Interesting US Auxiliary Markings

Here is a cover with auxiliary markings, butI think the most interesting is what the mailer typed on the cover. What is F.H.B.?

HB hand book?

FHB is probably the initials of an employee at the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs.

I submit that FHB stands for the USPS "Financial Hand Book", now known as Handbook F-1.

From a recent Postal Workers Union Collective Bargaining Agreement,



John, do you have a USPS "F-1" from the 1940s that has a chapter on "Discovery of a New Address?"

Consider the postmark chronology::
Jul 1, Madison origin registered mark
Jul 1, Milwaukee
July 7, final notice given (on front)
July 9, Madison registered mark as it is received back at origin city
July 10, received back at Veterans Affairs.
Notation dated 8/16/48 on front when (my interpretation) a Veterans Affairs employee with initiatls of FHB is able to find a new address to try and this envelope put in files to preserve the paper trail of the client's record of comunication attempts.

I do not have the handbook you reference, but by 8/16, the letter was back in the hands of Veterans Affairs and not with the USPOD.

The Finance Manual F-1, full title being Financial and Cost Controls, Series F-1 , was created during the transition from the Post Office Department to the Postal Service.

The starting point for its contents was the information which had been published between 1954 and 1970 in the Postal Manual - Chapter 4 - Finance, Budgeting and Accounting, which was eliminated when the Postal Manual was replaced by the Postal Service Manual in 1971.

Because this was an internal manual dealing with US Postal Service financial matters, it was not available to the public. I have never encountered a digital copy on the internet.

Mike

the sender could have worked for the PO

Thanks Mike. That helps explain why this manual isn't found in John's magic bookshelf of postal history references.

The VA employee initials theory is certainly a simple and plausible explanation.

Occam's razor.

Morning all,

Agree with John's analysis based on the markings on this envelope. I suspect FHB refers to some sort of internal Wisconsin Department of Veteran Affairs procedural manual rather than an employee's initials. Nice item.

We've now gone down the "manual" rabbit hole twice in this thread. I just can't see it.

Why such resistance to 3 letters expressed as a possessive being anything other than the employee's initials who did the leg-work to identify another address to try AND providing the paper trail as to why the letter was no longer in the case files, but the envelope was?

Maybe I'm confused, but I think John said it was someones initials. Mike thinks it stand for a USPS manual.

Heres one that I thought was hilarious using the word "supposedly". Like someone doesn't belive the excuse given.

And the ironic "Save your Vision Week" slogan cancel. The guy who thought the equipment was empty needs to have his eyes examined.

LOL! thats even better!

If I'm reading this correctly, it has several "Discount" markings. What would this indicate -- or were these stamped on by an entity outside the PO?