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The Auxiliary Markings Club (AMC) brings together a diverse group of collectors who are interested in the movement of the mails -- especially mail that had problems. The evidence of those problems are the markings applied to envelopes and packages as the mail was processed. They may have to do with inadequate postage, problems with the delivery address, accidents that occurred with planes, trains, ships or trucks carrying the mail, or literally hundreds of other reasons.

The New AMC Officers for 2025-2027 started their terms on January 1, 2025 and Scott Pendleton started as new editor effective with the January 1, 2026 newsletter.

  Breaking News

• Our next AMC Zoom talk will be Tuesday, June 9, 2026 at 7:00 PM ET by David Handelman on RRR and AR markings in the US. Zoom meeting link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81690034552?pwd=9AJlnPLBF9UDjHbZ8eNxqbOTth4YAQ.1 . The future AMC Zoom talk calendar is shown below. Previous AMC Zoom talks have been recorded and are available to view for free at AMC Zoom YouTube.
  
  
• Auxiliary Markings exhibits are winning medals in 2026!
  • Gary Steele for Canadian Post Office Inspector Handstamps at ORAPEX 2026 (May 2-3), Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Large Gold (86 points) and Auxiliary Marking Club - Award of Excellence
  • Sam Chiu for Chinese Imperial Post Office's Measures to Counteract Pilfering of Foreign Stamps on Outgoing Mail at Edmonton Spring Stamp Show 2026 (March 21-22), Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: Grand Award, Large Gold (95 points), and Auxiliary Marking Club - Award of Excellence
  • (full details at https://www.postal-markings.org/award.html)
  
  
• The AMC will be holding our first AMCPEX: the AMC Virtual Philatelic Exhibit in October 2026. AMCPEX will be a competitive exhibit and we invite all our members to consider putting an exhibit into this exciting philatelic event. Exhibits do not need to be exclusively made up of auxiliary markings/ labels, but the exhibit should have a significant number of markings related to the topic presented. More information will be forthcoming in the next few months.
  
  
• Concerning Auxiliary Markings - Joint Anthology from PSSC and AMC Gregg Redner, editor - 258 pages free access to all - published February 1, 2025.
  
  
• Please renew your AMC membership for 2026 now! www.postal-markings.org/member.html.
  
  

  Auxiliary Markings Explained

Auxiliary Marking: Postal marking applied to covers by handstamp, machine cancellation, a stick-on label, manuscript markings, or by mechanical or electronic methods such as addressograph or computer, indicating that the covers were given special attention due to some special circumstance. A broad definition would include accompanying postal service letters, and ambulance covers in which damaged or misdirected mail has at times been delivered, and markings placed on covers by institutions other than the postal service, such as the military, prisons, hotels, etc. Auxiliary Markings are sometimes known as Instructional Markings or Supplementary Markings.

In the past, auxiliary markings have not been not well defined and information about them has been dispersed. As we grow, it is our intention to bring together available information in our newsletter, on this website, through an exhibit copy service, a club library, in other publications, and by facilitating communications between interested members.

Auxiliary Markings include:

• addressograph markings
• ambulance envelopes
• cancellations
• censor markings
• crash markings
• delay markings
• disinfection markings
• handstamped markings
• military markings associated with deliverability
• pointing fingers
• postage due markings
• return to sender markings
• security screening markings
• spray markings
• yellow forwarding labels
• and ..... (your favorites)

  Auxiliary Markings Club (AMC) Zoom Meeting Calendar 2026-2027

  Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81690034552?pwd=9AJlnPLBF9UDjHbZ8eNxqbOTth4YAQ.1

2026

• June 9, 2026 at 7 PM ET: David Handelman - RRR and AR markings in the US
• July 14, 2026 at 7 PM ET: Michel Houde - Purser Markings
• August 11, 2026 at 7 PM ET: Show and Tell Meeting
• September 8, 2026 at 7 PM ET: Frederick Lawrence, PhD - Czech Scout Post Markings
• October 13, 2026 at 7 PM ET: Gordon Smith - The Auxiliary Markings of Southern Africa
• November 10, 2026 at 7 PM ET: Sam Chiu, PhD - The handling of underpaid mail of Hong Kong, the first 80 years, 1881-1960
• December 8, 2026 at 7 PM ET: Gregg Redner, PhD - A Cold War Puzzle
  

  2027

• January 12, 2027 at 7 PM ET: Mark Loomis - WWI Censorship of Rhodesia Mail
• February 9, 2027 at 7 PM ET: David Foot - The registration labels of Western Australia

  Auxiliary Markings Club (AMC) Updates

• After 21 years, the AMC website has been completely updated. Each page has a cleaner look and a clearer purpose. Click on AMC Webpage Comments to submit comments or corrections to the webmaster.


• Congratulations to Douglas Quine, PhD, who has been awarded the 2nd Annual Tony Wawrukiewicz Award for his July 2024 Auxiliary Markings article, "Unintended Return to Sender Experiment". The award is made annually for the best article appearing in AM during the previous calendar year. The committee congratulated Doug for the excellence of his research and thanked him for bringing forth such an important subject in the area of modern postal history, commenting that his research was both groundbreaking and extremely consequential.


• Members may submit 1 free 40 word classified ad to the newsletter annually.


• Dennis Ladd has updated the free complete index for the Auxiliary Markings Club newsletter (through 2024) in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format. Please advise him of any corrections or additions at:


• New member Russ Ryle has suggested that we post member Research Help Wanted notices at our web site: www.postal-markings.org/award.html#rres. His posting is the first and we invite other members to submit theirs.


• As mentioned in the April 2010 newsletter, the Held for Postage study group has collected their holdings into a 'Held for Postage' Mail Auxiliary Markings study group PDF "catalog" to allow other members to review the materials and add in any missing materials. Please advise them of any items that you have which are not represented in this "catalog".


• Cooperative information sharing with International Machine Cancel Society: PDF download copy of Michael Ludeman's 28 page A New Type of "Return to Sender" Endorsement Created By Ink Jet Printer Technology Part 1: Texas P&DCs"


• By popular demand, our Auxiliary Markings Club is accessible through both www.postal-markings.org and www.postalmarkings.org

Ask A Question

Click on Ask A Question to submit a question to an Auxiliary Markings Club officer.

Last updated May 14, 2026. Copyright (c) 2004-2026 by the Auxiliary Markings Club.