One Christmas, in the early 1970s, my brother gave my mother an FM radio converter for her car as her holiday gift. She didn’t want one and certainly hadn’t asked for it. My brother’s motive was diabolical but obvious....
You see, he was allowed to drive my mother’s car. It was equipped with only a standard AM radio, known primarily for talk shows, traffic reports, lousy fidelity and static. The converter would allow the car to receive the FM band with many rock stations. (My brother contended it was so mom could listen to classical music – something she never did.)Mom saw through the ruse but was a good sport. A few years later, cars came standard with AM/FM. Then, came 8-Track tape players. After that, cassette and CD players. Today, all those are long in the rear-view mirror. Streaming stations, satellite radio and Bluetooth are now the beta. Even so, with over 6,000 AM stations, the airwaves are still full on that band. For now.
It was just announced that cars may no longer come with AM radios, signaling the end of an era. It was on AM that Americans learned of everything from the sinking of the Titanic, the Hindenburg disaster; the beginning and ending of World Wars I and II and far more. AM radio was also the primary source for all music, comedy and entertainment from the 1920s through the ‘50s.
The potential end of that radio age made me think of the countless items no longer in day-to-day use that have even become sought-after collectibles. Tops on that list are so many of the stamps and coins once daily staples but now relegated to mere memories of notable value.
Silver dollars are obvious examples but numismatists also know of two-cent and three-cent coins that circulated between the 1850s and 1870s. Struck from copper, nickel and/or silver, in good condition the coins now carry a hefty premium. But, was there a reason why such coins were made in those particular denominations? I’ll reveal that in a moment.
Perhaps the most obvious antiquated items are Air Mail stamps. First instituted in 1918, the last stamps for that purpose were sold by the USPS in 2012. By then they had become arguably useless. After all, most all long-distance mail had already long been transported on jets at no extra charge.
It certainly wasn’t always so. From Charles Lindbergh to Graf Zeppelin airships, the romance of letters sent under the air mail designation at quantifiably higher rates has been epic. It remains so as evidenced by the prices brought by vintage Air Mail stamps sold by dealers and at auction.
Beginning in the 1880s another service enchanted postal patrons – Special Delivery. The precursor to FedEx, it was when an actual messenger would arrive in person at your door to hand deliver an important letter. Those stamps embody the enchantment of that era.
So too for others such as Postage Due stamps applied when not enough postage had been used; exceptionally attractive Newspaper Stamps attached to mailed periodicals; exotic Parcel Post stamps on packages; Special Handling stamps for important fourth class mail; privately issued Local Stamps utilized by carriers other than the Post Office Department; and countless Proprietary tax stamps applied to everything from playing cards and medicines to tobacco and, yes, marijuana. (Those last stamps are particularly sought out and paid for dearly by collectors.)
Due to across-the-board modernization in our “virtual” world, even now we’re seeing the slow demise of one of the most historically popular items ever issued – the annual Duck Stamp. Since their introduction in 1934, they have served as proof hunters paid the fee allowing them to hunt waterfowl. The intricate designs on Duck Stamps have long captivated collectors and sent values soaring. Though they still exist, proof of hunting fees can now be ascertained online by wildlife agents. That all but eliminates the need for the colorful stamps.
There are countless more examples of what we have enjoyed and relied on silently slipping away. Some justified. Some not so much. The potential demise of AM radio merely underscores what some might consider “progress.”
As for those valuable two- and three-cent coins so popular among collectors, they have their roots in stamps as well. When those coins were issued, standard postal rates in the United States were two-cents for local and three-cents for farther delivery. They were meant to easily pay for those denomination stamps with a single coin. They did so, nicely.
For more collecting information and advice, log on to: http://prexford.com/.