1942 Postal Cover, Canal Zone, Via Air Mail Cancel

A VERY BEAUTIFUL 1942 POSTAL COVER FROM PANAMA CANAL ZONE. THIS INCLUDES A PERSONAL LETTER AND 2 BEAUTIFUL 3 CENT CANAL ZONE STAMPS. AIR MAIL CANCELATION. ALL ARE IN GREAT CONDITION.

I would love to hear some feedback or history on this type of Postal Cover. I am kind of a beginner at Postal Covers. Is there anything that I had forgot to mention?

I hope you like them!

Looks like it was examined by a US Army Censor...see the upside down marking at the left.

Hi.

Welcome to the fun world of collecting postal history. Have you decided yet on a country or theme or topic on which you will plan to collect? There are so many millions of old covers around that narrowing down one's collecting area is going to make your collecting much more fun.

This particular cover was mailed during World War 2 and like most covers mailed during those years it has a military censorship marking on the front. The upside down rubber stamped black rectangle at the left side was applied by a soldier whose job was to look at all of the mail that was outgoing to be sure there were no secrets or other information of military importance in each letter and postcard.

The cancellation is not an air mail cancel. The cancellation is the marking applied by the post office to the stamps to deface them with ink so they could not be used again, and to provide information such as the date the letter was mailed and the city and country from which it was sent. What you have misunderstood to be an airmail cancellation is just a privately applied rubber stamp marking on the back that was added by the sender to be sure the cover went by air mail. He also ensured this by using a preprinted commercially purchased envelope with airmail wording printed and red and blue air mail edge striping on it.

The stamps are nice, but have little or no commercial value because they are in rather poor condition with discoloration. What is good about them is they show how much it cost to send the envelope by air mail at that time - 6 cents.

Wow, Thank you both for the information. Kimo it was great info and it will help me with other post covers.