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Post by smauggie on Aug 1, 2017 0:43:17 GMT
Great question Steve. Here are my responses/thoughts.
Via Air Mail: No. Air mail was usually indicated by the use of an air mail stamp as well as the coloring of the envelope. I am not aware of "Via Air Mail" being used as a service indicator expressly by the post office for mail routing purposes as such. Those are my thoughts until compelling evidence says otherwise.
Registered: Yes! There was a study of all the general registered markings used in the US in an issue of the Auxiliary Markings Club newsletter about a year or so ago. I later found an example I don't think is in the article but I haven't checked for sure. There are also local registered markings which include the town name of the originating post office. Those can be harder to find.
Special Delivery: Yes if applied by post office. Generally manuscript indications of special delivery are considered to be of private origin while handstamps of official post office origin. If placed by the post office is usually accompanied by another hand-stamp indicating who was paying the special delivery fee. Hence . . .
Fee claimed at office . . .: Yes!
Nixie labels: Yes! Nixie labels are yellow address - style labels placed on envelopes to redirect, forward or return mail. When they were first rolled out in the 1980's they all had the name NIXIE in the upper left hand corner. Later iterations do not. Edit - Addressographed yellow labels seem to have actually originated in the 1970's and at that time were placed by hand. Nixie and subsequent labels are placed by machine.
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Post by smauggie on Aug 1, 2017 0:31:00 GMT
That's a keeper! Here is a "Due" or postage due marking from 1854. The sender was most likely sending a carte de visite with a picture of himself. The rate for such items was 9 cents. The envelope only paid for three cents, hence the Due 6 in balloon marking. It seems either the sender was unaware of the proper rate or decided to let the recipient pay some of the cost.
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Post by smauggie on Jul 31, 2017 23:46:12 GMT
Found Loose in Mail I am guessing this letter was in a large envelope and somehow the envelope was damaged and the item found loose in the mailstream. The enclosed letter was dated in 2007. It was packed in this USPS "body bag" envelope. I have a "body bag" I got here in Minnesota that was an actual plastic bag, which may be a more recent innovation. As you can see it also has a label with a bar-code for routing purposes at the bottom.
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Post by smauggie on Jul 31, 2017 21:34:49 GMT
First I want to start out with a definition of Auxiliary Marking (which may change if/as we have a discussion about this branch of US Postal History.
An Auxiliary Marking is a marking on a cover, parcel, package or postal form (USPOD/USPS) which is added to indicate a special service or event in the processing of the mail item.
There are four methods of adding an auxiliary marking that I have been able to detect:
Manuscript marking on the cover Handstamp marking on the cover A combination of handstamp and manuscript marking on cover
- Machine-Applied marking directly on envelope
- Labels (aka stickers or etiquettes) adhered to the cover
Items that are questionable as auxiliary markings (I haven't made up my mind about these, perhaps you have):
Labels (aka stickers or etiquettes) featuring a short 1-2 character code composed of numbers and or letters (used 1970s to 1990s) "Chop" marks of a combination of 1-2 letters and numbers (used 1980-s to 1990's) Spray on post office or routing information (used 1990-s to early 2000's) Spray-on barcodes used for routing mail using automated mail processing machines (used 2000's to date)
Items that are not auxiliary markings:
Received cancels Transit cancels Machine cancels Received Machine Cancels (which can often look quite unique but are simply cancels) Post office seals (either federal or local) Local Post stamps and markings Cinderella stamps (including Christmas Seals)
For those with an interest in this area of US postal history I highly recommend the Auxiliary Markings Club. They have an excellent journal which I look forward to every time it comes in the mail (yes, I am a member). They have a more detailed definition on their site for auxiliary markings but I though I would keep things as basic as possible.
I will start by reposting one I posted to TSF a while ago here, but I wanted it to be a part of this thread for convenience and educational purposes.
This item was mailed on December 30, 1963. The mailbag it was in was assumed empty and placed in storage. When it was brought out of storage to be used again, this bank statement was found inside. It was re-postmarked on July 7, 1964 and mailed to the customer.
I hope to share many more examples of auxiliary markings as time allows.
Thanks for stopping by (and reading all the way to the end).
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Post by smauggie on Jul 31, 2017 13:15:17 GMT
I suspect you are using smaller binders than me. Your US collection may also be in a better state of completion than mine as well. If I think really hard about it I think I might be able to say that I have 5-6% of all US stamps in my collection (including all BOB except specimens, proofs, essays and territories). All in all I will have the letters A-C, E-F, J-L, O-R and W. Postal stationery (the letter U) is kept in different albums.
Of course some letters have a prefix (1L for locals for example) or a suffix (RB thru RW for revenue stamps). At this point I intend only to do one page for each major letter. I will need a separate header page for CVP which does not fall under the "C" air post category.
There are other considerations . . Scott lists local official seals with the USPO/USPS official seals (OX) but they have the Scott prefix of LOX. Do they go with officials or locals? I think for now I will keep them with officials though in truth I only have one LOX example.
I guess you can tell that I like to have a philosophy of sorts about how I assemble my albums.
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Post by smauggie on Jul 30, 2017 14:22:31 GMT
Right now my US stamp "album" consists of three binders (Vario G Black) with Vario stockpages in them. I thought as a way to divide up the BOB binder and to not be staring and a vario stock page right when you open it up, to create header pages for each Scott catalog category (B for semi-postal, C for airmail, etc.). Here is a screenshot of two pages I made today. Has anyone else done this? I figure if I switch to Steiner or Album Easy home-made pages I can still keep these pages and incorporate them into the album. The giant fancy letters I found via Google image search. I also looked for free fonts which seemed to match up in some aesthetic way with the fancy letters.
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Post by smauggie on Mar 22, 2017 14:41:54 GMT
The answer is yes, Mick. It is very much a part of the price. When the mailing consists of ten thousand envelopes, a tenth of a cent can make a real difference.
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Post by smauggie on Mar 15, 2017 21:52:07 GMT
I share this frustration. Add to that that Scott rounds up or down the actual perfs on non-us stamps.
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Post by smauggie on Mar 5, 2017 13:11:42 GMT
That red Data Pac meter is a nice one Steve. They rarely come in colors other than black and occasionally blue.
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Post by smauggie on Aug 2, 2016 19:31:25 GMT
I really wish they had more stuff online. I do understand that there are limitations of man-hours and other resources to make it happen.
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Post by smauggie on Aug 2, 2016 19:17:33 GMT
Thanks for clarifying that for me Rob. Lovely example.
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Post by smauggie on Jul 28, 2016 12:16:12 GMT
Question for you Rob. You say one koala is the first reprint. Does that mean there was an original printing without any marsupials in the margins?
Thanks!
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Post by smauggie on Jul 27, 2016 15:34:33 GMT
Here is a map showing mostly the southern peninsula of what is now Gujarat Province in India.
Map of States in what is now Southern Gujarat Province
Only one of them that I can make out was a Princely (or Feudatory) State of India which is Morvi in the north. From what I understand most states were administered directly by Great Britain.
Princely or Feudatory states were allowed their own postal systems and postage stamps. The map gives you a good example of the diversity of India.
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Post by smauggie on Jul 27, 2016 13:39:15 GMT
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Post by smauggie on Jul 26, 2016 21:47:48 GMT
I did not want dibs on the free offer. Mick and Ron can have them all. Thanks for thinking of me Mick.
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Post by smauggie on Jul 25, 2016 13:42:02 GMT
I actively collect meters (I have thousands of them). Technically an imprint is only a meter if it has a meter number, though meter numbers are less obvious on the more modern meters. They also indicate a place of issue (often just a zip code these days). Meters may not always have a date.
A similar area of study would be permits or permit mail. Early types of permit mail were dated just like meters were but did not have meter numbers. These days most permits are rather simple squares such as those pictured above. Some companies and organizations, though, can get fancy, like the Statue of Liberty permits posted by oldtriguy.
The earliest meter issued in the US was not discovered/recognized until 1996 with only one example known!
Keep your eyes open.
I regularly refer to the online catalog that Steve linked to earlier in this thread.
Meter slogans can be fun to collect as well. Here is a cover with a US military slogan, in this case, Strategic Air Command, U.S. Air Force.
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Post by smauggie on Jul 18, 2016 17:21:30 GMT
You've got quite the habit their James.
Nice stamps.
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Post by smauggie on Jul 5, 2016 13:13:47 GMT
I suspect it will be a lot of expense for not a lot of use, so no. Not unless you will also use it to detect counterfeit currency.
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Post by smauggie on Jul 1, 2016 13:47:39 GMT
Having done a little research, the vocalization of the caribou (both male and female) is called a bugle call. This may add a military significance to the elk having his mouth open as the bugle was used in olden times to sound various calls as a way to communicate orders between the commander and his men. The bugle call could signify rallying the troops, charging, retreating or, perhaps more significantly, "taps".
Happy Birthday Canada!
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Post by smauggie on Jun 30, 2016 16:53:56 GMT
Silly question I am sure, but why is the caribou's mouth open?
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Post by smauggie on Jun 15, 2016 18:06:09 GMT
You got a numeral 3 hand-stamp on cover!!! Great find and presentation. Thanks for sharing!
Now if only I could make out the script.
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Post by smauggie on Jun 15, 2016 13:29:27 GMT
Great selection of Civil War era cancels. That album paper though looks like its starting to go bad. May be a good idea to find a new home for those lovely stamps.
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Post by smauggie on May 22, 2016 15:51:32 GMT
Remove foot from mouth and learn something in the process. Thank you gentlemen.
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Post by smauggie on May 22, 2016 13:19:41 GMT
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Post by smauggie on May 11, 2016 20:14:13 GMT
That is a scarce meter marking. Nice!
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Post by smauggie on May 11, 2016 14:20:49 GMT
I need to move to Canada to get all this great US postal history you have been coming up with James. Have a spare room?
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Post by smauggie on May 7, 2016 12:17:11 GMT
These are more recent acquisitions. The E3 is one of my favorite Canadian stamps. The E4 isn't too shabby either.
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Post by smauggie on Apr 26, 2016 12:20:50 GMT
I should amend what I said. Not on all mail, but on all First Class and Registered mails.
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Post by smauggie on Apr 25, 2016 14:00:11 GMT
It would be prior to 1879 as by then the US Post Office Department required a dated cancel and a dated received cancel on all mail.
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Post by smauggie on Apr 24, 2016 13:41:57 GMT
Nice Newspaper Branch cancel.
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