Here are five old poster stamps from a series of twenty 64 x 50 millimeter poster stamps issued under the direction of the St. Paul Association of Commerce in 1920. Poster stamps were usually advertising labels, a little larger than  postage stamps. They became a collecting craze in the 1800 and remained popular up until into the 1920′s. In addition to their use in promoting promotion of every type of product poster stamps often championed causes. They were also widely used by both sides during World War One as political propaganda. As late as the 1930s they were still being used to promote political and other causes. In 1937, the  Austrian human rights activist Irene Harand published a series of anti-Nazi poster stamps portraying the contributions of Jews to civilization. Poster Stamps are now almost forgotten except by collectors like my Uncle Joe. I think I may have a couple more of these under my bed. I’ll post them here if they turn up.

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