Please Help With Stamp I.d.

I'm hoping this type of stamp is an old Postmaster issue or a old City Carrier stamp. It's dull blue if that's any help and its on a postcard to a recipient who lived in Fortuna California

Can you show the full card?

My first though was a revalue marking for mailing this card from somewhere other than the USA where it is being sold outside of the USA.

2 and 1/2 cents was never a post card rate in the USA to mail the card anywhere domestic nor foreign.

thanks for you question I thought I might uploaded the entire postcard but didn't think anybody would be interested . Maybe this is from Hawaii because it does say 2 cent foreign and its american post card

the printing on post card reads:
THIS SPACE FOR CORRESPONDENCE ONLY
ONLY THE ADDRESS MAY WRITTEN HERE

ITS A CHRISTMAS CARD

CORRECTION
MAY BE WRITTEN HERE
LOL

Looks like a U.S. postcard (printing in the stamp space) being sold overseas...maybe in the U.K., where the international rate was 2 1/2 d, unless I'm mistaken.

Okay, I was now able to check my copy of the book.

From 1890-1950 these are the only postcard rates from a foreign location being mailed to the USA in which the rate is "2 1/2" anything:

Rhodesia 2.5 pence 1892-1911
Ethiopia 2.5 guerches 2-1922 through 6-1924
Belgium 2.5 francs July 1949 [Start date is too late for this type of card].

[You can tell which direction I went in the International Rate Book by Beecher and Tony W.]


Now I do not know the other rates for postcards being mail from somewhere other than the USA to somewhere else not the USA.

If there is a country which required 2 and 1/2 units to mail a postal card, my guess is that this printed for the US card was likely sold on a ship flagged by that country (perhaps the UK as noted above by bookbndrbob) which was not likely to dock at a US port. But if sold abroad, the printed postage rates on the card did not apply.

Also, greeting type postcards did get enclosed in letters and mailed.

You may get an answer from post card folks who collect the cards as cards and not as postal history. Here at SCF there is a postcard topic area: https://goscf.com/f/25 beyond that as I don't engage in deltiology, I can't point you at a postcard forum.

thanks for your response and I'm interested in how to catalog this stamp in my collection, are typesets manual inked stamps collectable its from a post office in America probably 1888 and a government issued stamped post card. Fortuna California was only accessible by boat into Humboldt Bay.

It is not a stamp.

The 2.5 is simply the price of the postcard.

As an extra service the postal rates were mentioned.

Applause...

thanks for all hands down the rudeness "applause" but post cards were sold on shelfs where the buyer knew the price of the items because it was stated on a sales sign, not individually marked on individual cards, and exc.
So I take it some people are scratching their heads about this postage for 2 1/2 cents government issued metered or pre payed postage,

is it a city provisional stamp?

Eureka California it where the card was bought from the only Pharmaceutical Shop "Rings Pharmacy" north side to Sacramento. They purchased bulk post cards (100 or so) from the small post office next door on 5th street built in and around 1910. The post card displays top quality eclectic classicism dictated by area's social structure.

I presume since the difficulty in delivery of mail at the time in such a rural region the price of postage was direct result of local regional provisional postage at the time. Until a more nationalized postage system infill structure was completed.

Would this stamp be worth a premium or a minimum ?

is it a city provisional stamp? no
Would this stamp be worth a premium or a minimum ? no


Peter

Dear obiblue,

USA domestic postage rates for first class matter were uniform and had been for decades. Other classes of mail were generally uniform as well, except when the rate change due to distances where were set in zones. Even then the postage rates within a zone were uniform. The only postage "adjustment" for difficulty in delivery was for Alaska where all parcel post matter moved at the 8th Zone (most expensive rate) no matter the distance. Everywhere else a package of parcel post had to move more than 1800 miles to be rated at Zone 8.


That all said, there has been no 2.5 cent postcard rate in effect in the USA, ever for regularly mailed postcards.

As to your comment
how did you determine that from the postcard? I can see no such indication in the photos of the card provided. Please explain.

I mentioned an International Rate book above. The same authors produced a Domestic Rate Book (from 1872 into the 21st Century) for the USA as well.

Lastly, any "provisional" or manuscript notation would be accompanied by the inclusion of the name of the post office as well as the date, at least day and month.

This "2 1/2" is in no way associated with carriage by the USPOD nor a mark supplied by the USPOD. Nor by the way was Eureka a rural region at the time. It had a population of 11,000+ with many other small towns in the nearby vicinity. Today the population is less than double that if you don't consider the Students, Facility and support staff of the California State University there. Its roots began there in 1913 as a teacher's college.

With respect,

obikohaku aka Parcelpostguy

It was far easier to get to Humboldt county and the towns around Humboldt Bay by sea, but there were overland routes as well.




All of California was part of the United State Post Office Department. Humboldt county got it's first Post Office (Bucksport) Sep 3 1852, Eureka opened it's office Mar 11 1853, and Uniontown ( Arcata) opened Mar 12 1853, all three are on Humboldt Bay, the largest protected body of water on the West Coast between San Francisco Bay and Puget Sound.
Eureka shipped the mail to San Francisco, arrived overnight. The postal card below was sent from Eureka to Watsonville, Cal. Only took two days in 1901.