Unknown Registered Package Label?

I found this cover recently in a notebook I had purchased several years ago.

I was looking on the Stamp Smarter website under the USPOD Registered Labels database and did not find this one.




I don't see a date on the label, but the back of the envelope has three purple registered handstamps dated April 1942.

Most Government Departments and Agencies had pre-printed labels like this to use on official mailings. Some also had similar labels printed directly on oversized envelopes. Most were printed by the Government Printing Office. The earliest I recall having observed as dated in the early 1900s.

The Post Office Department also had similar labels. Most that are encountered were used to mail postage stamps, or boxes of stamped envelopes or postal cards to post offices.

These are individual Departmental items, not post office provided labels.

In all cases, these were more like departmental stationery items rather than accountable paper likes postage stamps. I am not aware of any detailed listing of varieties.

If you will read the fine print, any Federal Agency which has an office in Washington, DC was entitled to use such labels. Normal postage, airmail postage and registered fees all had some type of PENALTY label or imprint. Such penalty envelopes and labels for larger items have a long history going back into the 1800s. Having no stamps most of the time, they were not actively collected by stamp collectors. As postal history, they are an area which could benefit from much research.

Most students of postal history, for example, do not know that there were weight limits associated with such Penalty Mail and instructions for when the mailed matter exceeded the specified weight limits.

Edited to add this explanation:

"Penalty for Private Use $300" refers to the use of penalty envelopes, cards, meter stamps, etc. by any private person, concern, or organization or for matter not relating exclusively to the business of the United States government. Mail with some version of the "Penalty for Private Use $300" is generally referred to as PENALTY MAIL.

Large 4-3/4 x 7-1/2 label on envelope fragment.
Mailed July 17, 1902 from Washington, DC to Cleveland, OH.

And perhaps a variation on the theme ... a full "U.S. Registered Letter" envelope mailed by the Department of the Interior from Washington, DC to AZ in 1931 with 3 cents added for return receipt.