Letter sheet

In philatelic terminology a letter sheet, often written lettersheet, is a sheet of paper that can be folded, usually sealed (most often with sealing wax in the 18th and 19th centuries), and mailed without the use of an envelope, or it can also be a similar item of postal stationery issued by a postal authority. Letter sheets derive from the form in which written correspondence was made up before the mid-19th century—letters were written on one or more sheets of paper that were folded and sealed in such a way that the address could be written on the outside.

The term lettersheet has been used to describe the unstamped folded sheet letters used before envelopes became popular. Recent academic research and conservation initiatives have termed such folded and sealed letters as "letterpackets”;^[1] however, only a relatively small number of early examples, such as the Brienne Collection (1689–1706) at The Hague,^[2] are known to exist. Envelopes were not used much before the second half of the 19th century, because most countries' postal rates calculated for the extra sheet of paper that made up the envelope, thereby increasing the cost of mailing when an envelope was used.

Pre-paid lettersheets issued by postal operators are postal stationery because they bear imprinted stamps, or indicia that indicate pre-payment, as opposed to adhesive stamps that are only printed by postal authorities. Lettersheets that require stamps to be applied have also been produced by private firms that usually have no authority for a pre-paid indicia, so postage must be paid by normal means at normal postage rates. Most countries' postal authorities have issued true lettersheets at some stage; however, most have discontinued their use, except in the form of an aerogram, due to the popularity of envelopes.