The way a registration system works is by tracking a letter during its course in the post, with a signature taken on delivery. Generally you are required to hand in the letter at a post office and pay an extra fee for the service, and you get a receipt to prove that, should it be necessary. Such a service was first introduced for UK inland mail on 6th January 1841.
For about half a century before that, however, the Post Office operated a system that registered some letters free of charge. The catch was that it applied only if they contained gold or silver coins (or jewellery), whose presence in a letter was usually fairly obvious from the weight and feel. These were known as ‘Money Letters’.
How it worked
The basic motivation was to of enclosing it – as Money Letters from that point onwards, exactly as if they had been declared as such by the sender.
