In the Spring 2016 pricelist, I mentioned how philatelic trends have come and gone over the years. Collecting Zip Code blocks was one trend that has faded away. I mentioned that there was a club, but I could not remember it.

Thanks to one of my regular customers for passing along a photocopy of the front cover of one of the newsletters “Mr. Zip’s Philatelic Club.” As it turns out, he was one of the collectors that saved Zip Code blocks years ago and he was a member of the club. He also mentioned that the Minkus album products included pages for mounting Zip Code blocks.

The title page to his collection includes the four major designs used for Mr. Zip over the years. First is a full figure Mr. Zip running to the right with a letter in his left hand and a mail bag trailing behind him in his right hand. Second is a full figure Mr. Zip standing tall with his left arm raised above his head. Third is a very slender appearing Mr. Zip with his arms in front of him. And fourth is a picture of his face only. The style of Mr. Zip used depended on the width of the margin of the pane of stamps. For example, some stamps had a very narrow margin due to the production processes used, and either the third or fourth design was used due to space limitations.

On a side note, the USPS later stopped using the Mr. Zip figure and included wording only for patrons to remember to use zip codes. I didn’t look it up, but it would be easy to find when the USPS stopped using Mr. Zip and when they stopped using the zip code inscription all together. None of the stamps produced today have any zip code reminder markings at all. After 50 years of using them, zip codes have become matter of fact if customers want their mail delivered on time. No reminder is necessary.

This is just one example of why I feel that I have the best customers in the world! I appreciate his follow up information that I’m able to share with you.