Help : Remittance Control Date Time Stamp

Hello,

Can anyone pls advise what was the purpose of the remittance control date time stamp on covers and why was it used?

Thanks
Davis

T think due to the poor economic situation in Guatemala in 1982 the Guatemalan govt. imposed tighter restrictions on money flows .Remittances are the money sent home by people who work in a foreign country.It could work the other way around. These are, for example, the money sent to Guatemala by Guatemalan workers in the U.S. As the cover was sent by the National museum (govt.) to the usa ,it may of included a payment for National Geographic(?)..

I thought it a receiving designation from the National Geographic office.
Don

Hello Davis,

Large corporations and organizations that received lots of mail daily had remittance processing departments to control the handling of checks, money orders, and cash in their mail. An NGS mail clerk opened this cover, date/time stamped it, and wrote "Dr Payne" on it in pencil, determining that it should go to Dr. Payne. They opened all the mail looking for money, checks, etc. whether it had any or not. This letter probably did not have any money in it, but all were handling like they did, it was company policy.

Dr Payne could have been traveling on business, or on vacation, and not seen this letter for days. The date/time stamp would tell him when the NGS received this letter.

Your next question...
Why would you need the time stamp, isn't the date good enough?

This tells me they had a CCTV system; security cameras watching the clerks, keeping them honest. If an issue ever came up, they could play back the VCR tape to watch the clerk open this letter at the exact time on the timestamp.

Hopes this helps you understand the process,

Linus

Many thanks Linus and all