by Jim Hirstein, PSS 4662
The familiar SRC-dated overprints were made by Sears, Roebuck, and Co., one of the most prolific users of precanceled stamps. A historical look at Sears provides an interesting perspective on the use of dated precancels. Because of it’s huge success in the mail-order and retail business, Sears was the subject of a 788-page book Catalogues and Counters: A History of Sears, Roebuck and Company, (1950).
Richard W Sears and Alvah C. Roebuck first got together in Chicago in 1887. They published their first mail-order catalog as “Sears, Roebuck and Company” in 1893. As sales grew, primarily in the midwest, Sears opened its first branch plant for mail-orders in Dallas in 1906. Then came the Seattle plant in 1910 and Philadelphia in 1920. The mail-order business exploded during the mid-1920s and Sears added six new mailing plants: Kansas City in 1925, Atlanta in 1926, Los Angeles and Memphis in 1927, Boston and Minneapolis in 1928. Sears had opened its first retail store in 1925 and turned its attention to expanding the local retail out lets. The ten mail centers served Sears customers for nearly twenty years, until they added an eleventh in Greensboro, NC, in 1947. On the map, these cities show a network of efficient mail distribution throughout the country.
In 1938, when the Post Office issued the “dating order” for precanceled stamps, the obvious heavy use occurred in the mail distribution cities. All of the Sears “10” began using integrals immediately, and they were joined by Greensboro when it opened in 1947.
The most common of the handstamp-applied dateds are SRC, and again the mail-order centers lead the way. In the early 1950s, several Sears branches experimented with mimeograph dating overprints as listed in Noble’s Printed Dated Control Precancel Catalog (1981). In three cities, Atlanta, Greensboro and Philadelphia, the mimeographed overprint replaced the handstamps. Memphis and Minneapolis returned to handstamps after very brief trials with the mimeograph.
It is also significant to note the use of SRC dateds on the precancels of New York City. Although Sears never had a catalog sales branch in New York, their fashion design center was located there. Consequently, we find that Sears did not use integrals from New York, but they did use a fair number of the standard handstamp to mail clothing, and they also used the mimeographs for a while in the mid-1950s.
Many precancel collectors avoid the SRC dateds because they are so common. The huge volumes of mail from the catalog distribution centers lends some credibility to this concern. However, Dr. Wilson’s Handstamp Dated Control Handbook & Checklist lists 55 cities where Sears is known to have used dated handstamps. Beyond the 12 cities mentioned above, these dated overprints can be extremely elusive. Furthermore, specialists who study dateds from any of the Sears catalog distribution cities across the years can find interesting individual characteristics and some rare items.
Each city offers its own challenges and mysteries, with many stories still to be told. Don’t overlook this fascinating aspect of precancel history.