Sav-A-Stamp postal scale
Object Details
- Description
- The Sav-A-Stamp pendulum balance type scale features a clip to hold letters and small mail items to determine postage required by weight. The black, metal scale weighs items up to four ounces. The ring allows the user to hold or hang the scale while measuring the mail piece suspended from the clip. The mail piece is counter balanced by the rectangular-shaped plate that also serves two additional purposes: it is marked for the dial to indicate weight in half-ounce increments from zero to four and provides postage rate information. The plate has no markings on the reverse side.
- The postage rate chart indicates that the scale was produced within the relatively brief window when the airmail rate was at eight cents per ounce, between March 26, 1944 and September 30, 1946. Small hanging scales such as this were common for household use, and this piece was most likely used for personal letters by its original owners, a couple from Long Beach, California employed as a baker and housewife.
- The patent number 2060064 dates from November 10, 1936. The scale is marked A. Browne Company of Pasadena, California.
- References:
- United States Post Office Department. United States Domestic Postage Rates, 1789 to 1956. Washington DC, 1956.
- Diane Sandison, e-mail messages to Lynn Heidelbaugh, August 28, 2008.
- Data Source
- National Postal Museum
- Date
- 1944-1946
- Object number
- 2008.2023.1
- Type
- Commercial Products
- Medium
- metal; paint
- Dimensions
- Height x Width: 6 1/4 x 4 3/4 in. (15.88 x 12.07 cm)
- Place
- California
- See more items in
- National Postal Museum Collection
- Topic
- Customers & Commerce
- Record ID
- npm_2008.2023.1
