Cinderella Booklets

In fairy tale land Cinderella is an abused stepchild forced to live by the fireplace: who emerges triumphant and becomes a princess. In the philatelic world, cinderellas are the stepchildren of postage stamps and achieve success when the function for which they were made becomes a reality.

Just as there are cinderella “stamps” so there are cinderella booklets, each with its own mission. At the 1936 SEPAD  (a stamp exhibition of the SouthEastern Pennsylvania And Delaware stamp clubs) a special booklet was issued to celebrate the Swedish-American Tercentenary. Inside are five souvenir sheets with one “stamp” in the center of each. The “stamp” shows Peter Minuit (he bought Manhattan for $24 for the Dutch West India Company in 1625) and Swedish settlers being greeted by Native Americans in Delaware, near what has become the city of Wilmington. The five souvenir sheets show the same picture but in different colors. Cinderellas, both “stamps” and booklets, are usually issued at large stamp shows. Figure 1 shows the front cover of the SEPAD booklet.

Figure 1 - Front Cover of SEPAD 1938 cinderella booklet

Many airlines issued airmail labels to stick on envelopes to indicate to the Post Office that special service has been prepaid. The labels usually indicated the name of the airline. The booklets have no price on the cover so it is assumed that they were given to their passengers. The Boys’ Athletic League, Inc. of New York City (see Figure 2) gave away booklets of “via airmail, special delivery, registered mail, and Send a Boy to Camp” cinderellas. They did not charge for the booklet but made it clear that contributions were welcome.

Figure 2 - Boys' Athletic League, Inc. front cover. A list of camps, recreation centers, and tot lots is on the back.

Christmas seals are cinderellas but have been given somewhat more legitimacy than other cinderellas because they are listed in the Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps & Covers. It is easy to find their value. With other cinderellas you have to do quite a bit of searching to find their market value. Today, Christmas seals are issued in sheets, but many early seals were issued in booklets. Figure 3 shows a booklet pane from 1930. The practice was to mail the seals along with a request for a contribution.

Figure 3 - Christmas seal booklet pane from 1930

A curious cinderella booklet was issued by the Jersey Gold Creameries, Inc. of Shreveport, LA. It sold for $4.00 and contains coupons which are redeemable for $4.00 of the Creameries’ milk products. (“Jersey” in the company’s name refers to the type of cow that provides the milk.) This booklet was issued in the 1930’s when $4.00 was a week’s wages to many people. Figure 4 shows the front cover of the booklet which states “GOOD MILK HELPS BUILD SHREVEPORT.” Each of the coupons states the same. This is a true collectible and is offered by both antique and philatelic dealers for about $20.00. It is not known how much money, if any, was donated toward building Shreveport as a result of the sale of these booklets

Figure - 4 Front cover of Jersey Gold Creameries, Inc. of Shreveport, LA

At Ameripex ’86, the Booklet Collectors Club sold a souvenir booklet for $2.00. It contained four 22 cent stamps that were issued for the show (see Figure 5). The stamps were legitimate United States Postage stamps. The booklet covers were made by the Club, not by the United States Postal Service. When real stamps are combined with a private cover one must ask the question, “Is this a cinderella booklet?” Because the booklet was privately made, it is considered to be a cinderella even though the stamps are valid for postage.

Figure 5 - Inside Booklet Collectors Club souvenir booklet for Ameripex '86 showing postage stamps and a privately made cover.