Splitting Hairs - Postal History Sunday

Welcome to this week's entry of Postal History Sunday.  PHS is hosted every week on the Genuine Faux Farm blog and the GFF Postal History blog.  Everyone is welcome here, regardless of the level of knowledge and expertise you might have in postal history.  

Put on the fuzzy slippers, find a comfy chair, pour some of your favorite beverage and take a moment to put those troubles out of your mind for a few minutes.  Personally, I took advantage of the approaching snowstorm and left my troubles in a spot where the snowdrifts are most likely to form.  With any luck, it will be a couple months before they are visible again.

Where did you think Guernsey Cattle came from? 

If you happen to be a person who has expertise or knowledge of a specific skill or knowledge area, you might be familiar with a question that goes something like this: "It looks/sounds/feels like all of these others, so what makes THIS one so special to you?" 

This can hold true for postal history, as it does for many other things.  For example, the envelope shown above just looks like another 1860s cover from the United States to the United Kingdom.  As a matter of fact, it isn't even a very pretty example if I were to make that judgement.  It has a 24 cent stamp paying the proper postage for an item that weighed no more than 1/2 ounce.  There is a New York exchange marking, dated September 29 in red, that tells us it was properly paid.  End of story.  Right? 

This is where I encourage you to read the address carefully and I wait with baited breath until you notice that this is sent to Guernsey.  Then I get disappointed when you say, "so what?" So, I take the easy way out and send you to a wikipedia page on Guernsey in hopes that you get it.  And you still look at me expectantly.  I mean, Guernsey is just one of the Channel Islands off of the Normandy coast of France.  What's the big deal?

There you have it.  When a person dives deeper and deeper into the details of some subject that they love, they begin to see bigger differences in the details that seem minuscule to others.  But to those of us who do dive into these depths, we see it as rewarding.  It's a chance to uncover a story that is different from so many other covers to the United Kingdom at this time.

For the time being, I will simply say that one does not find letters from the US to the Channel Islands very often from this time period.  I will also point out to you that Guernsey is NOT part of the United Kingdom - at least not in the same way Scotland or Wales might be.  Guernsey is a sovereign state, though it is a Crown Dependency.  They enjoyed the same postage rate from the United States as England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland despite a slightly different status.  The island of Guernsey even has a traditional local language (Guernesiais).

This particular item is an introduction to this week's theme, "Splitting Hairs," where I thought I'd share a few items and point to the thing (or things) that make them stand out (at least to me) as different.

Le Havre for the win

So, here is a folded letter from the United States to France in 1866.  The postage rate at the time was 15 cents per 1/4 ounce.  This item must have weighed between 1/4 and 1/2 ounce, so it required double the base rate.  The 24-cent stamp is combined with two 3-cent stamps to properly pay the postage.

As far as examples of the double rate in the 1860s to France go, this one seems pretty normal.  It's properly paid.  It has all of the normal markings.  It was mailed in Ballston, New York and it went through the New York exchange office.  There is a "P.D." marking that shows the French also recognized this item as fully paid.  The letter took the Cunard Line's steamship Java to Queenstown (Cobh, Ireland) where it was offloaded and took the mail trains to London.  

It's all pretty normal until it came to crossing the English Channel to France.  Hmm.. it seems the English Channel has a great deal to do with this week's Postal History Sunday.

The hair splitting occurs with this French marking and the indication that it entered France at Havre. The marking reads "Et Unis Serv Br Havre" around the outside edge of the octagonal shape (United States, British Service to Havre).  This marking confirms that a British contract ship (Cunard's Java) carried the letter and that the mailbag carrying the letter was handled by the British Post.  

Typically mail via England to France would enter France at Calais if it came via the United Kingdom.  But, this letter is addressed to Havre and it was likely carried across the English Channel on a private steamer, rather than the normal contract steamer that carried mail to Calais.

Once again, the vast majority of letters during this time period would not have taken this route - but this one did.  This makes it interesting to me as it illustrates another option for mail carriage that came about because getting mail from every point A to every point B is bound to have many complexities.

We just don't see some of those complexities unless we really look for them.

A German state of mind

Our next item of interest was mailed from the United States to Germany in 1865.  The postage rate was 28 cents per 1/2 ounce and this letter overpays that rate with thirty cents in postage.  This is not terribly surprising because the postage rate had been 30 cents prior to a rate reduction to 28 cents for prepaid mail (the rate for unpaid mail remained at 30 cents).  Essentially someone either didn't know the rate had changed or they misread the postage rate tables and saw the amount for unpaid mail and used that.

At the time this item was mailed, Germany was not a unified nation.  Instead, it was a number of separate governmental units that are collectively referred to as the German States.  At this time, the German States and Austria had a postal agreement that allowed all members to treat mail between the participants as if it was internal (domestic mail).  This agreement is often referred to as the German-Austrian Postal Union (GAPU) to English-speaking philatelists or Deutsch-Österreichische Postverein (DÖPV) to those who speak German..  If you would like to learn more about it, I can offer you a look at a similar agreement between Austria and some of the Italian States.

The net result is that the postage rate from the US to members of GAPU was the same (28 cents) with a few exceptions I might write about in the future.  Because of this, some postal historians are just as happy to say this is a letter to Germany, just like THIS is also a letter to Germany.

It just so happens that many of the German States that were in GAPU maintained their own postal systems, or they contracted with the house of Thurn and Taxis.  So, in a very real way, each German State could be considered a separate destination during this period in history.  Most surviving mail from the US in the 1860s to Germany would be to Prussia, Bavaria, Baden, Wurttemberg, Hannover or even Saxony (as shown above).  

Brunswick just doesn't show up as often as the others do, which makes it interesting to me.  Still, regardless of how common or uncommon a particular German State might have been as a letter destination, it is the fact that these different states had their own postal services that grabs my attention.  This is why I split hairs and pay attention to which German State a letter goes to in the 1860s, rather than simply saying, "oh, this went to Germany."  The finer distinction reflects a reality of the world during that time period, where Germany was split into many entities - but in the process of uniting into one.

Three hairs to split with one cover

Here is a letter from the US to Italy.  Like Germany, Italy was divided into multiple states.  But, by the time this letter arrived in 1866, only the area around Rome was separate from the rest of Italy.  The postage rate for mail to Rome, sent via France, was 27 cents per 1/4 ounce.  This letter bears 27 cents in postage and was marked as having been paid to its destination in Rome.

This particular letter has more than one detail that is a bit different than other, similar, letters.  

First, the letter was forwarded to a new location, Genzano, which was located outside of Rome.  If you look, you will notice that Rome was crossed out and Genzano is written in different ink just below it.  The number "15" written in red ink towards the top of the envelope told the person delivering the letter that they needed to collect an additional 15 centesimi to pay for mail carriage from Rome to Genzano.

Second, if you look at the slip of white paper with the arrow on it, you might recognize that this envelope was cut.  This item was likely disinfected at Genzano in response to the cholera epidemic at this time.  It was pretty well known that disinfection of the mail was not going to help prevent the spread of cholera.  But, some local governments wanted to be seen as doing something (maybe anything) to protect the public.

And finally, this letter was carried by the Havre Line's Fulton.  If you'll recall, our second letter was special because it entered France at Havre via a non-contract British Channel steamship.  This letter, however, was carried by a steamship company that crossed the Atlantic from New York to Havre in France under contact with the United States.  This steamship line only carried 5.1% of the mail from the US to Europe in 1866.

I suspect that's about as much "splitting hairs" as some of you are interested in for one day.  So, now that I've made that point, let's provide you with some...

Bonus Material

Let's return to our first item that was sent to Guernsey.  Since Guernsey is an island situated off of the Normandy coast (France), mail had to be taken there by a steamship or sailing vessel.  A route from Southampton (England) to Guernsey and Jersey (also a Channel Island) was maintained by the New South Western Steam Navigation Company until 1862 when an Act of Parliament allowed the London and South Western Railway Company to own and operate ships.  The first ship built for their Channel Islands route was the Normandy.  

The Normandy was an iron paddle wheel steamer that made its first voyage to the Channel Islands on September 19, 1863.  This letter would likely have been on one of Normandy's earliest trips, arriving in Guernsey on Oct 12, 1863.

Normandy off the coast of Jersey - painting by Philip Ouless

The Normandy suffered damage in a collision with the liner Bavaria in April of 1864, but is best known for a catastrophic collision on March 17, 1870 with the SS Mary.

According to the account found in the Annual Register for 1870 (starting page 26), both ships were sailing in a dense fog and sighted each other too late to avoid collision.  The Normandy, broke into two pieces, with its lifeboat getting separated from the crew and passengers.  Two other boats were able to leave the Normandy successfully with thirty-one individuals.  The captain of the Mary sent a boat under the command of his first mate to pick up survivors, but this boat turned back before reaching the Normandy, claiming to be unable to find the sinking ship in the fog.  

Thirty-four individuals perished as the Normandy sank.  Meanwhile, the Mary stood by to render assistance as long as they dared.  But their own situation was doubtful because the Mary had a sizable hole in the bow of the ship.  The ship was lightened by tossing a significant amount of its cargo (corn) overboard so it could return to Southampton.  Observers at Southampton marveled that the ship survived long enough to get to the harbor safely.

The official inquiry that followed found the Normandy to be at fault, but also felt the first-mate of the Mary had "no valid reason" for returning to the Mary when he did without trying harder to find the sinking ship. 

As for the mail that was on the Normandy in 1870, it was lost - mostly.  The lone exception was a single bag of mail that was discovered floating on the water's surface.  Those mails were eventually delivered.  And, no, my envelope was not one of those pieces of mail since the one I illustrate is from 1863 and the sinking of the Normandy was six and a half years later.  But, finding an item from that floating mailbag would really be something, wouldn't it?

Thank you for joining me for this week's Postal History Sunday.  Have a great remainder of your day and a fine week to come.

How Did They Know? - Postal History Sunday

Welcome to the 4th entry of Postal History Sunday for 2023.  PHS is hosted every week on the Genuine Faux Farm blog and the GFF Postal History blog.  Everyone is welcome here, regardless of the level of knowledge and expertise you might have in postal history. 

One of the mistakes I sometimes make is I assume that because I wrote on something once before, I think I should not write on that topic once again. I call it a mistake because I am hopeful that my knowledge grows over time.  If that's the case, revisiting something becomes an excellent to integrate new learning into what I had known before - and it's a fine way to recognize and address mistakes an errors.

I also need to remind myself that very few people have read, much less remember, every prior Postal History Sunday.  In fact, some people may be joining us for the very first time!  One of the keys to looking outward towards those who might be new is to be willing to revisit some of foundational concepts every so often.  And, if you're clever, you just might through in new tidbits for those who are already comfortable with the topic.

Let's see how today's effort goes!

How did they know the postage was fully paid?

As you might guess, the answer to this question can have many different answers depending on the time and place in history.  I enjoy the study of postal history in the 1850s through the 1870s - though I have been known to explore material from other eras.  Today, I thought we'd look at some examples from the 1850s and 1860s in Europe.

The envelope shown above carried a letter from Rome to Paris in 1856.  The cost of mailing such a letter was 20 bajocchi (20 baj per 6 denari : Oct 1, 1853 - Jun 30, 1860) and there were three stamps properly paying that postage applied to the front.  That's great that I know the proper postage rate for this particular destination on that date (and now you do too!).  But, how did the person who delivered this letter know that the recipient did not have to pay anything more?

Remember - at this point in time, you also had the option to send letters UNPAID with the expectation that the recipient would pay the postage.  It really would be helpful if the carrier or clerk who delivered this item would not have to carry a big book of postage rates along with them to check to see if it was all taken care of!

In this case, I see the red box with the "P.D." and that tells me (and the carrier) that this item was "payée à destination," which translates to "paid to destination."

There is also a red circular marking applied in France.  Red ink was often code that implied an item was paid and black ink was often indicated that postage was not fully paid.  So, the first cover had a couple of clues for the postal carrier that no additional postage was due from the recipient.

I realize that it may be difficult to read what this marking says, so I thought I'd translate it here before we go to the next item:

E Pont - Pont-De-B.  May 26 1856

The "E Pont" is a reference to the Papal States in Italy or Etats Pontificaux.  At this time Catholic church maintained control over central Italy and are often referenced as either the Roman States or Papal States.  They had their own postal services and had postal agreements with other nations, such as France.  Pont de Beauvoisin (Pont-De-B) was the border town between France and Sardinia where this letter entered the French mails.

Envelopes were actually the exception, rather than the rule in the 1850s and 60s - and our first item was a small envelope.  Our next item is an example of a folded lettersheet.  An outer sheet was folded over the letter to provide a surface for addresses and postage while also protecting the contents from damage as it traveled through the mail systems.

This folded letter was mailed from Sardinia (which was in the process of unification with other Italian states) to England in 1860.  Now that I have given you a clue as to what to look for, I suspect you can find the marking that told the receiving post office in England that the postage was properly paid.

 

Yes, it isn't in red ink this time - but it is the same thing - "payée à destination."  In addition, there is a red circular marking below the P.D. that was applied in London.  This marking has the word "Paid" in the bottom of the circle.  This gave postal workers two clues for the destination post office in Market Weighton that all was well.

Countries had postal conventions where they agreed with each other HOW they would exchange mail.  Not every country had an agreement with every other country, but there were usually sufficient agreements to get mail from most every here to nearly every other there on the planet in 1860.  These agreements often dictated exactly how countries would indicate to each other that the item was properly paid or not.  Many countries in Europe agreed on "P.D." as a standard signal that an item had no postage due and many used the color red for prepayment.  But that was not always the case.

Slashes and x's

The next couple of examples are not quite items that were mailed from one country to another, but they illustrate some other ways an item was marked as 'paid.'

The item above was mailed in 1857 from Cento (near Bologna) to Rome.  At the time, both of these cities were located in the Papal States of Italy, territory under the direction of the Vatican.  The letter cost 6 bajocchi to go from Cento to Bologna to Rome and a green stamp was used to pay that postage.  The post office in Cento used a blue handstamp with the town name (Cento) to mark the stamp to show that it was recognized as paying postage - and to prevent it from being reused in the future.

The Rome office, during the 1850s and 1860s, indicated that postage was paid by putting a long diagonal slash in ink on the face of the mailed item.  It was quick.  It was fairly efficient.  And it served a purpose.  

Now, when the clerk (or carrier) handed this item off to the recipient, they could quickly and easily see that nothing more was due on delivery.   

Before we move on, some people reading this might be wondering how the postage was determined to be 6 bajocchi for this letter.  I just so happens that the internal postage rates in the Papal States can not be quickly and simply described.  So, if that particular subject interests you - try this Postal History Sunday where this cover makes another appearance.

And here is another Italian item that was sent from Modena to Mantua (Mantova).  Mantua, during this period, liked to do a full "X" marking on items that had no additional postage owed.  These "X" markings were normally big and bold - quite hard to miss!  Unfortunately, I have noticed that prepaid letters to Mantua do not always display this marking, so a postal historian cannot rely on its presence to show that a letter was paid in full.

Postal History Sunday has actually featured Mantova a couple of times.  The most recent was Return to Mantova in September last year.  The first visit occurred in August of 2021, this older blog contains a bit more historical details for the city of Mantova if you like that sort of thing.

I am frequently amazed by the interesting themes and sub-themes that emerge as I explore the stories surrounding objects of postal history.  Sometimes, I find that I am drawn, over and over, to particular locations - like Mantova.  Each time I return, I learn a bit more, which is an excellent reward as far as I am concerned.

Franco means paid

The Dutch and Germans tended to prefer "franco" to "P.D." for linguistic reasons.  This item was mailed in Rotterdam in 1866 and sent to Gladbach in Prussia (Germany).  The Dutch post office combined the handstamp to 'cancel' the stamp with the marking to indicate that postage was paid.  The boxed word "Franco" clearly defaces the stamp and is visible for the delivering clerk to see.

And, in some postal agreements, both countries were required to indicate that an item was fully paid.  This item from Amsterdam to London (1865) has the "Franco" marking on the postage stamps (applied in Amsterdam) AND the word "Paid" in the London circular marking.  As if that were not enough, the person who addressed this letter also wrote the word "paid" at the lower left.  Or, perhaps, this was written by a postal clerk - but the writing style seems to be the same as the address.  That helps me to be fairly confident that the sender wanted to emphasize the point.

And speaking of emphasis...

Sometimes, a person was pretty excited that something was fully paid.  At the bottom left, the sender wrote “all paid! franco!!”  I am not sure adding exclamation points make it any more likely that the postal people would notice it was paid enough - but I do hope at least one person who handled this item was a little bit amused.

For good measure, another exclamation mark appears at the top where the words "per Prussian closed mail" appears.  I find myself wishing the contents were still with this envelope because the outside of the envelope sure makes it seem like the enclosure must have been exciting! (!!)

How many clues on this envelope from Faribault, Minnesota (US) to Oldenburg (Germany) can you find that told the delivering clerk that it was fully paid?

 So, what would NOT paid look like?

This is a whole topic of its own, but I thought I should show at least one example.

Here is a letter that has a stamp on it, so it is possible that postage was paid.  And, there are some red markings on the cover too.   Hmmmmm.

The first clue that this item is NOT fully paid are the numerical markings on this letter.  The red "40" is actually the amount to be collected from the recipient to pay for postage.  Believe it or not, the black 'squiggle' to the right of the "40" is also a "4," which is the same amount due.

The second clue is that there is no "franco," "paid," or "P.D." anywhere to be found on this item.  

The third clue is the red boxed marking that says "affranchissement insuffisant."  This roughly translates to "insufficient postage."  

In a very real way, postal history can be a bit of a puzzle - but it is an enjoyable one that begins to make more sense as you learn the language and the rules the postal workers used to communicate.

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Thank you for joining me for this Postal History Sunday.  I am always willing to accept constructive feedback and questions that will inform future "Postal History Sundays."  You can give feedback using the contact form (which will send me an email) or by leaving a comment.  If the comment form doesn't seem to be working, reload the page and that normally solves the problem. 

Have a fine remainder of your day and an excellent week to come.

Rob

On Your Marks - Postal History Sunday

Welcome to the third entry of Postal History Sunday for 2023.  PHS is hosted every week on the Genuine Faux Farm blog and the GFF Postal History blog.  Everyone is welcome here, regardless of the level of knowledge and expertise you might have in postal history. 

A few people have been curious regarding the publishing schedule I maintain for these weekly entries.  Typically, I set each new effort to appear at 5:30 AM Central US Time - on a Sunday, of course.  So, if you want to bookmark one of the blogs I linked above, you can just go directly there each Sunday AM and expect to see that week's PHS after that time.  For those who prefer to be reminded that a new Postal History Sunday is available, I tend to post something on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at some point later each Sunday, depending on how my day is going.  I also put a link in a comment on Richard Frajola's philatelists board. 

If anyone who reads these blogs feels motivated to share with others in your own circles, you may feel free to do so - there are plenty of fuzzy slippers and comfortable virtual chairs to go around.

A postal marking brings out a question

The special Christmas Postal History Sunday brought forward a question that I had not exactly considered specifically.  I had an answer almost immediately, but it had not been a question I'd put much thought or time into prior to that point.

I see postal markings as one part of the equation that makes up the story around a given piece of mail.  Yet, I have to admit that I do not always consider things from the angle of marcophily (or marcophilately), which is the study of the postmarks themselves.  A person who concentrates first on the markings for their sake might have felt these questions were worthy of immediate and undivided attention.  I, on the other hand, filed them away as a point of some interest and moved on to things like postal rates, ship sailings and an odd fascination that the addressee lived on Drury Lane (do you know the muffin man?).

It's all about each person's interests, experience and knowledge base.  Each individual may see something completely different to explore about any given object!

Before we get to the question that was sent my way, let's describe what I see when I read the cover shown above so we can all start at the same place.

This letter was mailed in Lynn, Massachusetts on November 2, 1863.  The postmaster at Lynn used hand stamps to apply two markings in red ink on the front of the envelope.  The first is a big, circular marking that reads "Lynn, Mass, Nov 2, 24 Paid."  These sorts of postal markings are often referred to as a "CDS" or "City-Date Stamp," though I have also heard people refer to it as a "Circular Date Stamp."  Either way, it's just like all sorts of names we use for things... not terribly creative, but very blunt and useful as a descriptive tool.  However, we can't keep it that easy, we must shorten it to a TLA (Three Letter Acronym) so we can confuse people who are new to the subject area!

I'm all for confusion with a dose of chaos, so CDS it is!

The other marking was applied in the same red ink at the right.  It's an oblong marking with the word "PAID."  The Lynn postmaster apparently took their job seriously when it came to letting postal workers down the line know that the 24 cents required to send a letter from the United States to the United Kingdom was considered to be covered properly by the 24 cent stamp that appears at the top right. 

Every occupation has their overachievers!  I think you'll understand why I say that as we get further into this Postal History Sunday.

The nearest exchange office was in Boston.  An exchange office was a post office that had the facilities to prepare mail to be "exchanged" with a foreign postal service.  Boston was able to exchange mail with London, England, according to the postal treaties in force between the United States and the United Kingdom in 1863.  So, not surprisingly, this marking is known as an "exchange marking."  

A US exchange marking for mail to the UK typically included 

• the name of the exchange office (Boston), 
• the date the letter was to depart (Nov 3), 
• an amount of the postage that was due to the UK (19 cents), 
• an indicator as to whether postage was paid in full or not (red color and the word paid), and 
• an indicator as to the ship that carried it (Br Pkt).  

That is one loaded marking!

But, what I hope you will observe, in case you have not already, is that the exchange office provided indicators to the foreign mail service that this letter was paid in full.  In fact, the foreign exchange office was probably MORE, not less, conversant in all of the postage rates to foreign destinations than a typical town postmaster might have been.

This last marking tells us that the letter was taken out of the mail bag at the London exchange office on November 16, 1863.  They also include the word "paid" in this exchange marking.  So, when it was eventually delivered to Mrs. Jewett at Drury Lane in London, the postal carrier would know not to ask for anything more.

There is one additional marking on the back (or verso) of this envelope that is a London post office marking.  London W.C. tells us that this went to the West Central postal district in London to be prepared for delivery at the residence on Drury Lane.  If you look at the address panel, you will see that the sender of the letter also knew this and helpfully provided "W.C." as part of the delivery address.

And now, the question...

I received an interesting inquiry from John B that read "I was surprised to see a PAID 24 handstamp from a town that was not a maritime departure point for contract mails. Are there other such towns?"

So, remember when I said I thought the postmaster at Lynn, Mass was an overachiever?  I was apparently not the only postal historian who noted that they did things different from most everyone else!

So, let me take a moment to establish a baseline for you so you can understand what we're talking about here.

Shown above is a letter that was posted in Worcester, Mass on Dec 19, 1865.  Worcester is located inland from Boston, whereas Lynn is actually northeast of Boston and is situated on the Massachusetts Bay.  Still, both are relatively close to the exchange office.

Worcester, Mass CDS (city date stamp) gives us the city and the date the item was mailed (or was processed) at the Worcester post office.  A black target was part of this marking and its purpose was to deface the postage stamp to be sure it couldn't be used a second time by persons with "nefarious intent."

Ok.  I've always wanted to include the word "nefarious" in a Postal History Sunday.  Now that I've achieved that goal, let's move on.

The markings in red are exchange office markings (Boston and London). The Worcester postal clerk apparently figured their black postmark was sufficient and they left the rest of the work to the exchange offices.  No "24 Paid" or "Paid" in an oblong shape.  No special color - just black.

Here is a letter mailed from Lowell, Mass on July 19, 1864.  Lowell is inland and to the northwest of Boston.  Once again, there are no additional markings beyond the Lowell CDS and a black marking of triangles to deface the stamp.  The Lowell postmaster left the rest of the job to the foreign mail clerks in Boston - just like the Worcester clerk.

At this point, we'll cut to the chase and simply tell you that this is the norm in the 1860s.  Unless we are looking at a foreign exchange office we do not typically see markings that illustrate the postal rate (24 cents) or declare the item "paid" like we do with the Lynn cover we started with.

An aside about marcophily

A person who was intent on studying the postmarks probably would have taken note of something with respect to the three Boston exchange markings on the covers I have shared thus far.  Actually, they might note a few things.  They might be interested in measurements (how big are these markings) among other things.  But, there is ONE difference every single person who is reading this blog should be able notice.

I'll give you a hint.  Look at the date in each of the three Boston exchange marks and I'll get back to you later!

What other towns had overachieving clerks/postmasters?

 

It just so happens that I do have another example in my own collection from another town that illustrates this same zealous approach towards marking the mail - even if the post office was not an exchange office.  

Here is a letter mailed at Providence, Rhode Island, that includes both a circular "paid" marking and a nice red "24" to go along with the 24 cent stamp at the right.  Providence typically sent their mail to the New York foreign mail exchange office - and we do see a nice red "N.York Br. Pkt Paid 19" marking down and to the left from the postage stamp.

Over the course of time, I have seen other examples with a similar set of markings from Providence on several covers.  I have also observed a combination of similar markings on letters mailed in the 1860s (and bearing a 24 cent stamp to the UK) from Lawrence and Springfield (both in Massachusetts) and Jersey City (New Jersey).

Briefly, I considered the fact that Lynn, Jersey City, and Providence could have sent their mail via boat to the exchange office to be a clue.  But, Springfield and Lawrence are both inland, which breaks the proposed pattern quickly and efficiently.

So, for the time being, until I learn more, I will stand by my assessment that some postmasters were intent on excelling at their jobs - or at least applying more postmarks on their letters.

And that's about all I have for the reasons why.

Another marking pattern

 

A few questions from Gary D about this particular cover got me started looking at a different postal marking pattern that I had internalized and not really put into words.  Gary was curious about the fancy star cancellation on the postage stamp in combination with the RED New Haven, Connecticut CDS. 

Many people who enjoy collecting stamps and postal history are attracted to some of the fancy cancellations that postal clerks used in some towns during the 1860s (and other decades).  In fact, there are whole books cataloging fancy cancellations during the mid to late 1800s.  You can read about the book by Skinner and Eno here and see how you could access the original and an updated resource.

And yes, it is thanks to people who were very interested in marcophily that such resources exist.

Getting back to the original point, I guess there was more than one way to excel at the job!  However New Haven's approach seems like a fair amount of extra work because they used two ink colors.  Red for the CDS and black for the cancellation.

This seems to be a normal pattern for New Haven when the mail was intended for a foreign destination across the Atlantic Ocean.  

image from Siegel Auction Galleries

 

Shown above is a letter that was mailed from New Haven to Shanghai, China.  The pattern is the same - a red CDS and black ink for the cancellation device.  You might notice that this time around, the star has a hole in the center.  There are a number of other examples, including this one to Prussia, that show similar black/red uses from New Haven.

 

As I stated, it seems that the New Haven CDS is red when the letter was meant to cross the Atlantic Ocean.  I have seen letters with a three cent stamp that show a black CDS  to go with the black star cancellation for destinations within the United States.  Similarly, I noted a letter to Aspinwall (Panama) where both the CDS and star cancellation were in black ink.  But, I will not make a claim that this is absolutely the case - that might be job for a marcophilest!

 

To add fuel to that particular fire, here is a letter mailed from Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 1867.  Once again, the CDS is in red, but the cancellation marking on the stamp is in black ink. I have a suspicion that several towns followed a protocol where trans-Atlantic letters acquired a red CDS, while the cancellation marking was applied with black ink.

 

The question is this - what will I do with that suspicion?  The fields of postal history, marcophily, and philately have pages upon pages of articles and resources.  It is possible (and even likely) that others that have explored this topic already and I just have yet to discover their research and their conclusions.  So, we shall see where my own motivation ultimately takes me.

For now, we will be content that the subject area has plenty of room for continued growth and exploration.  More questions to ask.  More answers to seek.

More to learn!

 

And speaking of more to learn - did you figure out the difference between the Boston exchange markings in our first three covers? Look at the order of the month and date.  The second cover puts the day before the month, while the others put the month first.

I hope you enjoyed today's read.  Have a wonderful remainder of your day and a fine week to come.