Poste restante

Poste restante, aka general delivery, is a system where a letter is addressed to a person with just a town or post office name as the address. It may or may not carry the endorsement "poste restante".

This would be no different than other mail before the era of city delivery. Addressees, often travelers, would collect their mail upon arrival at a city or town, just like any resident. Mail would generally be held for a certain time before being sent on to the dead letter office or destruction.

This would also be used by collectors sending flight covers and similar items overseas. This was done at a time where mail would only be held for a short time then automatically returned to sender's return address as intended. 



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