Three of a Kind!
"Please, please open me!" is what the marketing people at The Fund for American Studies want this cover to scream.
As in the "double double" cover this envelope (graphically reduced from its 9x11" size) is most likely an example of "false franking*". These stamps with a value of 5¢ each were probably less than The Fund paid to mail the 2.75 ounce mail piece. Marketing/advertising studies have shown that people will open envelopes with "real stamps" more often than envelopes with a printed indicium. The studies also show that multiple stamps increase the "open rate" of a mailing. But The Fund didn't settle for just two stamps, they used three. And then stuck them on the envelope in a relatively haphazard-looking manner. Just like a person -- not a machine -- would have done.
Too make things even better, the stamp on the far left is a plate number coil! (close-up)
* False franking is defined as the use of low value stamps for a bulk mailing with balance due in lump sum at time of mailing.
