I don't think that I have seen one of these before.
The address block, visible in the window, included the correct 9-digit zip code, and one of those up'n'down barcodes you see on invoices nowadays.
The envelope was clear of visible markings, except for the YYMMDDHHSS, as shown.
I immediately read the "12271602" part of the string as 4:02 pm on 27/Dec.
The return address is NJ, the delivery address is NY, and the contents are a current invoice, so delivery in 3-4 days would make sense, except ... the string begins with "20", not "16".
Re-booting ...
Ten digits would be right for a telephone number, and 201 is an area code for NJ, but the number is reported as "not a working number".
One supposes that whatever equipment applied that code could have a cellphone for reporting its status & usage - a number that is only "in service" when the device powers it up for its own reasons - but why would it print that cellphone number on the mail it processed?
It seems unlikely that the post office would apply a date'n'time (to the second, no less) without reference to both the year & processing center.
It also seems unlikely that this will be judged the perfect cover with which to close-out the old year and bring in the new, but:
Q/ Have you seen this ten-digit postmark-zone marking on your incoming mail?
Q/ What did you think you were looking at?
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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"I collect stamps today precisely the way I collected stamps when I was ten years old."
Recently, we have seen many of these type of cancel markings in Canada
Usually there are two lines, one above the other. The first line is like this one: 1612100811 which translates as (20) 16-12-10-08:11 i.e. 8:11 a.m. on Dec. 10, 2016.
The second line on our Canadian cancels is a four digit number and then a space and then a three-digit code e.g. M4L or H4T which represents the regional sorting centre where the mail has been processed.
Your example seems a bit peculiar with the first two digits being 20 instead of 16. I don't think there are any seconds -- I think the last four digits are hours and minutes.
"... I'd be more inclined to read this as 12-27-16 with "20" and "02" on the ends of it ..."
Writing dates as YYMMDD for most of my life ... a practice begun while programming in Fortran II, and recently 'validated' by the discovery of ISO 8601 ...
