Illinois
Bibliographyc postal history is not nearly as well represented in philatelic literature as other states of similar size. These works will form a basis: A List Of
Illinois Place Names by Illinois State Library Listing Of
Illinois Post Offices by Illinois Postal History
Society Illinois Post
Office A Listing and Guide to Postmark Scarcity by
Jim Mehrer Illinois 19th Century Cancels by Richard Russell You can access my online guide of Illinois Post Offices here. MarketThe market for Illinois is the weakest for any large state. They are several reasons for this. First, these is a true paucity of philatelic literature. None of the works available contain much post office information after 1931. Distribution of material is feast or famine. There are several populous counties which dominate any group of random Illinois covers. Most of the smaller rural counties are quite hard to find. The demand for Illinois is by county. Historically, Cook county has been in the most demand. The independent 19th century post offices that became consolidated into Chicago have always been the most fiercely fought over. The most active collectors are now more advanced, and a cover with five eager buyers 6 years ago will now go unsold. There are many opportunities for an Illinois collector.
Among the 50 states, the District of Columbia,
R.P.O.'s and Streetcars, Illinois rates as the 25th
state in terms of percentage of cover sold at
53.76%. It ranks 7th in terms of the value of covers
sold as percentage of all town cancels sold at
2.74%. The overall rank is 8th. This is a ten year
running average. The most recent trends are about
the same. I thought it might be interesting to
quantify the level of interest for all the counties
in Illinois. I figured the percentage of covers I
have sold as compared to the total of the covers
sold and the covers available. Since some of the
Illinois covers I sell are not sold to Illinois
collectors, I decided to eliminate flags and doanes
from the total of covers sold. While not perfect,
this should provide more accurate results. Another
caveat is that for many counties, the total number
of covers in stock and covers sold is very small.
Revised county ratings are as follows:
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Covers For SaleAll Illinois CoversIllinois By County19th CenturyDoanesFlagsStamplessAdvertisingR.F.D.'sMilitaryWorld War OnePicture PostcardsMachine CancelsAuxiliary MarkingsFancy CancelsNon Standard PostmarksRegistered CoversSpecial Delivery CoversForeign DestinationsPatrioticR.P.O.'sSearch for a specific Illinois town. Type in the name below and press enter or click on search.If you'd like printable version of these covers, please e-mail me.
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