Letter Mail from the US to France in the 1860's

Post last edited: Nov 20, 2019
Status: nearing completion

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France and the United States of America negotiated a postal convention that went into effect in April of 1857 and provided the guidelines for these mails through the end of the year 1869.  The treaty set the postage at 15 cents per 1/4 ounce (7.5 grams) and allowed for carriage of the mail via American, British, Canadian (after amendment in 1861), French and German mail packets (steamships).  The German and Canadian packets carried the US mails under contract with the US government, so they were rated the same as an American contract ship.

Trans-Atlantic Routing Choices

Thirteen plus years is a long enough time and a good deal can change, but the following is a simplified description of the different trans-Atlantic routes that mail from the US to France took during this treaty period.

• American lines would typically leave New York
• One American line went directly to Havre, France, the others off-loaded mail at a British port Queenstown (Ireland) or Liverpool.
• British lines alternated between Boston and New York departures, arriving at Queenstown.
• Another, short-lived British Line ran from New York to Galway (Ireland).
• The Canadian line departed from Riviere du Loup (Quebec) in the Summer and Portland (Maine) in the Winter.  This line stopped at Derry and Liverpool.
• The French line departed from New York and went directly to Brest, France
• The German lines of steamers stopped briefly at Southampton and could offload mail for France before going to Hamburg or Bremen.

Mails that were off-loaded from their trans-Atlantic packets under the auspices of the British postal system had to cross the English Channel.  Typically, these mails crossed to Calais, though other entry points (such as Havre) were possible.

Postal Rate Breakdown as They Related to Routes

From the perspective of the postal patron, the rate was 15 cents per 1/4 ounce.  In order to show properly paid mail with 24 cent stamps, we need to look at double weight (or higher) letters.  The only examples that follow with less postage are here to illustrate what happened when mail was not properly prepaid.

Table 1

The credit amounts shown in Table 1 are for double weight mail that has been fully paid to the destination in France (30 cents postage in total due to mail the item).

The US postal service has collected money for all postal services to be used to get the letter to its destination in France.  However, other postal systems were required to get the letter to its destination.  That means some of the money collected by the United States was necessary to cover services rendered by these postal systems (the British and French posts).  The credit amount is what is due from the United States to France to pay for France's (and England's) portion of the mail services used.  If England was due compensation for its services, it was up to the French to provide payment from the funds passed to them by the United States.

United States Packet direct to France

Figure 1 - Exhibit Page France - US Packet via Havre

If you would like to look closely at the exhibit page in Figure 1, simply click on the image and you will be able to see a larger version of this and any other figure on this page.

The item shown above is an example of an American shipping line providing the trans-Atlantic carriage services.  The New York and Havre Steam Navigation Company (typically referred to as the "Havre Line" by postal historians) sailed direct to France from New York and arrived at Havre.

The 30 cents postage belonged, for the most part, to the United States because it paid the steam packet line for its services crossing the Atlantic (18 cents).  France was credited only 6 cents to cover its own mail services starting in Havre until the letter was delivered in Paris.  The remaining 6 cents belonged to the United States for its 'surface mail' from Philadelphia to New York, where it was placed on board the ship (the Mississippi) that would carry this letter across the Atlantic Ocean.

Figure 1a - Double rate via Havre

Other than the circular grid cancels that were used to obliterate the stamps so they could not be re-used, there are three postal markings on the front of this envelope that help us understand how this piece of mail traveled and how the postal systems accounted for the postage.

The red "Phila Am Pkt" circular marking shows the date (Friday, April 26) this envelope entered the mailbag to go across the Atlantic.  The red "6" inside of this circular marking represents the amount credited to France for a double weight piece of mail being carried by a packet under contract to the United States for direct service to France.

The red octagonal marking reads "Etats Unis Serv Am Havre" and is dated on May 10, 1867, which represents the date this item was removed from the mailbag and placed into the French mailstream.  The French clerk recognized this item as paid because the US exchange office had used red ink for their marking (in Philadelphia).  The square marking with the letters "PD" further confirms that the French were treating this piece of mail as fully paid.  This "PD" marking was an indication to postal personnel that they did not have to ask the recipient to pay for any of the services rendered.

If this had not been properly prepaid, the marking would have been in black ink and the amount in the circle would have shown "24" cents to represent the uncompensated portion of mail service provided by the United States.  There would have been no "PD" marking and the recipient would have been asked to pay for all of the services rendered at the time of delivery.

The one thing that is not obviously referenced by these markings would be the actual sailing that carried this piece of mail across the Atlantic.  This is where Dick Winter and Walter Hubbard's (North Atlantic Mail Sailings: 1840-1875) excellent work compiling sailing tables by referencing sailing documentation in contemporary periodicals comes in handy.  But, the other part that is handy is referencing a perpetual calendar to determine which day of the week the exchange office processed this mail.  In 1867, there were typically multiple mail sailings from New York on Saturdays.  It just happens that there were three contract mail sailings on April 27, 1867 of which one was to carry items to the French mails.  The Mississippi of the Havre Line left New York on the 27th and arrived in Havre on May 10.

French Packet Direct to France
Compagnie Generale Transatlantique (CGT) was a French packet line that maintained a route between New York and Brest and it held a contract with France to carry mail beginning in mid-1864 (see figure 2).  The route from Brest to New York was designated by CGT as Ligne H, so the French markings include that label.  Since the French were responsible for paying the packet line, the 18 cents for the trans-Atlantic carriage needed to passed to the French postal service.  Instead of 6 cents credited, it was now 24 cents credited to France.

Again, if this is confusing to you, think about where the money is initially.  The sender of this letter purchased 30 cents in US postage stamps, giving that money to the US postal system.  The expenses incurred for the delivery of each letter could be split into pieces, not all of which were part of the US post.  That which was the responsibility of another post needed to be paid for, but the money that was collected in the form of postage needed to be passed to the postal system that incurred the expenses.  Hence the red numerical markings indicating a credit (24 cents in this case) to the French system.

Figure 2 - Double rate via Brest

Not all mail conventions worried about breaking down postage by letter because, as mail volumes increased it was becoming apparent that accounting by piece of mail was too labor intensive.  Some conventions, therefore, determined breakdowns by weight of the aggregate, acknowledging that most letters averaged a certain weight.  It was also becoming apparent to some administrations that mail volumes between countries was balancing out, making some of this accounting a moot point since balances often approached zero as compared to the overall income for each postal administration.  This convention between France and the United States, however, outlined the breakdown per piece of letter mail (Article VII).

Figure 3 - Exhibit page two of French Treaty Mail chapter

British Packet via Britain

Things get a bit more complicated when we add a third postal system into the mix.  British steamers owned by the Cunard Line (British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company) were under contract with the British postal services, so money had to get to Britain in order to pay for the trans-Atlantic service.  Typically, the mail was off-loaded at Queenstown (Cobh, Ireland) and taken by rail to eastern Ireland where it crossed to England via the Holyhead and Kingston Packets OR the mail was taken all the way to Liverpool.*  The French mail was then taken by rail to London where it was forwarded across the channel from Dover or Southampton.  This transit service also incurred costs that went to the British.

*I do wonder if there was a standard procedure where French mails stayed on the ship until Liverpool given the typical transit times.

Since there was a great deal of mail traffic between France and Britain, the portion of the postage due to Britain was actually passed on to France by the United States.  France then used their own arrangements with Britain to settle up for the transit costs via Britain.  These costs were approximately 12 cents (for a double weight letter) for the trans-Atlantic service and 4 cents for the transit through England and across the Channel.  The United States still kept 6 cents for it's internal mail transit, which remains consistent throughout each of the options explored here.  On the other hand, it is interesting to note that the breakdown of postage seems inconsistent for the French surface mail. **  

**at a later point in time, I will address that in more detail as I find time

Figure 4 - Double rate via Britain and Havre

The item in figure 4 (and second item in Figure 3) has a small detail that I find interesting.  Most mail that transited England on its way to France entered France at Calais.  It is uncommon to find an item that traveled via Britain and entered France at another point.  In this case, Havre was the entry point.  But, to do that, the mail was sent via a private ship rather than one contracted specifically to carry the mail.  This is an area in which I might like to pursue further study since I am intrigued as to what the reasons might be for use of a non-contract Channel crossing.

American Packet via Britain

Figure 5 - Double rate via Britain and Calais

United States, Canadian and German steamers were all operating under contract with the US government to carry mail, which means any mail to France carried by these steamers would be given the same rate breakdown.  The Liverpool, New York & Philadelphia Steam Ship Company (Inman Line) carried the item in Figure 5 and first item in Figure 6 shown below.  The credit amount to France is only 12 cents, allowing the United States 18 cents to pay the 12 cents to the packet line and six cents for surface mail.  The French paid the British 4 cents for the transit via their mail system and they kept the remaining eight cents for their own expenses.

Figure 6 - Exhibit page 3 of the French Treaty Mail chapter

The Cunard Line as American Packet beginning 1868
The second item in Figure 6 above (also Figure 7 below) is a reminder to me that a seemingly unrelated act can effect change where we don't necessarily expect it.  The United States and Britain enacted a new postal convention on January 1 of 1868 which reduced the postage rates between the two.  Further, the new convention no longer differentiated between British and American contract packets.  Instead, the postal service at the point of departure was responsible for the cost of the trans-Atlantic packet.  In other words, every ship carrying mail and leaving the American ports was an expense for the United States postal system.  The net result for mail to France?  Every packet that went via Britain was now an American packet, so the credit became 12 cents for Cunard Line ships as the United States now paid them for their services.

Figure 7 - Cunard Line trans-Atlantic crossing in 1868

This item was an excellent object lesson for me.  At the time of purchase I will admit to understanding the basics of the rate and credits provided, but it was not as clear as it needed to be.  Once I determined that this was carried on a Cunard steamer, I wondered if this merely exhibited an exchange office clerk error with the wrong credit amount applied.  The responses I received from other postal historians concurred with this conclusion UNTIL I made careful note of the 1868 year date and put two and two together.  To give credit to those with whom I consulted, most responded that they hadn't really taken note of the year.  Whether that means they would have caught this nuance had they noticed the year is open for debate as there certainly are plenty of examples of incorrect markings.


Triple Rate Letter
A letter weighing more than a 1/2 ounce and no more than 3/4 ounce would require 45 cents in postage.  The second letter in Figure 9 (also in Figure 8) is an example of a triple rate that was a British Packet via Britain.  The credit marking is for 36 cents to France.  Look for the red pencil marking that reads "36/3" (36 cents credit to France at a 3 times letter rate).

Figure 8 - A triple rate letter to France

If you take a moment to look at this item, it illustrates a couple of interesting things that could help with reading pieces of postal history from the period.

Routing and Shipping Directives
The top left of the letter in Figure 8 has hand written text (docketing) that reads "per Cunard Steamer of Wed Dec 5th from Boston."  It is not uncommon to find these sorts of directions on mail during the 1860's, though you will see it only on two covers in this grouping (the other is Figure 4).  These directives could have been written by the sender, by the postmaster at the originating post office, by a forwarding agent acting on behalf of the sender or perhaps by the foreign mail clerk at the exchange office.  The purpose of this sort of docket could either be to indicate the preferred route, especially if it differed from the postal services default routing, or it could have the intent of trying to show the recipient when something was sent and how it was intended to arrive just in case it failed to arrive in a timely fashion.

Names and Addresses Redacted
If you look at this item closely, you might notice that the name of the recipient has been crossed out, making it difficult to decipher the actual name.  In many instances, pieces of postal history were acquired from correspondences where contents were separated from the covering (an envelope or folded piece of paper).  The removal of personal information, such as addresses or names was an attempt to maintain privacy, even though it seems to be of less use than simply removing the letter content.  While I find these alterations frustrating, I am more frustrated by more recent attempts to restore name and address information. 

Figure 9 - Exhibit page 4 of the French Treaty Mail chapter

Full Rate Markings in Addition to Credit Markings
This cover also shows a red "45" at the bottom left.  Up to this point, all of the items shown only show numbers for the amount to be passed on to France to cover services not rendered by the United States postal system.  In the case of this item, the "45" represents the postage required to send the item (45 cents).  I am guessing (and I hope to eventually confirm) that the marking was applied in Newport, Rhode Island, the post office which postmarked the stamps on December 4.

So, why bother with a "45" marking when there are 45 cents for all to see on the cover?  It really seems like extra work, doesn't it?  But, if you consider possible scenarios it doesn't seem so odd.  And here we enter the realm of 'speculative philately' as we can't prove any of this as far as I know.  But, this exploration might help to understand why this marking could have been applied.

A person walks into the post office with a letter for France.  The clerk weights it and informs the sender that it will require 45 cents.  The sender pays the clerk and the clerk marks the letter with a the "45" and puts it into a pile to be processed later so the clerk can continue to work with customers.  At a later point in the day, the clerk adds the appropriate postage and postmarks them.  This scenario is not so hard to believe since I have witnessed the same procedure in my own experience mailing larger items that require more than a typical amount of postage.  The clerk weighs the item out and writes the postage amount on the package.  I pay and the clerk completes the process of putting stamps or a meter on the item at some later point in time.  Does that mean this is what happened here?  Not necessarily.  But, it seems a likely explanation for something that looks a bit redundant on this cover.


Short Paid Mail
So, you think treaty mail is confusing now - just think what it must have seemed like to people when there were different postal rates to each country (and often more than one rate to the same country).  We can only speculate why the person who mailed the second letter on the page in Figure 9 (also Figure 10) used a single 24 cent stamp.  But, since it appears to be a business correspondence it is possible they just confused this with a letter to England.  After all, the rate to England was 24 cents per half ounce.  But, this letter was to France and it clearly weighed more than 7.5 grams and apparently was less than 15 grams, so the postage required was 30 cents, meaning it was short paid by 6 cents.

Figure 10 - Insufficiently paid mail treaty as unpaid mail

A sensible person might feel as if it would only be fair to collect the French equivalent of 6 cents and be done with it.  But, that is NOT how it worked at the time with the postal convention in place.  Instead, short paid mail was treated as wholly unpaid, which means the recipient had to pay the entire rate for the privilege of receiving the letter.  The "16" on the cover represents 16 decimes (1 franc, 60 centimes), which was due on delivery.  Now, the French have collected the entire postage, but they need to send some money BACK to the United States to cover the US surface mail expenses.  Hence, the 6 in the black New York marking as a debit to France requesting payment.

So, what happens to the 24 cents in postage collected by the United States?  In this case, the postal service gets to keep it without any extra services rendered.  Does that seem unfair to you?  Well, consider these two things:

1. Mail during this period did not have to be prepaid in order for it to be taken to its destination.
2. A recipient could refuse delivery.

This begs the question - how much mail did postal services carry for free because it was sent unpaid and the recipient refused delivery?  Still, if this was a legitimate mistake, it does seem a steep price to pay.  The good news is that conventions and postal systems were rapidly changing to charge only the deficient amount as postage due so that the postage applied would still pay for at least some of the services rendered. 

Five or Six Times Rate

I'll just let you to enjoy this one by simply showing the exhibit page.  I might type a bit more after the illustration.

Figure 11 - the final page of the French Treaty Mail chapter

The item shown is a newer item in my collection that I purchased 'on extension.'  Essentially, that means that I was willing to buy it after an expertizing organization rendered an opinion as to whether all aspects of the item were genuine or not.  This is not at all uncommon for a person to do with a neat item such as this one because it gets more eyes to view it and critique it than the buyer and seller (both of whom want the item to be ok). The Philatelic Foundation concluded that the item was 'genuine in all respects,' which was good to learn (of course).

Why did I want this particular item expertized?  First, I abide by the rule that if it seems a bit too nice to be true, you need to be careful.  The combination of a large franking of stamps with an illustrated envelope to a foreign nation in great condition is enough to require a critical eye.  I tend to rely on the postal markings combined with the postage, addressee and any other evidence for a consistent 'story.'  If everything is consistent, then I am more inclined to believe all is well.  In this case, the rate marking of "30" (or maybe "36" if you are charitable) was slightly inconsistent with the franking (90 cents or 6 times the 15 cent rate).

A 30 cent credit would work with a five times rate and a 36 cent credit works for the six times rate this item seems to have.  Even so, it is not hard to think of any number of scenarios that explain the inconsistency - among them the real possibility that this WAS supposed to be a "36."  Rather than engage in speculative postal history, I will be content with not knowing for certain what rate this envelope was supposed to be originally.  But, I think I have the right of it that France probably treated it as a five times rate and received a waybill in the mail bag that indicated a credit of 30 cents.  I also believe I have the right of it that the sender paid for a six times rate with postage stamps.

You can make up your own story as to how that happened!

Forwarded Mail
It isn't easy to see, but the New York exchange marking at the center right of the mail item in Figure 7a shows a "12" and this cover provides an extra puzzle because the date in the New York marking is struck poorly.  We are left with only the clues from the red French marking that gives a Dec 8, 1861 date and reads, in part, "Serv Am."  Between these two markings, it seems clear that this piece of mail had to travel across the Atlantic on an American contract vessel.  The two available options that can be found in Winter's sailing tables are the Inman's Edinburgh leaving New York on November 23 and a sailing of the Allen Line from Quebec on the same date.  Since both ships arrived at Liverpool on the 7th of December, we can assume the Inman sailing simply because the Allan Line sailing for New York mail would be extraordinary.

Figure 12 - An item sent to France and forwarded on to London, England

This appears to be a letter to A.G. Goodall (Albert Gallatin Goodall: 1826-1887), an engraver by trade, who was to become president of the American Banknote Company (ABC) in 1874, remaining in that office until his death.  As early as 1858, Goodall represented the ABC to obtain contracts with foreign entities, so travel was not unfamiliar to him.  Goodall was also a prominent freemason who often represented the United States branches as liaison for related fraternal organizations worldwide.

Goodall arranged for mail to be sent to the U.S. Legation in Paris during his travels and clearly, the U.S. Legation in London was also aware of his itinerary.  It was not uncommon for a person traveling to arrange with an agent to receive mail.  That agent could either hold mail for the client or forward that mail to another location.  In this case, the Legation in Paris sent the item on without paying the postage from France to England.  The "More to Pay" marking was applied in London, alerting the recipient and the postal person that this postage was due (4d per quarter ounce).  It is presumed that the item was rated as a double rate letter by the British and 8d were collected.  The squiggle at top right *might* be a due marking, though I cannot quite bring myself to be conclusive that this mark aligns with a due amount.  The "P.D." marking was applied in France to indicate that postage from the United States to France had been prepaid, but it did not apply to the forwarding of the mail.

A quick search for A.G. Goodall in 1861 shows a person by that name returning to New York on the Havre Line's Arago on December 26 of 1861 (New York Times, Dec 27, 1861).

Mail from France to the United States

As a bonus, I thought I would include a page that is not in my 24 cent 1861 exhibit.  This page illustrates some 1857 treaty mail that was sent from France to the United States.  The first item was sent fully paid and the second was short paid, thus it was treated as completely unpaid.

Figure 13 - Display page showing mail from France to the U.S.

As a reminder, a single weight letter (lettre simple) could be no more than 7.5 grams (1/4 ounce) and each multiple of that weight was 15 cents (US), which was equivalent to 80 centimes (France).  The first item in figure 13 (also figure 14) shows an 80 centime stamp properly paying the single rate and the Boston marking acknowledges that 15 cents had been paid.  It is interesting that the French did not put a French monetary equivalent for credit to the United States in a similar fashion as adopted by the United States.  And, of course, it made no sense for the US to put a marking on the cover with the credit/debit amount.

Figure 14 - Single weight letter fully paid to Boston

You might notice that the French did not apply a dated exchange office marking as they did for incoming mail from the United States.  Instead, there is a "PD" marking AND a marking that indicates the trans-Atlantic service was to be provided by a British contract ship ("Br Service").  This routing is further confirmed by the docketing in red at the top right and bottom right that reads "by the first steamer from Liverpool" and "par l'Angleterre."  That steamer happened to be the Cunard Line's Europa, arriving in Boston on December 1 and processed from the mailbag on December 2 according to the Boston marking.

On the other hand, when postage was due, markings very clearly indicated how much was required for the honor of receiving the item in question.  The second cover, which is also shown below in Figure 15, has a nice clear Boston marking in black that indicates 30 cents due from the recipient.

Figure 15 - Double weight letter insufficiently paid and treated as unpaid

Once again, there are French markings to show where the letter entered the French mail system, but there is not a dated exchange office marking.  It is, however, likely that the two markings in red were applied while on the train between Paris and Calais.  A marking confirming the French routing via Paris and Calais is on the back of this letter, dated August 7.  The "Br Service" marking again confirms routing via England, but there is no marking indicating prepayment.  Instead, there is a marking that reads "Affranchissement Insuffisant," indicating that the letter was not fully paid to the destination.  This alerted clerks in the Boston exchange office that the item was to be treated as unpaid per the treaty stipulations.  The Boston exchange office applied their own marking in black ink to show that 30 cents were due.  They also penned a "24" at the top left as a reminder that 24 cents were due to be sent back to France for their part of the services rendered.

Bibliography:
 *** the bibliography is in progress.  Citations will be added once I feel text is where it needs to be. ***

• The text of the 1857 postal convention can be found along with amendments at this location on the blog.
• Hubbard, W. and Winter, R.F., North Atlantic Mail Sailings: 1840-1875, USPCS, 1988.
• Hargest,G.E., History of Letter Post Communication Between the United States and Europe: 1845-1875, 2^nd ed, Quarterman, 1971.
• Winter,D, Understanding Trans-Atlantic Mail vols 1 & 2, APS, 2006.
• Starnes,C.J, United States Letter Rates to Foreign Destinations: 1847 to GPU-UPU, revised ed., Hartmann, 1989.
• Postal Laws and Regulations of the United States of America: 1866, Wierenga reprint, 1981.
• List of Post Offices and Postal Laws and Regulations of the United States of America: 1857, Wierenga reprint, 1980.

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<note> The farmer had a strange thing happen at the beginning of August.  He took a break and went to the APS Stampshow in Omaha with his lovely bride.  The mid- growing season break does not happen all that often for us.  But, Stampshow was actually occurring in a city that was not too hard for us to get to, so we decided to take the opportunity to attend.  And, while we were there, we might as well show the 24 cent postal history exhibit, right?

Well, the second strange thing occurred while we were there.  The exhibit took the grand award in the open competition - something I hadn't anticipated happening.  Then, I had a few people who couldn't attend Stampshow ask if I could post the exhibit somewhere online.  Wow.  Well, it was STILL farming season, so that task has to come in increments.  But, it did encourage me to load up a few US to Switzerland pages from the exhibit and write about them.  That actually went fairly quickly and easily, so I thought I'd see if the same would happen with this topic.  I started by uploading the exhibit pages and adding minimal content.  Since then, I have been adding and editing on and off when the spirit moved me to do so.

You may also notice the project of loading up the exhibit is in progress.  Look for the link to that at the top right of this page or take the link right here!

Letter Mail from the US to Switzerland in the 1860's

Post last edited: Nov 13, 2019
Status: Advanced Draft

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Letter mail between countries prior to the General Postal Union (1875) relied on postal conventions that were established by treaty between nations.  Needless to say, not every pair of sovereign states had a direct agreement that dictated how mail would be exchanged.  Mail between nations that did not have a direct agreement relied on a chain of postal conventions that connected them.  In most cases, that chain was created by finding one intermediary that had independent agreements with both of the states in question.  Mail that does not originate within a country and also does not reach its destination within that nation is said to be in transit through its postal system.

Case in point, Switzerland and the United States had no postal convention in place until 1868.  This makes sense for several reasons, but the most obvious is that there was no way mail could be carried between the US and Switzerland without transiting a third nation.  A quick look at a map will show you that Switzerland has no direct access to ocean transport.  The Swiss would have to travel through one of Italy, Austria, France, some of the German States (Wurttemburg, Bavaria, etc) and possibly have stops in Belgium or other nations along the way.  Any postal agreement between Switzerland and the United States would require connections to other agreements just to manage the transit through some or all of these independent states.

In 1860, the United States maintained postal agreements with the French, Prussian, Bremen and Hamburg systems.  It was also possible to send mail to the British mail services to be sent on through whatever routes were available between England and Switzerland. 

French Mail to Switzerland
The French mail system provided the United States with services to Switzerland from April of 1857 until December of 1869 at a cost of 21 cents per quarter ounce (7.5 grams) for letter mail.  Much of this postal convention can be viewed in the post titled "Postal Convention: France & the United States 1857."  Mail would travel by trans-Atlantic steamer from New York, Boston, Portland (Maine) and Quebec bound for locations in England, France and Germany, depending on which steamship line carried the piece of mail in question.  Items bound for France would typically sail directly to France or travel via Britain.  The entry point in France was most often Calais (or the rail line from Calais to Paris), but it could also be locations such as Havre and Brest.  If you would like more detail on how mail got to France during this period, the post titled "Letter Mail from the US to France in the 1860's" will provide you with that information.

Figure 1, click to view larger version of images

The rail systems in France were developing rapidly from the 1840's and through the 1860's.  Foreign mail was carried by train to Switzerland via three primary border crossings.  There were other crossings that typically handled local mail and were unlikely to carry foreign mail, though it is technically possible.  Mail could enter Switzerland in the North at Basel, West at Pontarlier and South at Geneva.  The route was chosen based on a combination of train schedules and location of the destination relative to the border crossing.  The hope was to send the mail via the route that would see the quickest delivery time.

Figure 2 - border region of France and Switzerland

The envelope shown in Figures 1 and 3 is presumed to have gone via Pontarlier based on some incomplete train schedule data that I have located.  It is entirely possible that this is incorrect and I hope to be able to decipher the route more fully in the future.  The 1864 year date makes it possible that the entry was in the South depending on the completion dates of some of the rail lines in the Jura mountains.

A prior post on this blog highlights the letter mail between France and Switzerland and provides some additional information regarding rail travel between the two nations.  The difficulty is that letters transiting France from the United States were not provided some of the same markings seen on Swiss/French mail.  As a result, we tend to get fewer clues from the piece to isolate the route once it was in Europe.

Figure 3 - Double the 21 cent French Mail rate from the United States to Switzerland

The letter shown above appears to have been sent from New York City to La Chatelaine near Geneva, Switzerland.  The portion of the address panel that reads "pres de Geneve"* simply indicates that this is La Chatelaine "near" or "next to" Geneva.  The larger, red circular marking was applied in New York, dated March 9 and indicates that 36 cents of the 42 cents collected in postage is to be passed to France to cover postal expenses not rendered by the United States postal system.  The French then passed money to the British and Swiss postal systems.

* my apologies for my failure to use proper accents/characters.  I will try to clean this up at a later point in time.  Silly American.

The breakdown of the postage rate is often not as simple as saying 6 US cents go here and 12 US cents go there.  What can be said entirely accurately is that 42 US cents were collected via US postage.  Thirty-six of those US cents were passed to the French postal system.  An amount roughly equivalent to 16 US cents was sent in French centimes (probably 80 centimes) to the English to cover the sea passage and the transit on British rail from Liverpool and the English Channel crossing.  This left 20 US cents, which is in the neighborhood of 1 franc in French currency, to cover transit through France and the cost of mail in Switzerland to deliver to the recipient.

For the sake of argument, mail from France to Switzerland cost 40 centimes (French) per 1/4 ounce.  So, this double weight letter would have cost 80 centimes if it originated in France.  This rate was split at 50 centimes for French postage and 30 centimes for Swiss postage.  So, it is not unreasonable to speculate that 30 centimes (about 6 US cents) was passed on to Switzerland to cover their postage costs.

In the end, the breakdown could look like this:

• The US retains 6 cents of postage
• France receives 36 cents from the US
• Britain receives 80 centimes from France
• Britain pays 6 pence to the Cunard Line for trans-Atlantic service
• Britain retains 2 pence for internal rail service and the English channel crossing.
• France passes 30 centimes to Switzerland (equal to 30 rappen) for their internal mail service
• France retains 70 centimes for their internal mail services

All of these amounts are estimations because I am not currently willing to work out all of the details as to actual exchange numbers between all of the players. involved.  For this excercise, I am operating under a simple 5 French centime to 1 US cent conversion, though the actual rate was 5.26 centimes per 1 US cent.  In the end, that conversion number matters less because the actual postage breakdown numbers are filtered through three sets of postal treaties; the treaty between the US and France, the treaty between France and Britain and the treaty between France and Switzerland.  In the end, it appears that the French make out like bandits since their internal rate was 40 centimes for a letter weighing 10 to 20 grams.

There is still plenty that can be explored regarding this cover.  If you look, you will notice several manuscript markings.  A pencil "2" notation certainly was applied to indicate that this is a double weight letter.  I have no idea whether the "53" is a postal marking or a filing docket placed on the envelope after it was received.  The "12" has all of the hallmarks of a postal marking, but I am currently at a loss regarding its importance.  It is crossed out which may mean it was placed on the cover in error OR it shows an amount passed and then recognized as passed and crossed out.  In that latter case, crossing out the amount makes it clear that it is not a due amount for the recipient.

Prussian Closed Mail to Switzerland
The Prussian mail system provided mail services for the United States to Switzerland starting in 1852 until December of 1867 when the Prussian system was superseded by the North German Union mails (essentially the Prussian mails with other German mail systems consolidated with it - a topic all its own).  The postage rate was 35 cents per half ounce (15 grams) until May of 1863 when the rate was reduced to 33 cents. *

* This may be, in part because Baden's rate drops from 30 cents to 28 cents in May of 1863 to align it with the rest of the German-Austrian Postal Union.  Also a topic worthy of more discussion.

Figure 4 - Switzerland via Prussian Closed Mail

Mail to the Prussian system typically traveled through Belgium after a stop in England.  Mailbags would enter the Prussian mail system officially at Aachen (Aix la Chapelle) or on the mobile post office between Verviers and Coeln.  Belgium and Prussia featured highly advanced rail systems that facilitate rapid mail dispersal.  Travel to Switzerland from Aachen required transit through Prussia and Baden or Prussia, Hessen and Wurttemburg.  While the German-Austrian Postal Union provided a structure for cooperation, the various states were still concerned about how postal revenues were split, so it can be very interesting to investigate the various postal markings on mail that traveled through the German States during this period of time.


In the case of the item above, the markings include the Prussian "Aachen" marking on the front, a Baden railway marking on the back and two Swiss markings also on the back.  See the exhibit page in Figure 4 for date and location details.

Figure 5 - 28 cents paid only to the border of Switzerland

The Prussian system is interesting in that it would allow mail from the United States to be mailed 'to the outgoing border.'  In other words, the sender could opt to pay the 28 cent rate to get a mail item to anywhere within the German-Austrian Postal Union (GAPU).  Once it reached the border, it would be sent on - essentially as an unpaid piece of mail from the Prussian system to its destination in Switzerland.  The recipient was required to pay 10 rappen in Swiss postage for the privilege of receiving their mail in this case.  All of the 10 rappen were retained by Switzerland as far as I have been able to ascertain.

The 28 cents in postage was divided into 7 cents for Prussia and 21 cents for the United States.  The U.S. was responsible for covering their own surface mail costs and paying for transit via England (which included the trans-Atlantic portion).  The Prussian mail system paid Belgium for the transit via Ostende (the equivalent of 2 US cents) and it retained 5 US cents for travels through the GAPU mail systems.  There are no markings on this cover that illustrates any distribution of the funds between the various German States.

Bremen or Hamburg Mail Treaty to Switzerland
Bremen and Hamburg were two Hanseatic cities that negotiated mail treaties with the United States which included mail service to Switzerland beginning in July of 1857 at a rate of 27 cents per 1/2 ounce.  The rate was reduced to 19 cents in October of 1860 and became obsolete when these mail systems were combined with the North German Union postal system in January of 1868.  Mail packets (steamships) traveled between New York and Hamburg initially every four weeks increasing to every other week (alternating with the ships that traveled to Bremen).

Figure 6 - Switzerland via Hamburg Mail

Mail from Hamburg and Bremen typically traveled through Frankfort (Hessen territory) and would go through Baden for destinations in Western Switzerland and Wurttemburg for destinations in Eastern Switzerland.  Of course, this rule of thumb could be broken if rail schedules were more favorable for other routings.

Figure 7 - US to Switzerland via Hamburg Mails at double the 19 cent rate.

The exhibit page is not accurate with respect to the postage breakdown in this case.  First, the blue "8" is likely in silbergroschen, which would translate to 19.2 US cents approximately.  It appears that the blue "8" was applied in Frankfort A Main, which would imply entry into the Thurn and Taxis posts.  If that is the case, then they would have kept 6 silbergroschen for their transit of mail to Switzerland and 2 silbergroschen would have been passed to Switzerland for their surface mails (about 5 cents). I believe the red marking next to the "8" is "2 fr"* which represented the amount passed to Switzerland.

* I am fairly certain about the "2" and less about "fr."

British Open Mail to Switzerland
The postal convention with England had a fully prepaid option to Switzerland from March of 1848 until June of 1857.  After that point, there was no prepaid option from the US via British mail.  Instead, a person had the option of paying the U.S. portion of the postage and then allowing the British Open Mails to arrange to have the letter sent to its destination, where all costs of mailing from the British system to its destination would be collected.  While this open mail was not in effect for all possible destinations, it was available for most European locations.

Figure 8 - Switzerland via British Open Mail

The open mails were especially valuable for mail that was overweight but not paid as such - just as is seen in the item shown on the above exhibit page.  The sender appears to have intended to pay the 21 cent French rate to Switzerland.  However, the item must have weighed more than 7.5 grams (1/4 ounce), which would require 42 cents in postage.  The postmaster realized that at least some of the postage applied to the envelope could be useful by paying the US portion of the trip to England, so the item was sent via the British Open Mail (21 cents per half ounce since an American contract ship took this mail across the Atlantic).

Figure 9 - An alert clerk prevented loss of the entire 24 cents postage paid by using British Open Mail

It was up to the Swiss postal service to collect sufficient postage to cover the costs that were now to be split between the British, French and Swiss postal systems.  To simplify the accounting of the time, debits and credits were often (but not always) dealt with in bulk rather than a letter by letter basis.  For example, the British and French agreed on 40 centimes for every 30 grams of bulk mail.  The justification for this is partially based on an assumption that 30 grams would represent three to four pieces of letter mail on average.  Rather than having an exact count of mail pieces and the rates paid, the entire mailbag could be weighed out to figure what was owed for the British (and later French) transit.  This is, of course, an efficient way of doing business as long as the actual averages held true to the estimates.  But, from a postal historian's perspective it makes it difficult to make the postage breakdown nice and neat.  I am sure this postal historian can get over that small issue.

For an initial take on the breakdown, please view the exhibit page in Figure 8.

Why Choose One Option Over Another?

With five different options for sending mail from the US to Switzerland, how was a person to choose?

• French Mail: 21 cents per 1/4 ounce
• British Open Mail: 5 cents per 1/2 ounce OR 21 cents per 1/2 ounce with remainder to be collected from recipient in Switzerland.
• Prussian Closed Mail: 33 cents per 1/2 ounce (35 cts prior to May 1863)
• Prussian Closed Mail to border: 28 cents per 1/2 ounce with remainder to be collected from recipient.
• Bremen or Hamburg Mail: 19 cents per 1/2 ounce.

Clearly, if cost were the only consideration a person might prefer Hamburg Mail, French Mail or British Open Mail.  But, the French Mail rapidly loses its luster if the mail item exceeds 7.5 grams (now it would cost 42 cents).

Hamburg Mail looks good at 19 cents per 1/2 ounce.  But, what happens if you missed the most recent sailing of the ship for Hamburg?  You would have to wait one more week for the next departure to Bremen (or two to Hamburg).  Are you really willing to add another seven days to the typical 12 day transit period?  That means you would have to wait nearly a month for a reply.  The other mail systems benefited from being able to receive mail from multiple sailings each week.

British Open Mail and Prussian Mail to the border both require that the recipient foot part of the postage.  This may not be the best policy if you actually want the recipient to accept what you have sent to them.  After all, they were not required to accept and pay for these items.  On the other hand, there are multiple instances where it is clear that two businesses intended to split postal expenses in this fashion, so perhaps it was a reasonable option in those circumstances.

The hardest option to consider is the fully paid rate via the Prussian Closed Mails.  If the letter item was between 1/4 and 1/2 ounce, this option is clearly better than French Mail (42 cents).  If you were also concerned that the recipient accept the mail and not have to pay to receive that mail AND you found yourself in a position where you didn't want to wait a week for the next Bremen or Hamburg sailing, then Prussian Closed Mail is your choice.

As might be expected, my observations have shown more mail addressed to Switzerland from the United States using French mail or Bremen/Hamburg mails than the other options.  Since my focus is on items with the 24 cent stamp, it makes sense that I wouldn't pay as much attention to mail heading to Switzerland until a double rate letter came via French mail came along.  In fact, the only natural fit is Prussian Mail options or multiples of the other rates.  Otherwise, there is the possibility that a person used a "convenience overpay" as is shown in the British Open Mail example above.

I suppose if I were concerned about 'completeness' for this destination during the period, I should find a fully paid Prussian mail item and an item that went via Bremen (as opposed to Hamburg).  But, I think I'll be happy with where I am at for the time being.