Censored Mail From Holland 1940

Thought this was an interesting piece. Handstamp on cover not seen often. Sender left the State off the address. Recognized by the Post Office as a deficiency. Post Office completed the address. Can't read the date on postmark from Holland except 1940. NY Postmark on reverse is clearly Jan 9 1941.

Hi Gettingold, very nice cover. The sender did put the state on the address, albeit the wrong (non-existing) one. He misread Ill and made it Hl.

Peter

Petert4522

I thought that too. Initially I thought the town was Salem Hills. Alcolades to the US Post Office for figuring out the right State. There's probably a West Main and a town named Salem in almost every State in the US.

Did a search on it:

From Salem, New Hampshire, to Salem, Oregon, there are relatively few cities and towns of consequence in the United States named Salem. Even when you add in the variants, the number doesn't rise over a dozen. The official urbanized areas named Salem number just nine. (A population of more than 5,000 according to the Census Bureau is what it takes to be an official urbanized area.) The nine, and their approximate population as of 1994 (perhaps I should buy a new World Almanac) are:

Salem, Illinois -- 7,500
Salem, Indiana -- 5,600
Salem, Massachusetts -- 38,000
Salem, New Hampshire -- 25,700
Salem, New Jersey -- 6,800
Salem, North Carolina1 -- 143,500
Salem, Ohio -- 12,200
Salem, Oregon -- 108,000
Salem, Virginia -- 23,700

Not as many as I thought.

These "Deficiency in address ..." marks are fairly common from large and/or port cities - just a matter of looking for them. The nixie clerks were exceptionally good at deciphering addresses. The fact that there are no additional corrections or fowardings beyond Illinois, indicates the NY clerks got it right the first time.

Salem: From the July 1941 Postal Guide, these were the Salem possibilities which had post offices: