Departure and Delivery

Introduced in 1885. By 1901 there were four deliveries daily in Port Louis, delivering 2000 items.

Carrier marks is the envelope-shaped handstamp struck on cards and envelopes to denote that they were for delivery by the house-to-house postman, not for retention at the post office for collection by the addressee or his agent. They were first used in Port Louis in I885, later being adopted in other localities where house-to-house delivery was undertaken. Except at Beau Bassin, Curepipe and Forest Side, use of the handstamp does not seem to have survived after 1902.

Delivery marks were introduced in Mauritius in the 1920's and were used by offices to indicate the date on which mail delivery was made by the postman. In the majority of cases they are found accompanying the arrival datestamp of the office and normally bear the same date. Very rarely, it seems, through carelessness or
laziness, they were used alone as arrival marks.
Only two types of delivery mark are known. The more common type has a square frame, 25mm x 25mm with the word "Delivery" at the top, the office name at the base and, in between, in three lines, time code / day and month / year. The scarcer type is a double circle, 25mm diameter (exactly as the double ring datestamps introduced in 1950) with "Delivery" at top, office name at bottom and code and date as before in the middle. Both are struck in black.