Postal History - Possible Areas of Study - Subject Based Studies

Subject Based Studies

• Express mail is an accelerated delivery service for which the customer pays a surcharge and receives faster delivery. Haste Poste Haste letters of the 17th century can be considered precursors of modern Express mail as was the Pony Express mail. The service for domestic mail is governed by a country's own postal administration but since 1998 the international accelerated delivery services are governed by the EMS Cooperative of the Universal Postal Union (UPU). Studies of domestic, or international express mail are possible as are studies of the Express mail rates.
• Marcophily is the study of postmarks, cancellation and postal markings applied by hand or machine. Though not strictly speaking a postal history topic can be collected as such. It offers vast areas to select a topic for study or collection as the marcopholist is more interested in the details, style and design of the markings than the reason why and where a letter was sent. Large cities that have many post offices offer great study opportunities due to the vast range of handstamps or machine cancellations in use over any time period.
• Military mail is mail associated with any of the armed services or peacekeeping forces, or formed around any particular military campaign, like the First and Second Opium Wars, Spanish Civil War, World War I and II, or even the recent conflicts in Afghanistan or Iraq. Many older letters, when available, provide insight into the conditions of the people involved.
• Parcel post is perhaps the least collected, or studied, area of postal history due to the size of potential material much of which is never saved. From 1883 Special labels were applied to parcels in Great Britain. International parcels handling tend to gather Customs evidence making for attractive material.
• Postal censorship, both overt and covert, has been performed on mail long before the World Wars of the 20th century and can include both civil and military censorship. It has mainly taken place during times of conflict though has also been performed during other times like; periods of civil disorder or a state of emergency. An example of covert postal censorship is the Cabinet noir.
• Postal rates are an extensive area of study that can be made by country, time period, or even currency. Stamp collectors may study the rates in effect during the time of issue of the postage stamps they collect thereby augmenting their collections.
• Postal stationery are mailable products, issued by postal authorities, such as a envelopes, letter sheets, postcards, lettercards, aerograms or wrappers, on which the amount of postage has usually been pre-printed with an imprinted stamp or indicium, at the rate required for a particular postal service. Postal stationery is generally sold at post offices. Each stationery type can be an area of study in its own right but can also be studied by country or by time period.
• Pre-adhesive mail also called pre-stamp mail is mail used before the issuance of the Penny Black and Two pence Blue stamps on 6 May 1840 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and in other countries, mail used prior to the postal authority adopting their own adhesive labels. The material can range from court and government letters before official public mail services to distinctive town-marks worldwide.
• Prisoner-of-war mail can be a subcategory of either, or both, Military mail or Postal censorship.
• Registered mail are often used to mail items, or documents, considered valuable and need a chain of custody that provides more control than regular mail. The letters have their details recorded in a register to enable their location to be tracked and offer many distinctive handstamps. Many countries have issued special postal stationery for Registered mail expanding the possible areas being studied beyond regular registered letters. Earlier similar services were known as Money Letters