Affranchissement cancellations were special French postmarks used mainly between 1876 and 1900 to show that a letter had been correctly paid and handled at the counter, often for registered or insured mail.
Large towns such as Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Bordeaux used distinctive handstamps that included the word affranchissement, sometimes with numbers or letters identifying the postal section or clerk. They exist in both large and small formats and are less common than ordinary cancellations, making them an interesting part of late 19th-century French postal history.
