested handfuls of certain pharmaceuticals that, let’s just say, probably aren’t exactly legal, …well, after having watched the video just twice, I’m still waking up in the middle of the night in cold sweats. I just hope for the sake of humanity that there’s not more videos like that out there, produced courtesy of The United States Postal Service.

[roxsm]

I see what you mean. Especially all the cutouts of Mr. Zip towards the end of the video. I guess they really wanted people to remember to use zip codes! I doubt that the USPS could even afford to make a video like that anymore

[jeffbh]

Actually, the U.S.P.S. couldn’t make a video like that anymore because I heard a rumor that “The Swingin’ Six” quit the Postal Service and became Metallica’s backing band. Who would’ve thought ?

[mirojones]

I am the operator of the Bermagui Local Post (BLP). A private local post is a private postal service that operates within a limited area. There is a society dedicated to the collecting of local post stamps, the Local Post Collectors Society. I issue postage stamps for my service. In philately, they are known as ‘locals’, rather than cinderellas.

This is my most recent issue, Bird Series.

I think I agree that Cinderella stamps aren’t great, because they cannot be used in any type of post.

Regards,
Miro Jones, Postmaster, BLP

[mirojones]

This video was made by a postcrosser named Graham Beck. He’s got a great channel about philately called Exploring Stamps. His username is Graham_Beck.

[reisegern]

Thanks for sharing that information.
So: Thanks to @Graham_Beck for making all those lovely videos.
“Album Weeds”?!?
I have to admit that I love to buy cinderella stamps - you don’t find them that often any more nowadays, though.
I’d love to see something about artistamps and the connected mail art culture…
And I love the video about the stamp art at stampex. (But that’s off topic here )

[Hemang]

Super nice Cinderellas

[jeffbh]

Welcome to Sealand, the world’s smallest state | 60 Minutes

[Labella79]

Dear all,

I have got some “stamps” from Ajman State and Umm Al-Qiwain that are just a thin sheet of paper with a postmark on it, and I’m not sure what they are exactly. If these are real stamps or what they’re used for instead of mailing postal items.
Maybe anyone knows here in the forum.

They look like this:

Thank you very much in advance.

[Seracker]

Ajman

Stamps from Ajman Stamp catalogue - LastDodo

Hope this helps!