Today’s #stampoftheday took me into a whole different part of my dad’s stamp collection: a notebook full not of stamps but of postage-meter stamps, mostly from the mid 1950s, organized by state and then city. Some states, like New York, are well represented. Pages for others, like Wyoming, are blank.

Here’s a cancellation for May 12, 1955 from Stamford, CT, where my parents lived (and where I was born two years later). The page it was on wasn’t that interesting, so I’ve also scanned one of the New York pages, that had some slightly more interesting postage meter stamps, including one that seems timely saying “Eat Cheese So Much Nourishment for So Little Money.” For the most part, however, this notebook has not stood the test of time as well as the books with stamps and first-day covers.

By the way, the first postal meter to be commercially produced and distributed was invented by Arthur Pitney. He was assisted by a businessman named Walter Bowes and Bowes’ stepson, Walter Wheeler (who, for some reason, didn’t get to have the business they created named after him). After several prototypes were created and reviewed by the U.S. Postal Service, the Model M was formally approved for use in November 1920. And, many people like my dad, collected postage meter stamps. There is even a Meter Stamp Society.

Stay safe and be well.