Need Help Identifying 1888 Cancel On A 2 Cent Washington Stamp Still On Envelope

I am hoping that I am in the correct forum and hope that someone can help identify the postmark information. The letters above the day appear to be written backward but I am not sure if this is a Month designation or if it means something else. I don't want to say what I think it means because I am afraid of biasing responses. To me it is clearly some month 25, 1888 but not sure what is above the day number on the postmark. The receiving postmarks are very indistinct but do show some letters above a day, 28, and only part of the year. The letters on the receiving postmarks are not an obvious month abbreviation. If needed, I can post the receiving postmarks but they are not nearly as clear as the sending Post Office cancellation excepting the day which is "28" on one of the receiving postmarks. The stamp itself appears to be fairly unremarkable excepting that it is a slightly unmarked used stamp from the era. I presume Scott #213

*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***

The top of the three internal slugs is an inverted "DEC", thus a Christmas day postmark.

If it took 3 days to get to Indiana, then "____ Hill" is going to be some considerable distance (several states) away. The best hope is finding additional covers from the same correspondence.

Thank you John - The letter was known to be mailed from Spruce Hill, PA. so A+ on the presumption that it was a few states away. Any clue why the inversion? The inversion does seem to appear as "DEO" in reverse font. The contained letter is missing at least the first page which, I presume, had the date written. The content did have some reference to Christmas but promised a later mailing which would describe the presents received on Christmas. The receiving postmark seems to show either "DPO" or, possibly, "DEO" in non-inverted font.

I am a bit puzzled, you ask in the title for help identifying the cancel, yet you knew it already. Why the games? Please share full information in the future.

Inverted month/day/year slugs are fairly common, mostly due to carelessness.

December 25 cancels are also quite common and nothing to write home about LOL.

Sorry John - I was asking about the date on the stamp, not location. I should have been more precise. I did not know the slugs could be inverted. Thanks again

The months and the days and the years on these cancels were separate pieces of metal ('slugs') that were inserted by the postal clerk into the cancelling device. That way they could keep the cancellation correct each day. Inserting these 'slugs' upside down was not at all uncommon since some clerks simply did not care much, or some may not have had perfect vision, or whatever. There are some people who like to collect covers by the specific date such as Christmas day covers like this one, or Leap Year day covers, or covers posted on their own birthdays, or Halloween day covers, etc. etc. Generally they like to try to get one from every year possible which is a fun way to collect. As others mentioned, they are not especially rare given the enormous amount of mail sent every day from across the country.

Thank you Kimo for the enlightenment. For Historical reference, I presume that this particular Post Office had an extremely low volume of mail on this date based on the past and present population density. I was given many covers to view along with containing letters from this particular post office as well as others in the general area. This is the first one where the month slugs were inverted. Do you know if the slugs were lead or steel?

Lead would be too soft and not last long.