Registered Mail

Masaryk PairMasaryk Back

This registered cover was sent from Bratislava 1 on 7 Dec 1920 to Holyoke, MA.  The franking is correct — 125h for a cover up to 20 gm going to a foreign country during the 4th Postal Rate Period, and an additional 125h to cover the registration fee.  Note that one of the main reasons the 125h Masaryk was franked 125h was to cover registration fees of that time.
It is unusual for three reasons:
1.  It has a joined pair of Masaryk 1920 issue 125h stamps with the left one being Type I and the right one Type II (based upon a short piece of a vertical line in the left ornamentation being missing in the Type II).  POFIS gives such a cover a value of 600 Kc, however, this is one that went to a foreign destination, so it should be rarer.
2.  It was censured — the rectangular hand-stamp reads CENSUROVANO, and then a counter number, 22087.
3.  The reverse shows the loose flap partially covering the New York Registry Division arrival cancel of 24 Dec 1920.  This can only  mean that the envelope was not re-sealed after the censure process, but rather just tucked in to the envelope.  The dim Holyoke,MA Registry cancel shows a date of 27 Dec.