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Table of Contents

All Document Indexes	Railway Post Office (RPO) Cover with Washington-Head Stamp
Introduction	Railway Post Office (RPO) Cover Addressed to Denmark
U. S. Three Cent Stamp	Illegal Use of Savings Stamp on Cover
Mr. ZIP	Illegal Use of Revenue Stamp on Cover
U. S. Parcel Post Stamp Used for First Class on Cover	Orange County, California Postal History
U. S. Five Dollar Stamp of 1922	U. S. Special Delivery Stamp
Example of American Flag Machine Cancellation	Swiss Airmail Stamp
Christmas Seals Used on a Postcard 'Tied' by a Cancellation Device	Ralph Williams Ford License Plate Holder, c. 1965
Perfection Mechanized Handstamp	Early Teddy Bear Postcard
Washington-Head Stamps	Early Return Address Labels
Privately Perforated Washington-Head Stamp

Railway Post Office (RPO) Cover Addressed to Denmark

Railway Post Office (RPO) Cover to Denmark

This cover passed through the hands of a clerk of the Railway Mail Service, on its way from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Copenhagen, Denmark. I come to that conclusion since the cover bears a hand cancellation that could only be applied in the railway car by a Railway Post Office (RPO) clerk.

The history of the RPO service is both fascinating and amazing. Each RPO car (usually coupled directly behind the locomotive) was full of clerks, sorting the mail "on the fly", as the train speeded its way between the cities and small towns of the United States. These clerks were expected to know the sorting schemes for all cities and rail routes for the mail they were handling. Using these "human computers", it was possible for the Post Office to achieve overnight first class mail service between most cities East of the Mississippi.

This cover bears the hand cancel of the Chicago and Minneapolis RPO, which operated on the main line between these two great cities. The crack trains that vied with each other for the fastest trip between these cities were famous in their day. This particular RPO marking was used on the Chicago, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis Railway.

Based on the cancel date, this cover was mailed in 1900, and bears the printed return address of the Pillsbury-Washburn Flour Mills, the precurser of todays Pillsbury Company.

This cover is also of interest to me, since it bears the 5-cent rate required to send it to Denmark, its final destination. This cover would have been placed by the RPO clerks into a separate pouch that would have been routed directly to a steamer in New York harbor, for its trip across the Atlantic.

This collection of images includes another RPO cover example.

The postal history of the Railway Post Office is of particular interest to members of The Mobile Post Office Society.

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6/16/23, 11:41 AM