Who Are We?
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.
The AMC is a proud joint-organizer of AMSIPEX-26: the 2nd International Virtual Aero- and Astrophilatelic Exhibition: on February 14-22, 2026. It will include a celebration of World Air Mail Day on February 18, 2026 with an International Webinar, Special Cover release, and other activities. Further details are available at: https://www.amsipex.com
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
- January 13, 2026 at early start 6:45 PM EST: Jere Dutt - The Registration labels of Togo
- February 10, 2026 at 7 PM EST: Hironobu Unesaki - Hako-ba' Post Box markings of Osaka and Kyoto, Japan
- March 14, 2026 (Saturday) at 3 PM EDT: Marian Csatlos - The UPU Return labels of Hungary
- April 14, 2026 at 7 PM EDT: Jonathan Humble - The postal markings of Hawaii 1900-1950
- May 12, 2026 at 7 PM EDT: David Bree - Missent markings of Canada
- June 9, 2026 at 7 PM EDT: 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
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 January 1, 2026. Copyright (c) 2004-2026 by the Auxiliary Markings Club.
- Joint Anthology from PSSC and AMC Gregg Redner, editor - 258 pages free access to all - published February 1, 2025.