Queen Victorias On 1892 London/San Francisco Mourning Cover

Lately I have been looking for Queen Victoria stamps on cover. The postmark on this 1892
registered cover reads "Cannon St." in London. It was sent to W. H. Begbie Fowler, a lawyer
in San Francisco. It traveled by ship from London to New York, then overland to California.
The black borders indicate that it is a mourning cover.

... and the oval with the "R" in the centre indicates it is ia registered mail cover.

David

... as well as the blue cross hairs on the fron and back.

David

G'Day Tom nice old cover mate looks like that 2 penny stamp was added before sending but please can you tell me why it has two registration number regards Harry

Cool I learned something about additional marks today.

Great cover Tom with wonderful markings

Dianne

I'm guessing that the first registration number was assigned in London and the second registration number was assigned by the registry division in New York. There are also three blue numbers: "10" and "38" on the front and "486" on the back. Since they are in blue like the cross-hairs they look like they were applied before the cover reached the United States.

Thanks Tom this cover is interesting thanks again materegards Harry

One of those numbers may well be what is referred to as a "Line Number".

Registered letters have to be signed for, and usually upon being received by the destination Post Office, they are listed in the Registration Book. This is a ruled book where one enters the originating office, addressee's name and address and then there is a column for the addressee's signature. After this there is uaually one other column for Post Office remarks to be placed, such as "unclaimed" or a forwarding address.

As every registered item had it's own entry, usually the line the entry was on was numbered, and the corresponding Line Number was written on the envelope, as the registered items and the Registration Book were kept separately. It is the Line Number that allowed the postal clerk to find the item in the Registration Book quickly.

Funny enough, while most countries would use the blue crosshairs as a way to denote that a letter was Registered, thisw practice wasn't usually followed in Canada or the US.

I see on the reverse that it has a New York reg cancellation that reads REG"Y"DIV I wonder how many registry divisions it had