Postal marking
Encyclopedia
Postmark
thumb|USS TexasA postmark is a postal marking made on a letter, package, postcard or the like indicating the date and time that the item was delivered into the care of the postal service...
s and cancellations; almost every letter will have those. Less common types include forwarding addresses, routing annotations, warnings, postage due
Postage due
Postage due is the term used for mail sent with insufficient postage. A postage due stamp is a stamp added to an underpaid piece of mail to indicate the extra postage due.- Background :...
notices and explanations, such as for damaged or delayed mail. A key part of postal history
Postal history
Postal history is the study of postal systems and how they operate and, or, the study of postage stamps and covers and associated material illustrating historical episodes of postal systems...
is the identification of postal markings, their purpose, and period of use.
Service marks provide information to the sender, recipient, or another post office. Advice marks notify about forwarding, missending, letters received in bad condition, letters received too late for delivery by a certain time, or the reason for a delay in mail delivery. (For example, a letter may be marked "snowbank" if snow accumulation not cleared by the potential recipient, or for whatever other reason, makes it difficult or impossible for the carrier to deliver the mail.) Dead letter office
Dead letter office
The United States Postal Service started a dead letter office in 1825 to deal with undeliverable mail. In 2006 approximately 90 million undeliverable-as-addressed items ended up in this office; where the rightful owners cannot be identified, the correspondence is destroyed to protect customer...
s would use various markings to keep track of their progress in finding the addressee, such as a notation that the letter had been advertised in the local newspaper. The tracking process for registered mail
Registered mail
Registered mail describes letters, packets or other postal documents considered valuable and need a chain of custody that provides more control than regular mail. The posted item has its details recorded in a register to enable its location to be tracked, sometimes with added insurance to cover loss...
may entail multiple marks, notations and backstamp
Backstamp
In philately a backstamp is a postmark on the back of a letter showing a post office or station through which the item passed in transit. The office of delivery may also backstamp a cover and this type of mark is known as a receiving mark....
s.
Auxiliary marks are applied by an organization other than the postal administration. For instance, 19th century mail delivery often relied on a mix of private ships, steamboat
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
s, stagecoach
Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...
es, railroads, and other transportation organizations to transport mail. Many of these organizations applied their own markings to each item, sometimes saying simply "STEAMSHIP" or some such, while others had elaborate designs. Similar routing notations were also used in the early days of airmail
Airmail
Airmail is mail that is transported by aircraft. It typically arrives more quickly than surface mail, and usually costs more to send...
.
Shortly after the outbreak of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, the Northern authorities declared the existing postage stamp
Postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
s invalid and issued new types. Letters using the demonetized stamps received a marking "OLD STAMPS NOT RECOGNIZED", an unintentionally humorous comment much prized by collectors today.
Post offices may add cachet
Cachet
In philately, a cachet is a printed or stamped design or inscription, other than a cancellation or pre-printed postage, on an envelope, postcard, or postal card to commemorate a postal or philatelic event. There are official and private cachets. They commemorate everything from the first flight...
s for special events such as a first flight
First Flight
First Flight may refer to:* "First Flight" * First Flight , an animated short film* First Flight Airport, in North Carolina, United States* First Flight Handicap, a horse race...
.
The traditional way to apply a postal marking is with the use of a rubber or metal handstamp; handwritten notations are sometimes seen for unusual situations or in very small post offices. In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, modern postal markings may appear in the form of yellow adhesive labels with the text printed on them. Many postal administrations now have the ability to print inkjet annotations directly onto a cover, either as a barcode
Barcode
A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data, which shows data about the object to which it attaches. Originally barcodes represented data by varying the widths and spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or 1 dimensional . Later they evolved into rectangles,...
for reading by other equipment, or as text.
Although it is technically possible to query postal services to find out what kinds of postal markings they use, in practice they do not seem to know about all the kinds of handstamps used in their offices, and previously unknown types of postal markings, both early and modern, regularly come to light. Hundreds of specialized works make up the philatelic literature
Philatelic literature
Philatelic literature is written material relating to philately, primarily information about postage stamps and postal history- Background to philatelic literature :...
of postal markings.