Guide
Receiving House Marks of India
Receiving Houses were sub-offices or collection points where letters were deposited by the public before being forwarded to the nearest main post office. They are a distinctive feature of the Madras Presidency postal system, where they are identified by the prefix MX in the Giles catalogue.
What was a Receiving House?
In larger cities like Madras, the General Post Office could not be reached conveniently by everyone. Receiving Houses were established at various points across the city and its surroundings — at shopkeepers’ premises, public buildings or other accessible locations — where people could drop off their letters. A postman would collect the letters and bring them to the GPO for sorting and dispatch.
Each Receiving House applied its own handstamp — usually an oval or circular mark bearing the locality name or a number — to the letters it collected. These marks served as proof that the letter had entered the postal system at that point.
MX marks in the Giles catalogue
Derek Hammond Giles catalogued the Madras Receiving House marks under the prefix MX — distinct from the regular HG numbering used for the main post office handstamps. The MX marks are numbered sequentially (MX 1, MX 2, etc.) and are listed in the Giles catalogue under the Madras section.
The MX marks are of particular philatelic interest because they document the last mile of mail collection — a level of postal detail that is rarely visible in the markings of other presidencies. Surviving covers with MX marks are often scarce, as the Receiving Houses handled smaller volumes of mail than the main offices.
Beyond Madras
While the MX marks are uniquely associated with Madras, similar collection points existed in other presidencies. In Calcutta, branch offices and letter boxes served a similar function, though their markings were not catalogued as a separate series. The concept of sub-office collection was common across the East India Company postal system, but Madras left the most visible philatelic evidence of the practice.