Foreign Post Card Arrives In US Un-Canceled

I hope the moderators approve of where I've posted this ~ the topic is related to the (I presume) U.S. Post Office rubber stamped message on the card, rather than the card itself, which is a picture post card of some fancy building, but the building is unidentified.

The card has an Austrian stamp and is addressed to someone in Pasco, WA USA. The attached stamp is not canceled. Near the bottom of the card is rubber stamped: "This article originally mailed in country indicated by postage". From other context the card would have been mailed sometime between 1949 and 1963, and most likely in the later 1950's.

I found it interesting because I've never seen this Post Office stamped message before, and I'm curious why they wouldn't have applied it on or near the un-cancelled foreign stamp … or why there wouldn't have been a date and location stamp (i.e. an intermittent post mark if you will) applied when this anomaly was discovered.

The card reads: "Just returned from the Soviet. Good to be back in the free World. Regards, Estes Kefauver". The addressee, Alice Hogan West, was my paternal grandfather's cousin and Washington State's Democratic National Committee Woman 1948 – 1964. Estes Kefauver was a Democratic U.S. Senator from Tennessee 1949 – 1963 and Adlai Stevenson's running mate in the 1956 Presidential election.

Anti Malaria (Miasma Thematic?)
http://www.malariastamps.com/mpi/ma...y-mailed.asp

Probably originally mailed from Vienna, Austria in a diplomatic pouch to the State Department in Washington, D.C.

The postal marking is not unusual although it was common practice for mail like this to be cancelled with a Washington, D.C. machine cancel.

Here's the rabbit hole:

http://www.postal-markings.org/listing-full.html

Hint: search that page for "originally".

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey (proud member of the The Auxiliary Markings Club)

It is an Austrian definitive issued in 1951. In 1958, the Austrian traditional costumes series was superseded by buildings. The 1schilling 50 stamp was issued in 1958. So, there is a good chance the postcard was mailed between 1951 and 1958.

It seems to be a simple case of a piece of mail going through the canceling machine in Austria and getting stuck to the one in front of it and so not getting a cancel. I do not think it is diplomatic mail since the State Department in Washington cancelled that with a Washington cancel. I would go for the simple explanation rather than a complicated one as being the most likely.

The rate for international post (surface mail) card was S 1.45 between
1.9.1951 to 1.2.1960 as per Austria Netto Katolg.

Strange regarding no cancellation. It is very rare to see that
on Austrian mail, then or now.

The S 1.45 was original issued in 1951 but in 1958 it was reissued
along with some of the other costume values.
The paper, gum and screening of the photogravure was different
from the 1951 issue.

Kimo, Why not as simple as a diplomatic pouch card in which two went through the canceling machine together in Washington, DC ... at the same desk where they were applying the "This article..." handstamp to a stack of mail?

Hi moneil

Any chance to see the front of the PC.
Just curious to see which fancy building it is.

I agree with Glenn, this was Diplomatic Mail.

Hal wrote:




If it's Diplomatic Mail in a diplomatic pouch to the State Department in Washington, D.C.
then why does it need Austrian postage?

It wouldn't go via Austrian Post or US mail, would it?

I admit I have no idea how that worked back then.

If my memory serves me correctly, all of the U.S. diplomatic pouch mail that I have seen has been franked with stamps from the country of origin.

Thanks Bob.
Were the ones you've seen cancelled or not?

In my recollection, most but not all were cancelled.

Please bear in mind that I was not searching through large boxes of worldwide covers looking for these items...but they caught my eye because they are a little different. Many of them had Washington, D.C. cancels, of that I am sure.

Non-Official Mail (Personal Mail) was not allowed to use Diplomatic Pouch priviledges to circumvent payment of postage, otherwise employees would simply use "Penalty Envelopes" for personal mail, which was prohibited. So, State Department employees stationed in a foreign country were required to purchase, use and place stamps, based on the current country-of-mailing international mail rates, on letters/packages.

Yes Hal is correct, we were required to do it this way for our personal mail. I was an FSO for 35 years and have some experience. The other and perhaps even more common way we sent our mail back to the US was to take advantage of the constant stream of TDY visitors from Washington to hand them a few letters on which we placed the correct US postage and by their courtesy they simply dropped them into the nearest mailbox after they had returned to the US.

To answer John's good question, anything is possible but the State Department mail office was very vigilant about cancelling all personal mail that was sent along with the country of origin stamps. The chances of something getting through without being cancelled is less than something going through the regular Austrian mail without being cancelled. I favor Occam's Razor when looking for explanations - anything is possible, but most of the time the simplest explanation is the correct one. Or, if one hears hoof beats, the more likely explanation is that it is horses and not zebras.