United States Postage Meter Stamp Catalog/GROUP AR

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GROUP AR: Meter stamps used by the Armed Forces[edit | edit source]

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  • Group AR describes commercial format meter stamps used by the military for official business... with some exceptions.
  • In addition to stamps used ONLY for official business this Group includes stamps from post offices serving overseas U.S. military bases. These post offices are available for the general use of troops as well as official business. Such stamps have town marks that contain "APO" (Army Post Office) or "FPO" (Fleet Post Office) or are mailed from Zipcodes that are known APO or FPO zipcodes.
  • Also included are meter stamps that have the name of a U.S. Navy ship in the town mark. These stamps are from meters located aboard ship.
  • Additionally any meter stamp with "NAVY", "ARMY", "AIR FORCE", "MARINE", or an abbreviation such as "P.S.N.Y." (Puget Sound Navy Yard) referencing the armed services is included.
  • NOT INCLUDED are stamps generated at post offices serving domestic U.S. military bases having town marks that include the name of the base and the state, e.g. "CAMP PENDLETON CA" or "FORT MONMOUTH NJ". They are used primarily for the general use of the troops and employees rather than official business.
  • Included for the first time are stamps with routine town/state town marks but with slogans indicating military official business. These include official business mail generated by the Army and Air National Guard.
  • There are eight sub-groups based on the branch of the armed services using the meter. Click on those you want to see:
• Sub-group AR-NAV – U.S. Navy
• Sub-group AR-AAF – U.S. Army & Air Force
• Sub-group AR-ARM – U.S. Army
• Sub-group AR-AIR – U.S. Air Force
• Sub-group AR-MAR – U.S. Marine Corps
• Sub-group AR-APO – overseas Army and Air Force Post Offices
• Sub-group AR-FPO – overseas Navy and Marine Fleet Post Offices
• Sub-group AR-NGD – National Guard
  • These meters were first used in the early 1940s during World War 2.

NOTE: The meter stamps listed here are only a portion of those that exist. A complete list is at Alan Draves' U.S. Meter Stamp Town List, http://www.draves.com/mss/town/statelst.htm. (Click on APO and FPO.) Mr. Draves does not include meter type designations in his lists. The descriptions below include only those town marks that have been verified for type.


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