Civil Censorship Study Group

Hello!

I would like to share these pictures of a cover in my WWII US Censorship colection (and make some silly questions!)

1944 from London, UK to Newgulf (TX), USA. Registered letter. Philatelic mail from WHITFIELD KING & Co.
Front:
-Postage stamps 3d + 2 1/2 c (I would appreciate any information about this postal rate)
-British censor red mark type"Crown" PASSED PER 34".
- BPA oval mark dated 9/3/44.
-US Customs PASSED FREE Port of New York GPO violet rectangular mark.
- US censorship "Examined by" cellophane tape with censor numbers 9827 (very blurred) & 20001 (both on Broderick & Mayo philatelic control unit series)

Back:
- A black handstamp (two lines) "RECEIVED BY P.C.U. / DATE APR 6 1944". My first question: Is this a reported censorship
mark from the PCU in New York?. If not, what is it?
- Oval cachet NEW YORK REG´Y 3/30/1944 (US arrival date)
-Customs mark from Port of New York Philatelic Unit. Second question: Is that mark related with PCU or nothing to do?
- Circular cachet (transit) Saint Louis MO. MAR/27/1944.



Thanks in advance.
Best regards.
Jose M.

Hi Jose,

I see questions, but I don't see any silly ones.

Our British members will be better on the rates, but I believe it works out to 2.5p for surface postage + 3p for registration.

The black PCU handstamp is new to me.

The sequence of events here is pretty interesting (at least to me).

Looks like it left GB early March, 1944

Earliest US marking I see is St. Louis 27 March. (Why St. Louis? If not entry at NY, why not New Orleans or Miami or Boston or anywhere else on the East Coast. Bizarre! It almost requires you to believe that someone put it in the wrong mail bag before it got to the US. But a GB to St. Louis registry bag? Hard to believe.)

Next is NY 30 March

Next is the PCU received on April 6, which ties the plain brown tape that ties the PO Official seal that is postmarked 3/30.

Next, the NY Customs Philatelic Unit handstamp on 10 April

And finally an indistinct PO datestamp (likely something Annex) on 13 April.

So, what I see here is the PO gives it first to censorship who then gives it to customs, who then gives it back to the PO. Nice to have that sequence of events nailed down.

The only other thing I can add is that the presence of the 2 censor numbers most likely indicates that valuables were found in the cover, so 2 examiners had to be on record that the valuables were still in there when the cover was resealed by censorship.

Dann

Hi again!

First of all, many thanks to Dann for his precise explanations.

You are right about the secuence of events, I made a mistake with the dates, so sorry!
I´ll try to find more about the latest datestamp (using a free software called GIMP).

Best regards.
Jose M.

Sorry that I did not spot this item much earlier. WWII is not my normal field but philatelic mail is.
The postage paid on your cover was 3d registration and 2½d basic postage surface.
Question: What does PCU stand for?
Philatelic Control Unit
Philatelic Customs Unit
Port Customs Unit
seem good posibilities.

Graham Mark

Hello Mark

PCU stands for Philatelic Control Unit, one of the "special units" (the other one is the POW unit) of the New York Censorship Station.

Thank you for your answer.

Merry christmas.

Jose M. Garcia