Civil Censorship Study Group

While checking some covers, I happened to find this US slip inside a cover posted from Los Angeles to Norway Mar 13, 1942. The cover was censored in California (censor # 2310), and the slip enclosed, and the return handstamp applied. A few comments: The pointing finger handstamp, I suspect, was used in Los Angeles. The usual two lined RETURNED TO SENDER/SERVICE SUSPENDED was used in San Francisco and not used on this cover.

The label is, to my knowledge, unlisted. In Russ Carter’s resource, it would probably be included on page 32. The label is the same format as labels NC-12 and OC-12. The label identification “LA-ICB (2/3/42) 500” is the only one that I know of using the “LA” ID. (Los Angeles).

Besides the “2317” is a marking in light red “Examiner 2310”.

Any comments on the “LA” identification and this cover would be welcome.

Hi Michael,

I agree that this enclosure form is a new find, and that the LA stands for Los Angeles. The very small number issued makes it a rarity. The ICB terminology goes back to the earliest days of censorship (before the Office of Censorship was created) and was dropped in early 1942; it is interesting to see it used here. (I have seen it used only in Honolulu and San Francisco, of which LA was a substation on 2/3/42; LA's early handstamp used BIC, possibly to distinguish it from SF, which had ICB in its early return to sender handstamp though not in its regular handstamps). The print date on the form is the day after the 2301-2580 block of numbers was reassigned from Canal Zone to LA, suggesting to me that this is when the LA station had its act fully together.

As to the RTS handstamp on the face, Broderick and Mayo list the Form 15 Return to Sender by Censor labels only from April , 1942. Your mid-March use of this handstamp would seem to confirm that those forms were not in LA then. My guess (and it is only that, but there are ther instances of the pointing hand used elsewhere with "by censor" added that suggest this) is that the handstamp was on loan to the LA Censorship office from the Post Office, which would make it a censor device.

All in all, this is great cover.

Dann