Description

(Shipman Mfg. Co, Los Angeles.) This porcelain-front stamp dispenser is in near-mint condition, but I don't have the key to open it. Originally stamps were only sold at post offices, but at some point the postal system branched out into drugstores and supermarkets. This machine sold four 1c stamps for 5c or three 3c stamps for 10c - so there was a markup. The sticker at the bottom of the machine reads: "This stamp machine today has become a civilian necessity, because it sells a vital government product without a clerk - saves manpower and aids the war program." I have subsequently found two other machines like this in different colors, but with less fancy porcelain, perhaps from the 1950s.

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