From Mike - USPS fun facts and a nice puzzle

Mike is a pen pal. He sends beautiful mail. Both the envelope and the contents are gorgeous. Mostly Spencerian. I just enjoyed a trip down memory lane by putting *Mike* in the Search box. There are a couple posts with a couple other Mikes - one in Ames and Mike Gold. 

A close-up of the address

At first I thought Mike was just using up random stamps.

Then he said there was a reason behind the stamps - and wondered if I could figure it out. I tend to be good at puzzles - so I did figure it out. I'll reveal the answer tomorrow. If you know what it is - please leave a comment or send me an email.  I will also post closeups of the stamps - going from left to right.

That quill stamp is so pretty.

Now go back to the first stamp on the left, the one that says FOR TESTING PURPOSES ONLY. 

Fellow stamp afficianados will enjoy reading about those stamps. They are used to test the machines that apply stamps that come in those big coils - that adhere real stamps to junk mail.

I love learning about new stamps.

Fun fact: the coils of stamps that come on the rolls for automated stamp affixiation come in two sizes - 3,000 and 10,000

I invented that word affixiation and I am very fond of it.

https://www.linns.com/insights/stamp-collecting-basics/2011/november/test-and-dummy-stamps-are-stamplike-labels-used-for-testing-purp.html