Topical Stamp Collecting
{More} Expanding Horizons

Meters

A postage meter imprints—directly onto an envelope or onto a tape to be applied to an envelope—a legal substitute for an adhesive postage stamp.

• First such devices were coin-operated, as an experiment, in the United States in 1897, in Norway in 1900, in New Zealand in 1904, and in Great Britain in 1912
• U.S. approved use of the Model A Pitney-Bowes postage meter in 1920
• In 1922 the Pitney-Bowes machine was approved for use by the Universal Postal Union

Pitney-Bowes began selling “advertising slogans,” which opened up another area of possibility for topical collectors.

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