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Friday, January 26, 2018 Jackass Mail The 8th annual Jackass Mail Run took place on April 5th, 1969. The mail was carried on the back of a jackass between Porterville, California and Springville, California, about 17 miles, on that historic day. The cost to send the mail with a jackass was "four bits" or fifty cents. This piece of mail was picked up by the jackass in Porterville, California and delivered to the post office in Springville, California the same day, Saturday April 5th, 1969 on the circular date stamp. The four cent vertical coil Lincoln stamp, Scott #1058, is pencil line cancelled, The vertical coil Roosevelt stamp, Scott #1305, is cancelled with the April 5, 1969 circular date stamp featuring the 93265 zip code of Springville, California with the seven bar wavy line machine cancel across the local post jackass. Once the mail arrived in Springville it was cancelled and sent to the addressee in New York via airmail. The handstamped "Via Jackass Mail" cachet adorns this monumental cover on the left. This beautiful jackass cachet is also on the back of the cover.   In 1961, as part of the City of Porterville Centennial Celebration (100 years), the Jackass Mail Run event was born.    Here's a photo from an early Jackass Mail Run.     The Jackass Mail Run recreates the old west when mail to Springville was delivered by horse or mule-drawn wagon. Hundreds of riders on horseback, covered wagons, buggies and stagecoaches will gather in front of City Hall in Porterville, and set out to deliver the mail to Springville, lead by the "Wagon Master".   The mail is collected for weeks in special handmade rustic boxes, stamped with a special "Jackass Mail Run Stamp" and transported to Springville. A posse of bandits are always waiting in Springville to steal the mail, and a gunfight ensues.   Wallace Beery, Marjorie Main and J.Carrol Naish starred in the 1942 film, "Jackass Mail".      Spam, although not carried by a jackass, is also a form of jackass mail. 12:29 pm cst          Comments

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For the next few weeks I'll be talking about the first day covers of ArtCraft along with everything else.

ArtCraft closed it's doors recently after 76 years of making philatelic history.

I'm predicting a sudden, salubrious escalation in the value of the ArtCraft cachet, all ArtCraft first day covers and ArtCraft portrait cards.
Including those connected to the Postal Commemorative Society

Their departure signals the end of an extraordinarily crucial, very important, highly significant and exceedingly meaningful period in philately

A mournful signal which will be heard around the world and lamented throughout the multitude of collectors

Leo and Sam August treasured their associations with the world's greatest philatelists

Leo's contributions to our hobby were significant enough to earn the coveted Luft Award and a place in the American Philatelic Society Hall of Fame.

ArtCraft has well-earned it's place in the great chronological record in the history of philately.

Their raised ink, line-engraved intaglio printed cachets rank among the most aesthetic in the world.

ArtCraft cachets are not just beautiful.

They are works of art that showcase the wonders of the world and illuminate the powers of human creativity and ingenuity.

The Coober Pedy Cover
One of the World's Great Philatelic Rarities

Could this become la pièce de résistance de toute la modern Australian philatélie ?

Coober Pedy is a town in northern South Australia. The town is sometimes referred to as the "opal capital of the world" because of the quantity of precious opals that are mined there. Coober Pedy is renowned for its below-ground residences,called "dugouts", which are built in this fashion due to the scorching daytime heat. The name "Coober Pedy" comes from the local Aboriginal term kupa-piti, which means "white man's hole".

Opal was found in Coober Pedy on 1 February 1915; since then the town has been supplying most of the world's gem-quality opal. Coober Pedy today relies as much on tourism as the opal mining industry to provide the community with employment and sustainability. Coober Pedy has over 70 opal fields and is the largest opal mining area in the world.

Coober Pedy - no village, no buildings, no roads, just desert, mountains dotted with boulders. A bizarre lunar landscape, but for opal seekers is the most exciting place on earth, where again every day is the true challenge, happiness and luck just a shovel width apart and where life is defined by two words: winners and losers. Coober Pedy, grab your hat, throw it into the air and where it lands start digging !