Indicia (philately)

In philately, indicia are markings on a mail piece (as opposed to an adhesive stamp)[1] showing that postage has been prepaid by the sender.

Indicia is the plural of the Latin word indicium, meaning distinguishing marks,[2] signs or identifying marks.

Indicia can take a number of forms, including printed designs or handstamps where a stamp would normally be that indicate the pre-payment of postage.

Imprinted stamps on postal stationery are indicia.

[4] The term also refers to a meter stamp impression[4] or the part thereof that indicates the value or postal rate.

A Bangladeshi meter stamp which includes the indicium portion at right
An indicium from an 1894 Cuban postal card depicting Alfonso XIII at age 5
A handstamp indicium from German East Africa indicating prepayment of postage. A scarcity of postage stamps in WWI caused postal authorities to handstamp "Frankiert mit 7½ H" (plus a seal from the director of posts) on envelopes brought in by the public.