Postal money order receipt

This postal money order receipt, number 69516, is handstamped “November 19, 1908, Menomonie, Wis., M.O.B. [money order business]” The amount totaled $3.00. The receipt was enclosed in an official postal envelope (museum id 2002.2032.2.1) bearing the name "Mrs. Q. Nichols."

In 1908 the fee for this money order was five cents. Money orders at this time had a maximum allowable amount of $100. Rural postmasters were instructed to "make it a practice, when mailing to the remitter the receipt which is detached from the advice of a money order issued upon application made through a carrier, to inclose [sic] a blank application, Form 6001, for the remitter's use when next in need of a money order." The intent was to make the service convenient and to speed the process so that the patrons would have a money order prepared when the rural carrier arrived.

Reference:
Post Office Department. United States Official Postal Guide Ser. 3, 1, 1908-1909. Albany, NY: J. B. Lyon Co. Printers, 1909.

Lynn Heidelbaugh, National Postal Museum, April 28, 2006

Donated by Carol and David Forde in Memory of Gustav Koch

Museum ID: 2002.2032.2.2