United States Auxiliary Markings - Show Yours Here

Here is an interesting American Machine Co. cancel cover. Boston 1893 PMwith a "Forwarded" hand stamp auxiliary marking applied within the killer bars.

Correct address is not in Salem, Mass., latest city directory.

Here is one for you Mick.  A local city directory marking.  I think they did find her, after they realized that her name as M. C. Brooks, not M. A. Brooks.  Looks like they had to crack open the letter to figure out who the addressee really was.



And here is a close-up of the marking.

Due 4 Cents (New York Spyglass)

Mail coming in for overseas from Atlantic ports often went through New York.  At the New York post office they were evaluated to ensure that sufficient postage was placed on the envelope at the foreign destination.  It is a bit ironic that this cover, underpaid by one Australian pence, has a slogan machine cancel stating the correct rate of 3 pence for mail sent to the United States.  The Australian post office, recognizing it was underpaid added the "T 16 2/3 Cts" marking.  The reason why the denomination of the postage due marking from Australia is not in pence is because they are using the UPU currency of gold francs (or in this case centimes).  Because the postage due amount was twice the amount that was lacking, I am assuming that the conversion rate was one Australian pence to 8 and 1/3 centimes.  Which then translated to 4 US cents.

The marking from New York aside from just being a postage due marking is often referred to as a "spyglass" marking because they look like the ends of a spyglass or binoculars.

Missent and Forwarded

Sent from Wells, Maine to Salem, Connecticut and was missent to Salem, Massachussetts in the first half of the 1870's.

It is a small "ladies" size cover addressed to a student at the Music Vale Seminary, a normal school in Salem, CT.  The school burned down in 1876.
The Missent & Forwarded marking in balloon was added in Salem, Mass.  I have never seen both terms used in the same marking before (usually only one is used).  

Forwarded and Due 3

Mailed from Cincinnati, OH on December 12, 1859 with a lovely green cancel (+$150 Scott value).  I am glad nobody else noticed the green cancel or I would not have been able to afford this one.  Mailed to Saint Paul, MN arriving on December 27, 1859 and then forwarded to Minneapolis, MN likely the next day where the addressee would have to pay three cents forwarding fee to collect the letter.  Minnesota was only two years old at this point.

Duty Free
Detroit, Mich.
Insp. No.
U. S. Customs

Nothing but a stained torn cover front, but a small piece of history too.  This is a communication in 1936 between Joaquin Elizalde a member of the Council of State of the Philippines to the High Commissioner of the Philippines, Frank Murphy who was visiting his home state of Michigan at the time (where he would later become governor).  I am assuming Elizalde was on a trip in Japan when he sent the letter.

Also a nice example of a Duty Free customs auxiliary marking.  

Great cover! Looks like the postal worker wrote in that they moved away two years ago. Very nice! Also what is attractive about the cover is that the definitive stamps are paying a specific and unusual postal rate.

Missent to Minneapolis, Minn.

Sporting a Doremus machine cancel from the small town of Menomenie, Wisconsin (about 1.5 hours from the Wisconsin/Minnesota border), the destination city was misspelled and I think that is what caused it to be missent.  The destination town is actually Minneota.
At some point around the turn of the century larger cities and even small towns made up missent handstamps with the town name in them.  These are harder to find in my experience though that may be because I am mostly looking for them from only one state, Minnesota.

Registered (Return Receipt Requested)
Forwarded

Here is a 1928 registered cover that was forwarded from Minneapolis, MN to Saint Paul, MN.  

02¢ Postage Due

Returned for 2 postage.
When mailing remove label affix postage and remail.

The first class rate had changed from 39¢ to 41¢ on May 14, 2006.  USPS offered the service of returning the envelope to the sender so that they could add the additional postage and remail the item.  It seems the sender did not bother adding postage and remailing the same envelope.

Return to Writer.



The other is the recipients stamp, so I'm not sure it counts

The received marking is not considered an auxiliary marking, though some can get quite fancy. That's a nice collection of markings.

Returned to Writer Unclaimed from Tampa, Fla.

Here is a pointing hand that states where the item is being returned from.  You don't see very many of these.  In fact this is the only one I have that includes the name of the town returning the mail item.  Of course the Tampa post office still had to add a cancel to the cover to return it so it seems a bit redundant to put the name in the pointing hand.  I wasn't able to find any information regarding the cachet.

WE CARE
This mail is addressed incorrectly.  Your mail is being processed on automated equipment to avoid delay or possible return of your mail.  Please notify the sender of your correct address.

Does this face inspire you with confidence?



This auxiliary marking comes in the form of an etiquette.  The cover is addressed to the wrong city (and the wrong house number).