Les étiquettes P.P. des bulletins d’expédition de colis postaux déposés en nombre en Alsace-Moselle

In Alsace and in Moselle during the interwar period, the postal parcels were transported by the postal service and not by the railway companies as in the rest of France. The parcel shipping notes were therefore stamped with postage stamps for the port and for certain optional services (declared value, cash on delivery, express, urgent, etc.).

For the companies who send a lot of parcels, this system is not practical because it was tedious to stick several stamps daily on bulletins with different amounts including cents. In 1928 or 1929 these companies finally obtained the "Port Payé" or "PP" shipment which characterizes a cash postage (the postage is not materialized by postage stamps). These labels are printed by the Post Office Administration and given free of charge to users in blocks numbered from 1 to 1000. Those for ordinary parcels are printed in black on a white background and those for parcels with declared value in red on a white background.

At the date of this publication, nearly 150 different companies have been identified, from 33 post offices, 20 in the Bas-Rhin, 9 in the Haut-Rhin and 4 in Moselle. A few labels were also found during the second German annexation (1940-1944).

See also the book on postal parcel bulletins.

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