Show Your 1851-61 Era Cancellations And Postal Markings

a nice 11A with a dover del. cancel with diamond ornaments

American stampless coevr catalogue page 29

Nice 11A pair, with a Savannah Georgia star ornamented cancel,

simpson #47 page 46, Rarity 3

manuscript "mail" in LLCorner, I see this sometimes but wonder what people write this, it is obviously mail, what am I missing

a little more rare:
#26 on cover, with content, with a washington mills, new york state, diamond ornamented cancellation, mentioned in Simpson:

on page 106 and 64
no C37 and No 273, shape 31

rarity 8

@dutch - nice covers.

With regard to "mail", way back then, the USPO was not the only game in town to carry letters. There were private expresses in some places, and also private individuals would just carry letters ("favor of") frequently. So "Mail", really meant the US Mail as opposed to some other means of transport.

edit: other endorsements as they are called, could further indicate how to route a letter, for example: "per steamer California", or "via Panama", "via Adam's Express" for example.

interesting info again, thank you Txstamp

tx can we back up to your Wurttemberg cover?
I'm wondering about the 3c stamps. Plate 1L? Appears like uneven plate wiping or maybe just showing some oxidation?
Great cover.

Hi @stampcrow.

Yes, certainly Plate 1L.

I agree that it appears as though there is some oxidization in the top labels.

Left stamp appears a probable A relief, with the right stamp a B relief, but I haven't tried to plate them.

I need to get this cover out and under a glass to study some things about it ....

I was hoping you'd report EOB color but Oct.1853 would be well past the date for that?

Right, Oct 53 is way too late for Exp OB, however I do see what you are looking at - thx.

I'll keep color in mind on this when I pull it out and study it ... hopefully soon.

Registered letter from Detroit to New York City - circa 1854.

The registry system in the US became formalized in March 1855, and cost 5c payable in cash (not by stamps). Prior to this, there were various improvised registry systems created by individual postmasters.

This marking, with the combination of "Money" and "Registered" is particularly interesting. "Registered" was the term used in the US, while "Money Letter" was used in Canada. Detroit, being on the border, apparently, decided to use both terms here.

This is an important cover, being the only known example of this marking on a stamped cover. There is one other stampless use of this particular marking.

thank you Tx, learned something again today

love, absolutely really love this cover

Great, I'm happy to hear that was helpful.

This cover is actually illustrated in Simpson-Alexander, on page 262.
The marking is #3a on page 260, rarity 9 (the count is 2 known ).

The Simpson-Alexander book was one of my first go-to books when I was trying to learn anything I could about postal markings and postal history. It is a great place to start - to get an idea of what is out there.

I recall noticing this cover, probably around 1990 or so, when I was spending days and nights going through this book. I always wanted it -- and just a couple years ago a dealer friend emailed me, asking if I wanted to buy it. My answer of yes was a foregone conclusion.

edit: I have another, pretty neat registered cover that I will post at some point.

I got this 25 and Blood's Local (15L14) recently. The 25 is plated to 47L7. It was offered as a #26, but this is definitely a #25. Scott does not list a 15L14 on cover with a #25 The Sept 8, 1857 date in the Blood's local handstamp is a very plausible date for a #25. I think I will send this for a certificate, but before I do, does anyone here have an opinion on whether this is a genuine cover?

It certainly appears legit - the main question being whether the bloods stamp belongs or not. That is best answered via in-person evaluations. I don't know the period of use of Blood's stamps, but this likely correctly falls within that period. Sometimes you can convince yourself that one of these is tied by toning or lack thereof in spots, for example. That's not a perfect method - but is sometimes all you can do as long as the usage is correct - which I believe it is.

I seem to recall someone posted a bunch of these on philamercury not long ago. I'd go study those.

Overall, nice cover !

edit: I like the Iowa destination as much as anything.

Here is another interesting registered letter, originating in Cincinnati on 1/27/1859.

This one is after the official US registry system was put into place (1855).
The letter is to Britain and the registry agreement at this time between the US and Britain was that the entire registry rate of 5c would be collected in cash (cash, at least in the US) by the country of origin (US here), and the other country would be credited with half (2 1/2 cents).

The rate to the UK at this time was 24c, and this was overweight, and necessitated a 4-times rate. So 4-times 24c, or 96c via a block of 8 12c #36's were applied to pay this.

This was carried on the British Cunard line steamer Europa, which left NYC on Feb 2, 1859 and arrived Liverpool on Feb 14.

Since this was carried by British packet, Britain was entitled to 16c per rate for the steamer, and 3c for internal British transit, equalling 19c. So 19c times 4 equals a 76c credit to Britain.

So why, then, is the credit, applied in New York City equal to 78 1/2 cents ?
Recall that Britain was entitled to 1/2 of the registry fee, so they got an additional 2 1/2 cents. That's why.

Note that the credit is in pen, and not via the typical New York red exchange handstamp with a number for the credit. That's because they didn't have a 78 1/2 cent handstamp. To go along with this, note that the red New York CDS - just says PAID. It doesn't have the numeral credit in there. That was done in pen.

Another fascinating thing about this cover - in the US, the USPO made it clear that for registered letters, there were to be no markings on the cover which clearly identified it as a registered letter. In other words there should be no markings such as: "Registered", "Valuable", "Money", etc ...
If you look closely, there aren't any such markings from the US.
Britain, however, clearly didn't have such restrictions. There is a "REGISTERED" oval applied in London, and the nice Crown Registered as well.

For the US side of things the only clues to this letter being registered are:
- the 2 1/2 cent credit the UK
- the '2714' registry number applied in the lower right hand corner in NYC.
New York City used 4-digit registry numbers on foreign mail, and typically applied them in the lower right hand corner of such mail. Its a signature that is often found and is the most common way to tell registered foreign mail out of New York.