The Postal Service is offering special pictorial postmarks for Valentine’s Day, which is Saturday, Feb. 14.
The love-themed images this year include:
• A sketched image of a 14-century couple with the look of love in honor of William Shakespeare’s tragic couple offered in both Romeo, MI; and Juliette, GA;
• A childlike line drawing of a penguin mailing a valentine in Bliss, NY;
• A big heart from Loveland, CO, also known as “Valentine Station”; and
• Sketches of Valentine’s Day Station in Hadley, MA, as well as Love Station in Valentine, TX.
Since most valentine-senders don’t live in Romeo, Juliette or the other cities with pictorial postmark offerings, a special USPS remailing service is available.
Interested senders are instructed to place preaddressed valentines and letters with the appropriate postage (at least First-Class Mail) in larger envelopes addressed to: Pictorial Postmarks, the name of the chosen station and its address, city, state and ZIP+4 Code. Once there, the station cancels the contents with the special mark, and the love notes are sent on their way to those intended.
Customers can also send stamped envelopes and postcards without addresses for postmark, as long as they supply a larger envelope with adequate postage and their return address. After applying the pictorial postmark, USPS will return the items (with or without addresses) under addressed protective cover.
The service is only available for a range of dates, and no letter can include postage issued after the requested date or those letters will be returned.
More information on the Valentine’s Day pictorial postmark program and other pictorial postmarks can be found in Postal Bulletin’s Feb. 5 edition.
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