- History's Newsstand Blog - http://blog.rarenewspapers.com -

A related collectible…

Charleston_Mercury_subscripNewspapers were subscribed to for almost as long as they existed, and if subscriptions existed so did subscription receipts and notices. But rarely did they survive the years as they were truly ephemeral–never meant to be kept beyond the length of the subscription.

Typically they were just small slips of paper, usually part-printed & part manuscript, with the subscriber’s name & length of subscription penned in. The subscription notice in the photo for the “Charleston Mercury” is larger and more detailed than most (thanks to collector Doug Owen for providing).

Such items are an interesting related collectible, particularly if one can find a newspaper to match a receipt.