RILP Triangle

Infobox

Name: Rattlesnake Island Local Post Triangle Stamps
Issued by: Rattlesnake Island Local Post

Type: Local post stamp

Year: 1966 - present

Sides: 3

Currency: United States Dollar (USD)

Rattlesnake Island Local Post?

Local posts are postal services which operate within a limited range (such as London's 'Penny Post'), or along a single transportation route (such as the Pony Express). They are often privatly owned. Rattlesnake Island Local Post is an airmail post founded by Dr. James Pierson Frackelton, MD, in 1966. Mail is picked up on the island and flown to the mainland, then placed into the United States Postal Service mailstream.

The first three stamps

Images from rilp.org

A selection of RILP stamps

Image from rilp.org

The first stamp

The story of the Rattlesnake Island Local Post stamps started with an issue featuring an aerial photograph of Rattlesnake Island, in Lake Erie. According to Dave Gill, current RILP postmaster, "The [first] stamps are a simple 2 color design [with a] rectangle shape. And that is where the problems began. Within a few months the USPS sent a cease-and-desist order to Dr. Frackelton as the stamps could be mis-taken for regular postal stamps and thus the USPS would lose sales." So Frackelton decided to issue triangular stamps from there on in. Unlike many national postal services, RILP issued equilateral triangles rather than right angle triangles.

RILP today

Rattlesnake Island Local Post is now operated by Dave Gill. It has a website, rilp.org, where stamps are sold.

The current RILP postbox on rattlesnake island

Image from rilp.org

References