Marcophily, occasionally called Marcophilately, is the specialised study and collection of

postmark A postmark is a postal marking made on an envelope, parcel, postcard or the like, indicating the place, date and time that the item was delivered into the care of a postal service, or sometimes indicating where and when received or in transit. ...

s, cancellations and

postal markings A postal marking is any kind of annotation applied to a letter by a postal service. The most common types are postmarks and cancellations; almost every letter will have those. Less common types include forwarding addresses, routing annotation ...

applied by hand or machine on

mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...

that passes through a

postal system The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal syst ...

and applied by the postal operator through whose

domain Domain may refer to: Mathematics *Domain of a function, the set of input values for which the (total) function is defined **Domain of definition of a partial function **Natural domain of a partial function **Domain of holomorphy of a function * Do ...

they pass. Commatology was a term used prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

but is rarely used today. Two branches of marcophilists exist - those who are mainly interested in the details, style and design of the markings, and those who take into account the political, social, and postal history surrounding them. Large cities that have many

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

s offer great study opportunities due to the vast range of handstamps or machine cancellations in use over any time period. It offers vast study areas to select a topic from for study or collection. While strictly speaking it is not a

postal history Postal history is the study of postal systems and how they operate and, or, the study of the use of postage stamps and covers and associated postal artifacts illustrating historical episodes in the development of postal systems. The term is att ...

topic, it can be collected and studied as such.

References

{{reflist

External links

Linns.com ''Glossary Of Philatelic Terms''

Post Mark Museum and Research Library
Philatelic terminology Postal markings fr:Marcophilie