Who Applies Registry Division Cancels On Stamps?

As some posters may now know I research Palestine Mandate postal history but my questions are usually universal in their meaning: in the period of the 1920s-40s I see registered mail whose franks are sometimes cancelled by public counter postmarks and sometimes by the "registered" postmarks of that division; my question is, when/under what circumstance would those "registered" cancels be applied to mail - on the spot at the time of submission, sometime later by the clerk or a different department? Could registered mail be entered into a letter box and be cancelled later?

Thanks in advance for your inputs

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

A general explanation is, subject to local variances and postal folks not following the rules:

Should be by the person first accepting the registered item. Then additional registered marking may be applied along the way by various registry division personnel. Lastly a registered mark is often applied by the office of ultimate delivery to note that it was received. At times, for various reasons, an en route upgrade to registered due to the contents, especially after they were determined by inspection, such as customs.

Thanks! Do you know if registered letters could also be left unpostmarked in letter boxes or did the sender have to submit it in person at the counter?

The sender or their designate always had to submit the item in person, otherwise it was a breach of post office rules. Items left in letter boxes but marked "registered" would always go by normal post.

I do not known about handling of registered mail in the UK, but the U.S. "Postal Laws and Regulations" volumes contradict this concept.

From the 1913 volume:


And from the 1948 volume:


It is clear, in the U.S., the post office expected all registered mail to be presented at a post office for mailing and otherwise erred on the side of caution when something was dropped in a street box.

Here is an item I have posted before: