Some Texas Registered Covers

Registered covers both from and to Texas destinations have long been a favorite interest of mine. A recent post in this thread illustrated a couple of them. I thought I would add a few of my favorites in a new thread dedicated to the topic.

Registered covers from Texas before 1870 are quite uncommon. My first cover was mailed from Comfort, Texas (Kendall county near San Antonio) on Mar 27, [1872]. The year date 1872 is taken from the contents. The text Reg Letter No. 14 at the top right is the postmasters notation this this was the 14th letter registered in the first quarter (Jan-Mar) of the current year.




The reverse...




This cover is special because it is one of the earliest known registered letter to a foreign destination with the Return Receipt Demanded directive, which is written vertically at the left edge of the envelope. A close up of this directive follows.




The earliest known cover with this directive is, by an amazing coincidence (or so I think), from the same correspondence, but dated Oct 11, 1871 [but I don't own it!]

Another cover from the same correspondence was mailed from Boerne, Texas on Oct 20, 1880.







The transit markings on the reverse are both from the New York Exchange Office at the Main Post office, where most of the mail from the US to Europe was handled.

This next group are typical registered covers from the 1870-1880 period. There were no transit or arrival postmarks on the reverse of these covers, so I did not include them.

Galveston, date not distinct but about 1875, with the Texas House of Representative corner card. Galveston was one of the larger towns (and post offices) in Texas at this time, and had a substantial volume of registered mail This is registered letter number 475 for the quarter.




Livingston, Texas with an Attorney corner card, again circa 1875. The CDS and Target killer are in blue ink, which was against post office policy (Postmasters were supposed to use black ink to prevent reuse of stamps.)





Another from Brenham, Texas, with an unusual octagonal date stamp, Mar 6, 1880. The Reg 231/224 indicates this was registered letter 231 for the current quarter, and the 224 designates the number of the Registered Package Envelope that carried the letter to Kerrville.





As a security precaution, and to deter theft and rifling of the mails, all registered letters were placed in a secure, tamper-proof envelope called a Registered Package Envelope. The postmaster at the sending office could enclose up to five registered letters in one of these envelopes, but all had to be going to the same destination.

The following is a typical Registered Package Envelope [RPE]. this one was not used in Texas, and is here only to illustrate the type of conveyance was used for registered letters. Each postmaster or mail clerk or Railway mail clerk who handled this RPE was required to log it in his book of registered letters and packages handled, and this provided a completely traceable record of the movement of the registered letters from the post office of origin to the destination.

By the 1890s, many postmasters had acquired rubber stamps that could be used to identify the letters as registered mail. These were advertised in the Official Postal Guide, and postmasters acquire them to save time.

Registered letter from Simonds, Texas (A Dallas County DPO) to New York, with Registered No. 16 in black ink. The "U" in a circle with the date was made by the Registry clerk at the New York post office, and indicates that this letter was checked and verified to be properly sealed.






Another registered letter with a different one line REGISTERED No. 16 in magenta, from Pecan Gap, Texas to Waterville Maine.




There are many variations of this one line Registered marking.

Another common registry marking consisted of a hand-stamp with three lines, with the word "REGISTERED, the post office name, and the date, in various orders. For the smaller post office, a device of this type might be observed in use for five or ten years. Here are examples of registered covers with this type of marking. These are most commonly encountered between 1885 and 1905.

Luling, Caldwell Couonty, Texas Dec 31, 1896



Dallas, Texas Nov 12, 1897




Anderson, Texas Nov 3, 1896, with both a fancy straight line REGISTERED NO 30, and a shield shaped box with the registration marking.





Greenville, Texas May 1, 1890, with an El PAso Texas three line mark as a receivng datestamp.




Finally, another fancy cancel from Orange, Texas dated Feb 25, 1902

These three line markings are also encountered as receiving markings for foreign registered mail. Here is a registered letter from Brazil to Galveston, Texas dated Jan 18, 1890. The addressee, V. Gurdji, was a well known stamp dealer in Texas in the 19th century; however, after the Galveston hurricane of 1900 which destroyed the city, he moved back east and continued to operate there for another 20 years.

At larger post offices like Galveston, Houston, and San Antonio, Texas, these devices appeared to only last two-three years before they were replaced. Here are three additional markings from separate devices used at San Antonio, Texas.

San Antonio, Texas June 6, 1884, used as receiving mark on registered letter from Devine, Texas. All the lettering is in an upper case block font.




San Antonio, Texas, Oct 15, 1888. The lettering is in a serif font, and San Antonio, Texas is in upper/lower case.




And finally, San Antonio, TEX dated Oct 20, 1897, back to an all upper case block font, this time with "TEX" abbreviated.



More tomorrow.

The next type of registered marking found on Texas registered covers is the Double Circle Data Stamp (or DCDS). These began to appear in the 1890s, and came into extensive usage after 1902, when the US Post Office Department began to issue devices to all post offices.

The first is a marking from Brownsville Texas in 1894.




Waco, Texas in 1902




These DCDS were also issued to Classified Stations, her is San Antonio, Texas Station A, used in 1908.




This was always a favorite of mine. Note the corner card from someone in the Buffalo Bill Show, probably sending money to his bank.



Liberty, Texas in 1910.




These DCDS marking were used well into the end of the 20th century, but my collecting ends with 1910, except for a few covers with the Scott F1 stamp, which I will show next.

The US Post Office Department issued is first and only stamp designed for use on registered mails, Scott #F1, in 1912. It was not particularly popular, and no further Registration stamps were issued.

New regulations placed into effect required that no date stamps were to appear on the front of a registered letter, but they were to be placed on the reverse along the back-flap to verify that the postal clerk had examined the letter to confirm it was properly sealed.

Covers from Texas post offices with these stamps are uncommon.

Fort Worth Texas in 1912. The reverse shows two strikes of the DCDS from Fort Worth.






A second cover from Lesley, Texas in 1913. It was damaged in transit, and the post office at Galveston appled two Official Seals. There is also a faint auxiliary marking at the left edge which reads RECEIVED IN BAD ORDER /______ Examine in presence / of Carrier. in red ink

Most of the covers shown thus far have been domestic registered mail.

In 1883, the US Post Office Department, as part of their convention with the Universal Postal Union, agreed to use a distinctive red and white paper registration label at their Exchange Offices to identify registered mail. The use of these labels was discontinued in 1911.

The Exchange Office at the New York Post Office was the largest of the US Exchange Offices, accounting for close to 80% of all foreign regular and domestic mail. These labels were pre-printed with numbers between 1 and 100,000 for use at the New York Exchange Office. The volume of registered mail to foreign destination was such that as many as 40 sets of the 100,000 labels were being used by 1910.


Registered covers from Texas to foreign destination in Europe are relatively uncommon; in ten years of looking for them I've only encountered about 75. [And no, I don't own them all....]

Here are several examples.

First is a cover with a combination of markings: Anderson Texas , March 6, 1895, with a fancy straight line REGISTERED NO. 49, the sheild with a three line registry marking, and a New York registry label 89033, to Zurich Switzerland.





Industry Texas to Berlin Germany, 1904, with New York label 34623.







This next registered cover was mailed from Contract Station No 5 in Galveston, Texas, via New York Exchange Office were label 57662 was added, sent to a Miss Emily Stanley in Germany. The cover was forwarded from Germany to Switzerland before being delivered.





A registered letter from Eagle Pass, Texas, April 2, 1892, to Germany, with Label 25019, forwarded once, but undelivered, and eventually returned to the United States. Handled first by the Dead Letter Office, then returned to the sender.

US foreign mail to the Far East: Japan, China, Australia, etc., was handled primarily through the Exchange Office at San Francisco, California, all though a small volume went through Seattle and Tacoma Washington. Registered mail going this direction to the Far East is relatively uncommon, I've recorded perhaps 300 covers in the 1883-1911 period of use of these exchange office labels.

Here is one of only two covers I've encountered originating in Texas to a destination in the Far East: Austin, Texas to Australia, Mailed Dec 15, 1900 at Austin, Texas (a faint DCDS on the front), but then sent in error to New York, dated Dec 18 (in the "C" Clerk mark on back-flap), then across country to San Francisco on Dec 23, 1900, on reverse, and arrival marking in Australia dated 23 January 1901.

There were also five Exchange Offices along the Texas - Mexico Border, located at El Paso, Eagle Pass, Laredo, San Antonio, and Brownsville.

Registered mail, both domestic and of foreign original, address to Mexico, often passed through these exchange offices, as it was faster to travel by railroad to Texas and into Mexico than to route the mail to New York and by ship to Veracruz.

A domestic registered letter from San Mateo, California, via El Paso, Texas, to Mexico City. The internal transportation system in Mexico in 1894 was such that there was no efficient direct route by land from California, and so all mails were routed via El Paso. The El Paso registry label is one of about 60 recorded at the present time.





A registered letter from Austria to Parral Chihuahua, Mexico, which transited New York on May 17, 1908, then El Paso, Texas on May 23rd, finally received at Parrall on May 25, 1908.





The last cover through the El Paso Exchange office had an convoluted routing. Mailed originally in Guadalajara, Mexico, to Chihuahua, Mexico, it was forwarded to the addressee in New York City. After several attempts at delivery, it was returned to the sender via El Paso, Texas, were the registration label was added.






Now for a registered cover that went through the Exchange Office at Laredo, Texas. Mailed from Galveston (note the three line registry marking described earlier) on Nov 27, 1905, this cover went to Laredo (Nov 29th) where the label was applied, then to Oaxaca, but the addressee could not be located, and so the cover was returned to the United States. There are Dead letter Office markings from the Mexico DLO (Rezagos CDS on reverse) and the United States.






Covers from the other Texas exchange offices are very scarce: Seven are known from Eagle Pass, five known from San Antonio, and only a single cover known from Brownsville. None are in my collections!

One final category of registered mail received markings used at a Texas post office. This was mail originating in Mexico, and which traveled through the Exchange Offices along the Texas border to destinations in the United States, Europe and the Far East.

Here are some examples:

A registered letter mailed from Leon, GTO, Mexico on July 24, 1899, to Philadelphia, PA, with a blue Mexico registration label. Sent to the Mexican Exchange office at Neuvo Laredo, re-registered there (black box with C 1348 registration number), then to Laredo, where it was registered in to the US registry system, Laredo registry handstamp with 462. Delivered at Philadelphia July 31, 1899.






Next, a registered cover from Durango, Mexico to Dusseldorf, Germany. Mailed June 1904 in Mexico, handled by the Eagle Pass, Texas exchange office on June 10 (blue CDS), then to New York Exchange Office, where New York label 30828 added. Received in Germany June 24, 1904.






Finally, a registered cover mailed from Silao, GTO, Mexico, routed vial Laredo Texas, then to San Francisco, where it was registered at the exchange office there, with label 5383, then sent to India, where it was forwarded at least once to its destination.

I'll close with one relatively modern Texas registered cover, this one from Old Glory, Texas dated June 5, 1930. A fancy hand stamped flag cancel - what else should be expected from a post office named "Old Glory"?







That's it for now. I'd love to see your Texas registered covers, so please post them.

Really nice covers mml1942. Thanks for showing them!

Awesome cover collection.


-MV