I just posted a photo of a postal cover I hope some of you find
interesting.

I mailed it some years ago from Büsingen to my wife at "general
delivery in Campione using Campione's Swiss postcode. The cover was
posted as a registered letter with return receipt, and postage paid at
the domestic rate of postage for Germany (which applied to letters
under 50g to any neighboring countries belonging to the CEPT (Council
of European Posts and Telegraphs). It is the only time that a letter
to Italy would receive the "Sondertarif" special cancellation mark at
the Büsingen post office, because the Swiss "sondertarif" of the
German post office applies to letters to Campione when routed using
the Swiss postcode - which is odd, because the same postage rate
applied to 50g gram letters from Germany to both Italian and Swiss
addresses.

To make the item even more interesting, I used a US military post
office return address, knowing my wife would not collect the letter in
Campione. The Campione post office held the letter for the prescribed
period (you can see from the postal cancellation on the reverse in the
photo, which show the Italian post code from Campione) and, in error,
sent it back unclaimed to Büsingen after crossing off the Swiss postal
code in the address, and not to my return address, which would have
been logical and normal. It appears that, because it had German
stamps, it was just sent back to Germany without giving the New
York, USA return address much thought, if any.

The Büsingen post office official, was smart. Obviously the postage
didn't cover the trip to New York. Having to then think about what
to do, evidently realized that the "APO" in the New York return
address mean a US "Army Post Office" OF the USA not really IN the
USA (he or she didn't know where PO was, only that it wasn't in New
York). The 5-digit APO ZIP code is meant to not give away the
physical location. From the purple cancellation of APO 09082 we see
that the Büsingen post office sent the letter to the international
mail exchange office at the Frankfurt main railway station(IEO).
There, a US military mail truck from Offenbach, Germany, near
Frankfurt, formerly picked up APO-destined mail early each morning and
took it to Offenbach, where all mail was given the 09082 cancellation.
US military mail sorting facility was there at the time (it has since
closed). The lower purple military cancellation mark on the front
of the envelope, from one day later, shows that a clerk from the
military post office in Frankfurt/M picked up the letter and took it
to the Frankfurt military post office, where it got cancelled again.
I received the letter back in my post office box that same day, at APO
09090 in Rödelheim, Germany. The mail clerk who ran the little one
man post office on the 2-hectar sized base in Rödelheim, picked it up
from the Frankfurt clerk, and put a note in my PO box. I signed
for it the following morning. The Rödelheim post office is so small,
(it never served more than about 100 people), was (may still be) open
only 1-1/2 hours, three days a week. It was/is so small, it
didn't/doesn't even have it's own mail postmarking device, which
explains why there is no 09090 cancellation on the envelope. As far
as I know, it is still a functioning office - but I'm not certain.

That's my tale. Philately can be fun.

Regards to all,

Len Nadybal
Washington DC