Mexican Registration Stamp Questions

I wonder what year/era this stamp is?
Is the S. Juan Bautista the town marking?
Can I safely soak the paper off that's stuck on the left edge, without affecting the ink?

The S[an]an Juan Bautista in the Mexican state of Tabasco, is simply the name of the post office where the original letter was mailed. With few exceptions, the Mexican registration labels were not printed with the name of the post office where they were used. A few post offices did add the name using a rubber stamp, or in manuscript, but apparently this was not a postal administration requirement, and I would say fewer than 10% of all post offices followed this practice.

This particular style label was used in multiple cities during the 1890s.

The manuscript 3224 is sequential registration number for the original registered letter.

An example of a slightly different form of the label with apparently the same hand stamp is shown here. This cover is dated 1899.

[Edited Note: This cover is from an offering "harvested from ebay" by seller oobubba back earlier in the year - not from my collection. I've got many Mexico registered covers, but just did not have one from this office in the collection.]



I've never personally removed one of these labels from a cover, so I don't have a definitive answer to the question of soaking. My instinct is that there would be no problem, as I have a number of these individual labels acquired over the years that were obviously soaked from envelopes along with stamps and I've seen no ink runs.

I would very much advise against soaking it. There are a variety of inks used on the piece any one of which could run.

That is a beautiful cover mml1942.

Thanks!

They are good looking labels. It will look good on a page. Maybe I'll try to coax the excess paper off as apposed to a full bath.

There were a large number of registration labels used by the Mexican Postal System between their introduction in the early 1880s until after World War 2. I've not made a precise count, but I suspect the number is close to 100 different.

While I collect these primarily as an artifact on cover, I have acquired or observed groups of these offered on ebay, and the following images are some combination of my own plus from offerings on ebay. I'm posting them simply to demonstrate that variety. There is some duplication. A few illustrate the addition of the post office name with a rubber stamp

Some of these labels were used only for short periods of time or at a small number of locations and covers are difficult to find.

-The examples at the top left of the first image which look like a postage stamp, with the C in red, and the R in Blue were the first labels. The R was for REGISTRADOS and was used on international mail. The C was for CERTIFICADOS, and was to be used on domestic mail.
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The PAQUETTE DE CERTIFICADOS in the first two images were to be used on packages, and very difficult to find used.

Bravo!
What a delightful collection...well done you.