Over the last 12 months I have been dis-assembling Perfs 14's Return to Sender hoard. I call it a hoard because it was several thousand covers, returned to 2 places ( one a book company, the other a Govt. department) in1982-3 and 1970's.

The first I will show are the,' fickle fingers of fate'- the fingers [pointing to the return address].



Left hand...right hand.. thumb... no thumb...large..medium...small... text inside...text outside..large text...small text etc.

Then there are colour differences, sleeve styles etc.

These are but a few of the variations and when combined with the reason for non-delivery and backstamps there is a collection on it's own.

If anyone has more RTS (return to sender) or Postage due/payanle PLEASE add them to this.

I regret I never got me one but when the Elvis Presley stamp came out people were sending letters to bogus addresses to get the Elvis franked envelope stamped, "Return to Sender"...

i had one returned to me last year and it was just a sticky note stuck on with "return to sender additional postage needed" no fingers no arrows nothing so i tossed it... now i wish i had kept at least a scan of it...... i have no older ones, though i would be interested to see more of them.

Bear, if you are into these sort of things- sticky labels, tapes etc. all count. I have several "opened by post office for Australian Customs' which are on a green adhesive tape and stickers to say Opened by Customs for Inspection. Also the green customs declaration forms, etc. Anything that makes the cover a little different. Also plastic bags saying that the envelope was damaged by sorting equipment.

One of the best one-star movies of all time played a few weeks ago on TV.
it was titled "The Stupids".

From Wikipedia:
"The story tells the adventures of the fictional family the Stupids, with
a last name synonymous with their behavior. The story begins with
patriarch Stanley Stupid believing "sender" from letters marked "return
to sender" is a wicked man planning a conspiracy."

Greetings Mr. Skilo54
.
I reckon the feller doing the drawings for the left-handed hand stamps couldn't draw thumbs very well.
.
Respectfully,

Gordon Lee

The second one in the second scan must have arthritis as he can't straighten his finger.

Back when Iraq first invaded Kuwait, and "Kuwait" entered the everyday consciousness of Americans, I sent a letter to the Kuwait Philatelic Bureau to inquire about obtaining stamps. Of course, there was a war going on, and "bright and early next morning, it came right back to me." Well, not next morning. But, when it did, it had a nice pointing finger Return to Sender, along with an additional stamp saying something along the lines of Postal service not available to this area. I don't know what ever happened to that cover. It would have made a nice part of my collection.

Tedski