Postal Savings Certificates

Just put a single frame exhibit of postal savings certificates together so thought I should share.

Found a couple of things I hadn't noticed previously when putting this together, including that there are two varieties of the reverse text on the 1954 series and that a BEP imprint appears on later 1939 series certificates (Donaldson and Summerfield PMG signatures).

That's a terrific exhibit! Extremely informative. I just bookmarked it and I'm sure I'll regularly reference the page. Many thanks for putting that together.

Thanks. Working on an article for the Congress Book on these things as well.

If anybody happens to have postal savings certificates, I'd appreciate hearing from you so we can get your holdings included in the census (I'm happy to share the census data with contributors).

I consider myself a collector of these Postal Savings Certificates and would like to share information about them. Any takers? [/b][/b]

Certainly. As it so happens, the article mentioned in the September 2016 comment in this thread was just published last week in the 2017 Congress Book.

Just want to say. I have enjoyed reading the various comments about the Postal savings certificates (PSC). I have been collecting over 20 years and have a nice collection myself. Some of my reference material includes: 1. POSTAL SAVINGS BANK HEARINGS by Leroy T. Vernon, March 1910. (This provides good background information.) 2. Report of Board of Trustees of the Postal Savings System. This is a listing of offices receiving Postal Savings Deposits up to June 30, 1912 with the date of opening and number of depositors. (With the exception of Alaska, Hawaii and Washington D. C.) 3. The Postal Savings System of the U. S. by the American Bankers Association, 1937. (This book contains a lot of state related data and a city by city break down for June 30, 1935.)
With the exception of Alaska, Hawaii and Washington D. C. 4. I have various years of the Postal Guides used for reference.

Sounds like interesting source material - I'm sure the state data is interesting. I'll have to see if I can find some more of those reports. I have a report from the mid 1930s but it probably has some good data that I haven't really dug into.

would like to get information about what certificates you might have - I have census data which I'm happy to share.

I also have a "census" that I call a list. My total is 613 certs., most likely many that duplicate your census. I also have a listing of 477 certs. that were sold in Oceanside, Ca. from 1912 to 1917. This includes cert. number, date of sale, date of redemption, name of purchaser, denominations and spoiled certs. (everything except series year and Postmaster name. I personally collect by series year, Postmaster and denomination and have 77 different certs. I also collect certs. of San Diego county, Ca. I have a number of duplicate certs. that piqued my interest for one reason or another.
In my list I identify each cert. by series date, serial number, denomination, Postmaster, issuing office, date of issue, date paid, Office begin date number of depositors in June 30, 1912, number of depositors July 30, 1935. (Hope this helps).

Just bought 9 1918 certificates at yard sale,
This post says that' they are very rare.
They are paid but where a fixated to stiff paper I guess to make them rigid.
Can they still be valuable?

You have a new discovery here - no prior reports of 1918 certificates with state names at the lower right. Are they all adhered together, or is each on an individual piece of paper?

I'd love to obtain one for my collection with a "Prexie" canceled on it!

All are glued or something to a heavie (thicker ) paper , I would assume to make the bond not so flimsy,
Also found another 5 2017 all from the tougher postmaster.

Wowzah, that's quite a find! Could you post one of the $500s separately?

Looks like heritage is the place to sell these gradually,Any thoughts and what do you think a 1918 issue of a $500 certificate with the state listed above 1918 (none have ever been seen).
Also there are very few 1918 that people have discovered.

Heritage sells postal savings certificates in their currency auctions from time to time. Archives International also has occasionally sold them. I haven't really seen them at auction anywhere else but I'm a stamp guy, not a currency guy. You're catering more to the currency market selling there.

If I were to guess, you might get a couple hundred dollars for the first one and prices will start going down after that due to low demand despite high scarcity.