The Three-cent Prexie
V-Mail rate
V-Mail was introduced on June 15, 1942 as a way to cut down on the weight and volume of paper being moved back and forth between people in the United States and members of the Armed Forces abroad during World War II. A one-page letter could be sent to an Army Postal Service processing center to be photographend and placed on microfilm. When it reached its destination it would be printed out and sent to the addressee. The surface rate to the processing center in the United States was three cents.
After filming, the original letter was supposed to have been destroyed. Some examples have survived, such as the one above addressed to a serviceman at APO 70 in the Philippines in May of 1945. The program ended on October 30, 1945.
