P.o.n.y.- Paid All Cancell??

A friend of mine on another board posted something rather curious and I have never seen anything like it before. It is what appears to be a received cancel that reads: P.O.N.Y. PAID ALL
Can anyone tell me anything about it please?

Here is the receiver mark in question-

Front:



Back:

P.O.N.Y. = Post Office New York (?)

I'm also thinking Post Office New York.

Could it mean that it was found not to be postage due?

Yes, P.O.N.Y. - Paid All, was a postmark applied by the New York Post Office (Foreign mail incoming) that signified all postage requirements were correct and nothing was needed to keep the letter from continuing on it's move. It is also a good indication of the date the item was received in the US. In this case the letter was mailed in Russia (Finland?) on April 26, 1896, came boat mail and was received in the US on May 21st, 1896, and received at the main New York PO on the same date (May 21st as shown by the ccancel on the reverse side). The mailing took a little shy of 1 month to make it through the system.

This is not an uncommon postmark, as all inbound European mail got one of these impressions (there are varied types of this, but all basically say the same thing) when it entered the US.

On the west coast, mail coming from the Pacific had a San Francisco, CA marking. Los Angeles, CA, Texas and Miami got the mail from the south and several upper entry points got the mail from Canada. A lot of it depended upon how the mail was being shipped and to which point of entry the ship docked at.

Hope this help.

The very nice postcard, was written in the city of Narva, then on the Russian empire. Today, Narva is the most eastern Estonian city. Just across the Narva river, lies the now Russian, (but up to 1945 Estonian) town of Ivangorod.

The NYC address is a very hot area now, but at the time it was close to the Hudson River at the edge of the meat packing district, a very poor place to live.

Also, that P.O.N.Y. marking shows an "A" under it, meaning it was from New York, Postal Station A. There were other Postal Stations that also used the marking that would have a "B" (or whatever) in its place.

Could I ask a follow-up question:

What if the item had been determined to be underpaid at NYPO? Would it have been sent on to the recipient postage due (underpaid amount? plus a penalty?), or would it have been returned to sender in the country of origin, or would it have been destroyed?

I would presume the receiver had an option of paying the postage due fees. If not, it was sent back to the sender if there was a return address. If there isn't a way to determine the return address then Dead letter office perhaps?

Wow that's great information! So it was only used on foreign mails to NYC then?

"The mailing took a little shy of 1 month to make it through the system"...

I'd just like to add that I believe the postal systems of the two countries involved used different calendars so it is possible to knock roughly 10 days off that one month total

Thank you scotzm I never realized that but just so you know this is not my cover although it is a beauty. May I pass on this information?

The cover was posted on the 8th May 1896 using USA calendar.

All information is free and, if deemed accurate, can be freely used

Thank you scotzm.

Just checking how you arrived at May 8, 1896. I just used a Julian to Gregorian calendar converter which suggests that a Julian calendar date of April 24, 1896 (Russia) converts to May 6, 1896 in the Gregorian calendar (US).

If you want to see another example of a PONY PAID ALL postmark, checkout this ebay listing for a postal card from London, England to New York City (1897):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/England-Lon...em1c3f95ce5a