United States Of Mexico ?

I was going through my post cards when I noticed this one.


This image was uploaded via Flickr after I was unable to do so with Photobucket.

It has Mexican stamps on it but was postmarked in San Diego
and arrived no problem without postage due in Austria.

That is a real curiosity. Perhaps, and maybe this is too big a "perhaps", the postcard was mailed in a border city like Tijuana and a UPU agreement allows international mail to go through the most direct mailing location to its ultimate destination. Since San Diego is the closest large transportation hub supporting international travel from the area including Tijuana, this could answer the question of a San Diego cancellation on Mexican stamps.

On a related and current issue, I was struck by the title of your thread. The country of Mexico IS officially known as Los Estados Unidos de Mexico which, of course, translates to the United States of Mexico. If you have a peso handy, you'll see these words engraved on all their coins. Recently there has been a very strong movement in Mexico to change this because of the very close nature of this title to that of the United States of America. I believe some of the suggested changes include either just Mexico or the Republic of Mexico.

Perhaps they stamped and wrote it in Mexico but forgot to mail it until they got into California? I have a similar one with Egyptian stamps and a USA cancellation somewhere...

Well yes that's what probably happened (looks like they were Austrian tourists) but still doesn't explain that it just sailed through the USPS Letter Processing center without any postage due being charged?

Like what?

Are Mexican stamps legal tender now in the USA?

Thats what all those bundles crossing the border are is stamps!
Side note- had same problem with PB link copying today but there is a link optimizer sort of thing and after I clicked it and set to quick link exchange everything worked.

Not only is Mexico composed of "united" states, it has its own non-state "Washington D.C." too. When you see the capital cited as "Mexico D. F.," that stands for Distrito Federal, analogous to our District of Columbia.

Which reminds me, because I see it "wrong" here over and over, and it messes up your Search too. Only one thing in the world is "Colombia," and that's the country on the northwest corner of the South American continent. EVERYTHING else is "Columbia," such as the District of Columbia, the Columbian Exposition 1892-93, Columbia (the capital of South Carolina), Columbia University in Manhattan, etc.

The US post office isn`t too fussy.



Tacoma, Wash.

Hi

I haven't checked any of the Exportas for tagging but I am assuming that if these Exportas are tagged it may be that it triggered the automatic cancelling machines and therefore was assumed to be a valid US stamp.

I knew someone who put only foreign stamp selvage on an envelope and sent it to himself as a test. Because of the tagging it got cancelled and was delivered. It did demonstrate that technology can go "bump in the night".

Jerry B

jbcev80, I checked this Mexico Scott C600 with my UV (long wave) lamp
and found no fluorescent tagging.

But the paper lit up slightly yellowish HI brite and had a weak
but definite phosphorescent after glow.

So looks like you're right about the Mexican stamps fooling the cancelling equipment in believing they were US stamps.

Sheesh, don't you guys ever read the papers? The USA has annexed Mexico (guaranteeing their bridgehead to Guantanamo) and Canada (protecting their land corridor to Alaska). So of course they are cancelling their stamps!

Hi lithograving

Thanks for checking.

I bet the same happened with alanl example. I would assume that any stamp that was phosphorescent would do the same thing.

Jerry B