Today in Postal History

This registered cover is particularly interesting
as it traveled through four countries on its way to its destination.

First, it went into the mails in China at the Imperial Japanese Post Office in Shanghai.
There it received four CDS (note use of ITO for one in the western cancel).
The sender's script request for registration was completed with a preprinted registry label.

The next stop was September 15 in Yokohama, Japan,
as noted with a western transit CDS on the rear.

The third stop was Montreal, Canada, where it was struck with an October 8 CDS.

It finally arrived at its destination on October 12
as noted by the boxed Boston, Mass., Registry Division handstamp.
It was also stamped on the front with a United States registry serial number.

The preaddressed cover which was directed to General Delivery might be of interest.
Someone crossed out the Care of Adams Express Co.
It sounds like an envelope for use of people on tours arranged by the company.
Other thoughts, anyone?

The cover received a script 763 somewhere en route.
Such markings were sometimes applied to identify the
number of items in a bundle assembled for a particular routing.

The cover was franked with seven chrysanthemums from the
1899-1906 series overprinted for use in Japanese Offices in China.
From the left, ½s gray, 2s light green, 5s orange yellow,
3s violet brown, 8s olive green, 20s red orange,
and 5r gray (Scott 2, 6, 10, 7, 12, 15, and 1).
The total rate was 39s.
The ½ sen gray was issued to replace the 5 rin gray in 1901.

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