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A postmarkSometimes spelled "post mark" or "post-mark". is a postal marking made on an envelope, parcel, postcard or the like, indicating the place, date and time that the item was delivered into the care of a postal service, or sometimes indicating where and when received or in transit. Modern postmarks are often applied simultaneously with the cancellation or killer that marks postage stamps as having been used. Sometimes a postmark alone is used to cancel stamps, and the two terms are often used interchangeably. Postmarks may be applied by handstamp or machine, using methods such as rollers or Inkjet printer, while are a recent innovation.
In England during the latter part of the 17th century, several postmarks were devised for use with the London Penny Post, a postal system that delivered mailed items within the city of London. The postmarks bore the initial of the particular post office or handling house it was sent from along with a separate time stamp. Postage was prepaid and the postmark was applied to the mailed item by means of an inked hand-stamp. Some historians also consider these postmarks to be the world's first postage "stamps".
In the 19th century and early 1900s, it was common for letters to receive multiple postmarks, or , indicating the time, date, and location of each post office transporting or delivering the letter, and this is still occasionally true. While almost every contemporary postmark includes a location as well as a date, in 2004, New Zealand Post announced plans to eliminate the location on their postmarks and include only the date; however, information about this can be determined by a three-number code on the postmarks.New Zealand Post The United States Postal Service digital color postmark commemorating the wedding of the Duke of Cambridge to Kate Middleton does not have a location on it.
In Great Britain, the first postmark employed for the cancellation of the then new adhesive postage stamps was the Maltese Cross, so named because of its shape and appearance. This was used in conjunction with a date stamp which was applied, usually to the rear of the letter, which denoted the date of posting.
Different types of postmarks include railway post offices (RPOs) and maritime (on-board ship) postmarks. Postmarks on Navy vessels during sensitive operations in wartime are sometimes "clean", showing less information than usual to prevent route of travel or other details from falling into enemy hands. Similar to this is the "censored postmark", overprinted with a black obliteration of the time and place of mailing, for similar reasons. This site provides a clear example of a sanitised postmark
The Pony Express used a variety of different postmarks on the mail it carried across the Western United States. There are only 250 known examples of surviving Pony Express mail/postmarks in various collections today bearing one of more than a dozen different types of postmarks.
Hawai'i Post, a discontinued personal delivery service, once had a surfboard mail postmark, for covers that traveled by surfboard.
A colour postmark is on the United States Postal Service-issued collectible envelope commemorating the 2004 inauguration of George W. Bush.
While postmarks are applied almost universally by or under the authority of the official postal department, service, or authority in the United States it is possible to receive "a permit to apply your own postmark", called a Mailer's Postmark Permit,USPS Form 3615, section for precancel postmark, not for bulk mailers. and under certain conditions specified by the private express statutes in the United States, a privately carried letter may be cancelled with a private postmark.Privately carried and privately canceled postcards from Chickensville Location, Michigan, which does not have its own post office, are an example. Unofficial entities that issue may use postmark-like markings as well.
Marcophily is the study of postmarks and there are many published work on postmarks covering the topic from before 1900, such as the , until the present day. These include the so-called of the United States to modern .
Fewer postmarks are used now than previously, with the advent of , some types of computer vended postage, and computerized postage that people can print from their own personal computers (called "PC postage" in the United States, these services have been offered by such companies as Stamps.com and Neopost). These indicia are not always postmarked by the post office but if put into the mailstream later than the date listed on them, they are postmarked about 50% of the time. Because of this, it is a bad idea to try to use the date on one's postage as a postmark.
An official example relating a numismatic item to postmarks occurred on April 13, 1976, when the U.S. issued a new two-dollar bill. People could buy the bills at face value, add a first class stamp (at the time 13 cents), and have the combination postmarked to show they were the first day of issue. Large numbers of these were produced and they remain common.
The majority of postmarks today are in black, with red (particularly in the United States with local post offices' handstamps) following, though sometimes they are in other colours. This is particularly true in the case of pictorial postmarks if the colour in question has some connection to the commemoration.
A special or rare postmark can substantially add to the value of a stamp. For example, on a Victorian cover sold at auction for £8,000 in 2019, a Two Penny Blue stamp "was upstaged by" a rare 'sun' date stamp. Also, in addition to everyday postmarks there are postmarks indicating the first day of issue of a particular stamp and pictorial cancellations commemorating local events, anniversaries, and the like' and slogan postmarks which advertise an event or pass information to the public (there has been a recent change to the term "pictorial postmarks" rather than "pictorial cancellations" by the USPS).
There are some examples of "faked covers" produced by philatelic forgers, most usually to increase their value, in which the postmark has been altered in some way; for example, by changing the date.
Flight , more or less elaborate rubber-stamps on an envelope indicating on which flight (typically a first flight), a first flight cover has traveled via airmail, are in addition to the postmark and are not postmarks either.
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