Illinois Southern Wax Seal

[Joe Pauley]

Last week i received a envelope with a Illinois Southern wax seal. I’ve never seen one of these before. If its real its obviously pre 1921 and am wondering if anyone knows anything about them.

Thanks,

Joe Pauley [attachment=0:28sil2ox]IS wax seal.jpg[/attachment:28sil2ox]

[Charles Duckworth]

Joe
I know when an agent submitted cash using railroad (or company) mail the envelope was sealed using a wax seal so the receiver could tell the envelope had not been tampered with.

[Bill Pollard]

There was and is an art to getting a good clean impression from a wax seal. Those fortunate enough to have a torch, wax and seal can attest to the issues involved, ranging from wax that is too hot, not enough wax on the paper, wax sticking in the letters of the seal, etc. Back in the day, it wasn’t necessary to produce a “perfect” impression such as was achieved in this case – it was only necessary to get a sufficient imprint to identify the originating station. I’ve seen as many as four wax seals from a single station, although its likely than not all four were in use at the same time. For MP stations, one seal would have the name of the railroad and the name of the station, another version might have the railroad name and only the station number, yet another would have the name and station for the express company, and yet another would be a “public” seal, usually used by the public when sealing valuables for shipment by registered express.

Bill Pollard

[Joe Pauley]

Charlie and Bill,

Thanks for the info. I didnt think it was a fake, I mean who would make a fake for a road that only a handful of people know existed. how long were these seals used.

Thanks again,

Joe

[Charles Duckworth]

Good question, the agents took in cash until the 1970’s as I remember but we had bank accounts where the money was transferred to St. Louis. If I was guessing I’d say wax sealers were used up until the mid 1950’s

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