Elusive - Postal History Sunday

Here we are, sitting at Postal History Sunday number 149!  But that's not the important thing as I write this on Saturday.  The important thing is that it is raining at the Genuine Faux Farm.  For those who do not know, we have been in a drought and it has been a while since we've had any serious precipitation.  Each time I look out the window the grass looks a little bit greener and I'm looking forward to seeing the clover get rejuvenated as well. 

I promise that I will do my best to concentrate on the business at hand - sharing some postal history, because it is something I enjoy.  Hopefully, you will find something here that entertains you or you learn something new.  Put on the fuzzy slippers, get a favorite beverage (but keep it away from the keyboard and the paper collectibles) and relax for a while.

Is this something special?

Here we have a folded letter that was mailed at Wasselonne, France on September 2, 1867.  The destination was Langnau in the Canton of Berne (in Switzerland).  There are two 20 centime postage stamps that pay the postage to get the letter from here to there.  Apparently, this was enough because a red marking that shows the letters "PD" in a box was applied in France to let postal clerks down the line know that postage for this letter was considered paid to the destination in Switzerland.

On first glance, this looks to me to be ALMOST a typical simple letter mailed between France and Switzerland during this time period.  The postage required for a simple letter in 1867 was actually 30 centimes if it weighed no more than 10 grams (Oct 1, 1865 - Dec 31, 1875).  So, this could be an overpayment or, it could be something else.

There is this note, written by a collector (not me) that makes a suggestion that might be worth checking out.  It reads "Tarif frontalier, double port."  This suggests that this is an example of a double weight letter for the special border rate.  This rate was 20 cents per 10 grams, so a prior owner was hoping that they had found something that is very elusive for a postal history collector to find.

Sometimes these notes can point us to something that we might have overlooked, just like the 4th item in this March Postal History Sunday.

The border rate between France and Switzerland applied when the straight-line distance was 30 km or less between the origin and destination.  If you look at the map below, you can find Wasselonne, France, at the top left corner.  Langnau, Switerland, is by Berne at the bottom of the map.  The total distance is well over 200 km.  Clearly, this did not qualify for a border rate discount.

So, why would someone think they had found an elusive double-weight letter that illustrated a border rate?

Well, Wasselonne is certainly close enough to the border with Baden (a German State) that it probably DID qualify for some border rate mail.  And, it turns out there is a Langnau near Freibourg and it is not terribly far from the France/Baden border.  Maybe there is something to that?

The logic here is not necessarily flawed.  When I find a letter that does not fit the normal patterns for a simple letter between two countries, it makes sense to check and see if there is some reason for that difference.  But, when a letter has more postage than was required for a simple letter we have to remember that one possible explanation is that someone simply put too much postage on there. 

Let's just say for a moment that this letter was from Wasselonne to Langnau, Baden.  The border rate between France and Baden also required a distance of 30 km, but these two locations are over 100 km apart.  Further, the rates between these two postal systems was not as simple as 20 centimes per 10 grams.  The border letter rate was 10 centimes for an item that weighed no more than 7.5 grams.  If a letter weighed more than 7.5 grams the cost was an additional 10 centimes for each 15 grams.

To get to a cost of 40 centimes, the letter would have had to weigh more than 37.5 grams!

In case you were wondering if this COULD have been to the Langnau in Baden, I present the back of this folded letter.  It features a postmark for the Basel-Olten railway in Switzerland (bottom right) and the Swiss cross can be found on the Langnau receiving postmark (at left).  So, sorry, no.  The letter might have passed by Langnau in Baden as it traveled to Langnau, Switzerland, but that's it.

I can attest that anything other than simple letters (single rate) for European border rates are quite elusive.  If you manage to discover one, it is a case for some celebration.  Sadly, this is NOT one of those.  It is merely an overpayment of the normal letter rate between France and Switzerland.  

This is why any explanation written on a postal history item should be written lightly in pencil (if written on the item at all) - preferably on the back.  And, yes, I'll be erasing those pencil markings.

In my case, I am pretty happy when I discover a simple letter (single rate) that qualified for the special, reduced border prices.  Shown above is a folded letter from Switzerland to France.  A 20 rappen stamp pays the special rate and I can confirm that mail between Geneva and Ferney were close enough to qualify for this rate.

If you look carefully at the bottom left, you will see that someone wrote the word "frontalier" on this item as well.  At least they were correct this time.

If you would like to learn more about European border rates, this Postal History Sunday does a decent job of explaining them.

How about this one?

Here is a letter that does not have any pencil notations telling us there is something special going on with this envelope that was mailed in 1863 from the United States to London, England.  This letter has appeared in Postal History Sunday before and was featured in this January entry.  If you want to dive into the details, I recommend you go there.

What makes this cover elusive is the fact that it was carried across the Atlantic Ocean on the Galway Line of ships.  And, the only way you can figure that out is by looking at shipping tables and then confirming them by looking at old newspapers that report ship departures and arrivals.

from Walter Hubbard and Richard Winter's North Atlantic Mail Sailings

The Hibernia, a ship that belonged to the Galway Line at the time, carried this letter.  It left Boston on November 3 and arrived eleven days later at Galway.  The truly interesting thing for me about this cover is that the Galway Line carried very little of the mail.  According to Reports of the Postmaster General from 1864, only 1.8% of the trans-Atlantic mail traveled on Galway ships during the fiscal year.  In contrast, the Cunard Line took 43% and the Inman Line 20% across the sea to the United Kingdom.

New York Times, Oct 16, 1863 shipping schedule

The marking shown below makes the intended ship departure date of November 3 at Boston quite clear.  The marking also includes the "Br Pkt," which tells us the ship that crossed the Atlantic was under contract with the British.

In 1863, only two shipping lines would have carried mail under British contract, the Cunard Line and the Galway Line.  One was the Hibernia from Boston on November 3.  The other was the Scotia from New York on November 4.  The Scotia arrived at Queenstown (Ireland) on November 13th, so it would likely have gotten to London on November 14 at the latest.  The Hibernia did not get to Galway until November 14 - so it would have been in London later by a day or two.

How about a November 16 arrival date?  The London exchange marking on the front is dated November 16.  The receiving mark on the back of the envelope is dated November 16. Even the docket that was written at the top of the envelope says it was received in London on November 16.

I think it's pretty clear we have a winner.

Exactly how elusive are items carried from the US to the UK by the Galway Line in 1863?  So far, this is the only 24-cent cover I have found that was carried on this line.  That certainly doesn't mean there aren't others simply because there is no simple way to identify them.  

It does however, fit the definition of elusive. 

Kind of like the rainfall on our farm this year.  At this moment, I can report that we received 1.5 inches of appreciated rainfall, which more than doubles what we have received since late April.  Thank you for joining me today.  I hope you have an excellent remainder of your day and a fine week to come.

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Postal History Sunday is published each week at both the Genuine Faux Farm blog and the GFF Postal History blog.  If you are interested in prior entries, you can view them, starting with the most recent, at this location.

Twenty-Four : Postal History Sunday

Welcome to this week's Postal History Sunday, featured every Sunday (imagine that!), on the Genuine Faux Farm blog and the GFF Postal History blog.  This will be, much to my astonishment, the 148th entry of this series that I have offered up for public consumption.

As has been the case for each PHS prior to this one, everyone is welcome - whether you know anything about postal history or not.  I encourage you to put those troubles and worries into a place where they cannot be found.  Grab the fuzzy slippers and a drink and snack of your choice.  Always be aware that you should keep edibles and liquids away from the keyboard and the paper collectibles!  Let's see if we can all learn something new today while I share something I enjoy. 

I've mentioned it in many Postal History Sundays, but I seem to have this thing for postal history that have 24-cent postage stamps on them.  The 24-cent design that features George Washington that was first issued in 1861 has given me the opportunity to explore the workings of the post, especially for mail that left the United States for other countries during a very interesting period of history.

I have even gone so far as to create a physical exhibit (display) that has competed in philatelic exhibitions and done quite well at them.  Recently, I decided to undertake the process of making some modifications to that exhibit, which means the topic is very much on my mind.

Why a 24-cent stamp in 1861?

The primary purpose of this particular denomination of postage stamp (24 cents) was to pay the simple letter mail rate between the United States and the United Kingdom (England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and the Channel Islands).  This particular design was issued in 1861 and the earliest documented use is August 20th of that year.  These stamps continued to be produced until early 1869, when they were replaced by a new design.

The 24 cent postal rate between the US and the UK was effective from February 1849 until December of 1867.  So, it would make sense that there might have been other designs for a 24 cent stamp before 1861.  But, it might surprise you that there was only ONE - and it wasn't issued until 1860.

To the untrained eye, the stamp on the cover shown above may not look all that different.  But, if you click on the images of each cover shown above and study them a bit, I think you'll see the changes in design.  The new stamp design came about because of the secession of the southern states from the Union.  Post offices that now resided in Confederate States still held stock of the old postage stamp designs and there was concern about the potential loss of revenue if no change was made.  

Once the new design was released, they demonetized all postage stamp designs that had been issued prior to August of 1861.  For those who do not know what it means to demonetize a postage stamp, it simply means they made them invalid to pay postage.  

Here is an attempt, in 1866, by a person to use some old 12 cent stamps that were issued in 1851.  I think some of us can recognize this scenario.  A person found an old envelope that already had the two 12 cent stamps on it or they found the two stamps in a back of a drawer somewhere.  They knew the letter they were sending was a bit heavier, so they slapped a newer 24 cent stamp on the envelope and they mailed it, thinking all was well.

The postal clerk recognized that the old 12 cent stamps were demonetized and could no longer be used for postage - so they wrote the words "not good" in blue pencil under those stamps.  Then, they wrote "short paid" to indicate that the lone 24 cent stamp, though valid, was not enough to pay for the postage due.  As a result, the recipient had to pay the full postage (2 shillings) to receive this letter.

If you are interested, last week's Postal History Sunday discussed how short paid mail was treated as unpaid under the US - UK treaty that was effective at the time.  And, if you'd like to learn a bit about how to "read" a cover that was mailed from the US to the UK at the time, this Postal History Sunday will do the trick.

Sometimes the letter didn't start its journey at the post office

A US postage stamp pays for US postal services.  But, sometimes, there were travels just to get a piece of mail to a US post office.

The envelope shown above has a 24 cent stamp that pays the cost of mailing the item from New York City to Liverpool.  But, the blue 1 cent stamp actually pays for the service of having a New York City postal carrier take this letter to the post office.  In the early 1860s, carrier service to and from locations outside of a post office was not all that common.  Most people had to go to the post office to mail their letters and pick up any items they expected to receive unless they were willing to pay more for the extra service provided by a mail carrier.

If you would like to learn more about carrier services to the mail at the time, this Postal History Sunday might interest you.

Or maybe a letter actually originated OUTSIDE of the United States, just like this 1867 letter that got its start in Lima, Peru.  If you aren't paying attention to this one, you might just assume it is just a letter that went from New York City to London, with the 24 cent stamp paying that postage.  But, then you should notice the docket that reads "via New York" at the top left.  Once you notice that, you need to ask the question - "where did this letter get its start?"  

That's where the docketing on the inside of the folded letter sheet comes in handy.  It turns out Alsop and Company had branches of their company in Lima and New York.  So, it is likely this item was brought or mailed from Peru with a bundle of other letters that were to be sent on to their eventual destinations from New York.

At the post office

Once we get to a US Post Office, the clerk there would determine the amount of postage required for the item to get from here to there.  Sometimes, a letter might already have postage stamps and perhaps other times, the client would purchase the stamps at the point of mailing.

The envelope shown above originated in New York City and was sent to Middlebury, Vermont.  The postal rate for letters that did not leave the United States was 3 cents per half ounce in weight (in 1866 when this letter was mailed).  The clerk must have weighed this out and found it to be more than 3 1/2 ounces and no more than 4 ounces in weight, requiring 24 cents in postage.  The clerk then applied a postmark that included a city-date stamp which was paired with a canceling mark to prevent someone from re-using the postage stamp.

Once the clerk properly marked a piece of mail, it would be placed in a letter bag that would be prepared to take a scheduled mail conveyance - such as a train, coach, or boat.

Leaving the country

Most pieces of mail bearing a 24 cent postage stamp that still survive today were items that were mailed to destinations outside of the United States.  And, most of those crossed the Atlantic Ocean to destinations in Europe.  

So, the first order of business was for the US Postal Service to use railroads, coaches, steamboats and other means of conveyance to get the letter to one of the special post offices that had been identified as exchange offices for mail to the destination country.

Shown above is a cover that went to the Chicago exchange office.  Other exchange offices at this time for mail to England included New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit and Portland, Maine.  And, it was up to the exchange office clerks to place foreign mail into the proper mailbags and get those mailbags to the correct mail packet (steamship) to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

There were several shipping companies that carried mail from the United States.  The letter above is an uncommon example of a letter carried by the Galway Line, which was under contract with the British postal service.  The ship left Boston on November 3 and made stops at St John's, Newfoundland (Nov 7), Galway, Ireland (Nov 14) and finished the trip at Liverpool (Nov 16).  The letter itself was probably off-loaded at Galway and shipped by rail from there to the east side of Ireland, where it would cross the Irish Sea and again go by rail to London.

It can be interesting to try to find letters that traveled by different ships from the various shipping lines.  And sometimes, you will find a letter that was on a ship that ran aground or one that had to endure a hurricane.

So, now we're in the United Kingdom

Congratulations!  We've made it across the Atlantic and our letter is now in the hands of another postal service.  Well, actually, the MAILBAG is in the hands of another postal service.  And, that mailbag needs to get to one of the post offices that exchange mail with the United States.

Here's a letter that went to Scotland.  The exchange office for the United States was Detroit, where the letter was put into the mailbag.  The receiving exchange office was in Glasgow, where the letter was removed from the mailbag.  In this case, each exchange office put a marking on the cover that give us clues as to the travels this item took.  I suspect most people would not be surprised to learn that the most commonly found exchange office for mails with the UK is London, which is why I wanted to show you something different here!  You can find examples of London in the other pieces I show if you are interested.

If a letter was destined for an address in the United Kingdom, it would take the British Mails to their destination.  Oh.. look, a London exchange office marking at the bottom left!

It was not all that uncommon for the destination of a letter to be a financial or other institution that would either hold or forward mail for their clients, who were often traveling.  This letter was sent care of McCalmont Brothers & Company, a banking firm located in London.

The recipient, B.J. Lang, was a touring musician, sometimes teaching or performing in the UK.  We cannot be certain, but it seems fairly likely that the letters might be held at the bank for Lang to pick them up at his convenience.  But, it is possible that they were bundled up with other letters and sent to Lang at his current location.  It all depended on the agreement the recipient had with the McCalmont Bros - which probably had to do with how much money Lang wanted to spend on such a thing.

This letter is also very interesting because it shows an uncommon example of a "triple weight" letter.  Until the middle of 1866, this would have required one more 24 cent stamp.

And beyond...

The British Mail system provided an opportunity for persons in the United States to send mail to other destinations beyond the United Kingdom.  

As an example, here is a letter that was destined for Melbourne, Victoria (Australia).  The postal agreement between the US and the UK allowed the sender to prepay the postage to the UK AND beyond. With another 21 cents in postage, this letter could get all the way to Australia via the Suez (Egypt).

Or, maybe the destination is the Corisco Mission on the West Coast of Africa?  This one required 33 cents in postage to pay for its trip from the United States, to London, and then on by ship to what was once Fernando Po and is now Bioko.

It wasn't just the British mail

Most of the surviving mail pieces that bear a 24 cent postage stamp went to or through the British Mails, but there were certainly other options and other destinations.

And, you knew this was coming!  I'm going to give you a "for instance" or two!

Here is a letter that went via the Prussian Mails so that it could eventually find its way to St Petersburg, Russia.  

And a folded letter that traveled via the French Mails to Rome, Italy.  

The United States had agreements in the 1860s with the British, French, Prussian, Bremen, Hamburg, and Belgian postal services.  Later in the 1860s there were also agreements with the Italians and Swiss.  The point I am trying to make is that a person can have a great time finding items that show how mail traveled using these different agreements - all using the 24 cent stamp as payment for all or part of the required postage.

The good news?  All of this complexity and detail provides me with plenty of fodder for more Postal History Sunday blogs.  If you enjoy them, that would be good news.  If you don't?  Well, I suspect if you don't, you didn't make it this far in today's post!

Thank you for joining me as I share something I truly enjoy.  I appreciate your patience and attention as I gave you the "nickel tour" of a subject I have been studying and working on since 1999 (more or less).  I hope you learned something new.  May you have a fine remainder of your day and a good week to come!

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Hungry for more?

This is the area of postal history where I have the most comfort.  So, it makes sense that I have written on items that bear the 24 cent US postage stamp more than any other type of item.  If you are a person who wanted a bit more depth, rather than breadth, in this week's post, you have several opportunities to review prior PHS entries that focus on particular aspects of this topic.

I have already linked several Postal History Sunday entries in the prior text, but here are a few more if you want to dig around for a while today!

• Let's Send a Letter to France
• Let's Send a Letter to Switzerland
• Costs of Doing Business (letters to Spain)
• Puzzling It Out (letter to Chile)
• Did Garibaldi Delay the Mail (Italy) 

If you do take the time to explore some of the links shared here or earlier in the text, let me know if you have a favorite - or maybe one where you think I could improve it by taking another go at it!

Thanks for joining me.  Have a fine remainder of your day and an excellent week to come.

That Doesn't Seem Fair - Postal History Sunday

Welcome again (or maybe for the first time) to Postal History Sunday!  Take a moment of time to read about something different and maybe learn something new.  Stuff those worries in the cookie jar for a little bit and make sure you take some cookies out to enjoy while you read.

This week I am going to write about a topic that I often find myself explaining to other postal historians who do not share my specific area of interest.  Now, before you think this will be 'too much,' I can assure you that if you have read any of the other Postal History Sunday posts, this one won't get any more into the weeds than those.  You're going to do just fine.  

Now, if you're worried because you ARE a postal historian and you think this will be boring because it will be too simple...  I guess that's your call!  But, I bet I can find something interesting for you before we reach the end. 

This week's "attention getter"

I'm just going to put this envelope right at the top of the blog.  For those of you who are into postal history or philately, you probably already have some level of appreciation for this item.  And, if you don't know anything about postal history, let me point out to you that there are FIVE twenty-four cent stamps on this letter paying $1.20 in postage.

The letter shown above was mailed in 1864 from Champlain, NY, to Dundee, Scotland.  The cost at the time was 24 cents for a simple letter that weighed no more than 1/2 ounce.  OR, if it weighed more than a half ounce, the cost was 48 cents per ounce.  So, this letter must have had some weight to it.  

But that's not the big reason this envelope is interesting to me.  You see, this letter did not have enough postage to pay what was owed.  The agreement between the US and the United Kingdom was written in such a way that if something was not fully prepaid, it was treated as if it was not paid at all.  As a result, the recipient had to pay the full postage due (6 shillings) and the $1.20 essentially became a gift to the US Post Office.

How could that possibly happen?  That's what today's Postal History Sunday is all about!

Sending a letter to England

This next envelope was mailed in 1862 from Boston to London, England.  This was a simple letter, meaning it did not weigh more than the amount allowed for the first increment of weight (1/2 ounce).  As we would expect, there is a single 24-cent stamp paying that postage.  

Today, in the United States, it costs 63 cents to mail a letter that weighs no more than one ounce in weight.  It costs $1.45 to mail a simple letter (a letter that weighs no more than one ounce) to Scotland in today's mail. So, if you're thinking, "Wow.  It sure does seem like it cost a fair bit to send a letter to England in 1862."  You would be correct.

In fact, the letter rate actually decreased to 12 cents in 1868 and was reduced further to six cents not long after.  By the time we get to the days of the General Postal Union (1875), that price was 5 cents!

To make the point that postage rates declined rapidly after the 1860s, shown above is a simple letter that was mailed from Utica, New York, to Huddersfield, England.  The postage stamp covered the cost of postage - two cents - in 1916. 

As one of my college math professors was fond of saying....  "But, I digress...."  

Getting back to the 1860s.  The twenty-four cents of postage was split into three pieces:

• 5 cents was kept by the United States for their internal mail service
• 16 cents were paid to the sailing company that carried the letter across the Atlantic
• 3 cents were kept by the British for their internal mail service.

The wild card here was that some sailing companies had contracts with the British and some had contracts with the U.S.  It actually mattered which ship carried this letter because it determined which mail service got 16 cents worth of the postage so they could pay the shipping line.

The US Post Office sold the stamp for 24 cents to the customer, who put it on the envelope to show that they had paid for the service.  This letter went via a British packet (steamship), which means the British needed 19 cents (16 + 3) to pay for their part of the services needed to get the mail to the Reverend A.P. Putnam in London.  If you look at the Boston postal marking, you can see "19 Paid" which recognized that 19 cents were to be passed on to the British postal services.

What if it weighed more than a half ounce?

Well, 24 cents would not cover the cost of mailing that item - of course!

remember, you can click on an image to see a larger version

Here is a larger envelope that must have been more than a half ounce, but no more than one ounce in weight.  It was mailed from Chicago to Shaftsbury, England.   Two, 24-cent stamps were placed on the envelope to pay 48 cents in postage.  This letter was sent via a steamship that had a contract with the United States, so only 6 cents was passed to the British.  If you look at the left side of the envelope, you can see a red marking that reads "6 cents" with the word "cents" in an arc below the number.

Below is a summary of the rate table for mail from the US to the United Kingdom from 1849 through 1867.

You might notice that the rate of postage was not 24 cents per 1/2 ounce.   It might be better to think of the 24 cent rate as a special rate for very light mail.  The actual rate might more accurately be said to be 48 cents per ounce.

But, wait a minute - did I say that the letter above was mailed from Chicago?  How did I know that?  The clue lies with that "6 cents" marking I was talking about earlier.

One of the magic powers postal historians develop over time is the ability to recognize certain markings and understand where they came from.  The "6 Cents" marking was used in Chicago to show that the British got 6 cents out of the 48 cents in postage.  There is a similar, more commonly found "3 Cents" marking used for letters that were a half-ounce or less in weight.

Here is an example of a simple letter that was mailed from Chicago.  The blue postmark at the top rigth reads "Chicago, Ills" and we can see a "3 cents" marking that looks a lot like the "6 cent" mark on the other envelope.  Shown below is another example blown up so you can see the details.

Letters that went through the Chicago exchange office in the 1860s were typically sent to either Quebec or Portland, Maine so they could get aboard an Allan Line ship.  The Allan Line had a contract to carry mail with the United States, so the British only got 3 cents and the United States kept 19 cents so they could use 16 cents to pay the cost of trans-Atlantic carriage.

But, what if they didn't pay enough?

People didn't always get the postage right - so there had to be some sort of an agreement to determine how "short paid" letters would be handled.  For example, the letter below (from 1867) has a single 24 cent stamp on it - but it must have weighed more than a half ounce, so it needed 48 cents in postage.

The New York foreign mail exchange office placed a "Short Paid" marking on the envelope and used black ink for their circular marking (the one that has a "42" in it).  The interesting thing is that this letter must have caused the postmaster some trouble because there is a red marking just to the right of it that indicated it was paid.

You can guess how that might happen.  The clerk was going through a pile of letters, stamping them with the red paid marking and got into the rhythm of the work.  He hit this one with the handstamp and then said "hmmmmm."  Weighed it out and realized his instincts were correct - so he put the "short paid" and the black circular marking on the envelope.

The British Post Office agreed with this assessment and wrote the squiggle on the envelope that is a 2 with a squiggly tail.  This was their way of saying the recipient owed 2 shillings for the privilege of receiving this letter.  The envelope contained a death announcement, which is indicated by the black border.  I have a suspicion most people would have found a way to pay the 2 shillings in this case.

How much was 2 shillings in US money?  48 cents.  

The agreement between the United States and the British at this time was that a letter that was not paid in full would be treated as COMPLETELY UNPAID.  Well, that's one way to make a death announcement sting a bit more.  The sender spent 24 cents to send it and the recipient had to pay the equivalent of 48 cents to receive it.  Ugh!

It could be worse!

The letter below has 72 cents in postage applied to it AND the recipient had to pay 4 shillings (equal to 96 cents) to receive it.

This larger envelope must have weighed more than one ounce, so it would require more postage.  So, let's remind ourselves of the postal agreement rates:

Oh... yeah.  It isn't 24 cents per 1/2 ounce - it's 48 cents per ounce once you get to things heavier than a half ounce.  But, that's not what everyone understood when they mailed things.  After all, if you wanted to send a letter inside of the United States it was 3 cents for EVERY 1/2 ounce.  It would be natural to expect a rate to a foreign country to follow the same pattern - and that's what the sender of this envelope expected when they put three 24-cent postage stamps on this large envelope.

The letter must have weighed over one ounce and up to 1 1/2 ounces.  They figured 72 cents was correct if you had 24 cents per 1/2 ounce.  But, they were wrong - which means the letter was Short Paid.  Which means it is treated as UNpaid.  

Ugh again!

Oh my goodness!

And all of that brings us back to our original item.  If you thought the prior letter recipient was being treated poorly, what about poor Mr. Robert Stiver of Dundee, Scotland?   He had to pay 6 shillings for this item sent in the mail to him.

You can guess what happened here.  The sender expected that five 24 cent stamps would pay for a letter that weighed no more than five 1/2 ounce increments.  In other words, the letter weighed over 2 ounces but not more than 2 1/2 ounces, so they figured it should require 5 times the 24 cent rate per half ounce.  

Sadly, the rate REALLY WAS 48 cents per ounce, despite what the general public might think.  The letter weighed more than 2 ounces and no more than three ounces - so it needed $1.44 instead of the $1.20 affixed to the envelope.

The clerk in the New York exchange office, recognized that this was not enough postage and they struck this letter (badly) with a "short paid" marking to alert the receive exchange office in Scotland.  Perhaps a good way to think of this is to consider that the outside surfaces of a mailed letter could be used so postal clerks could send messages to their counterparts at future stops.

But, not every marking was perfectly clear - just like some people's handwriting can be nearly impossible to read.  That's why there were regulations that included directives for ink colors.  The color red typically indicated that a letter was prepaid and black would be an alert that postage would be due.

The New York exchange office marking was applied in black, which also told clerks who would handle this letter later that it was NOT considered paid, despite the postage stamps clearly visible on the envelope.  It is a bit difficult to read because it was placed over the Champlain, New York postmark.

But, this leaves us with the issue of how much of the postage goes to the United States and how much goes to the United Kingdom!  That's where this number comes in:

This number was supplied by the New York exchange office and it represents 126 cents (or $1.26).  In other words, the United States expected that, once the letter was delivered in Scotland, the postal carrier would collect six shillings (equal to $1.44).  The British post would keep only 18 cents (9 pence) and it would send the rest (5 shillings and 3 pence) to the United States.

From the United States Post Office's perspective, they did pretty well with this letter.  Someone had already paid them for the $1.20 in postage stamps, but none of that postage effectively paid for any services.  Then, the US Post Office received an additional $1.26 from the British to pay for the services the US provided.

If you don't think that seems fair, consider how Mr. Stiver must have felt when the postal carrier pointed at this marking on the envelope:

That's squiggle represented 6 shillings due. 

I sure hope the content of this envelope was worth every penny!

How or why could they do this?

It would be tempting to leave you thinking that the postal services were deliberately stealing money from postal patrons with this process.  But, that's not exactly what was going on here.  Postal services around the world were still trying to get people to move from a system where postage was collected on delivery to one that had services prepaid by the sender.  One of the best ways to do this was to make people pay more when they failed to prepay.

The prior system, where letters were paid at delivery, opened the door for postal services to carry mail all the way to their destination only to have the recipient decline to pay.  Of course, the letter would not be delivered in that case.  But the post had done all the work and gotten no compensation for it.

Relief!

We will close with a letter that was mailed from Boston to London in June of 1866.  There are three 24-cent stamps paying 72 cents in postage.  But, this letter has red exchange markings and the word "Paid" shows prominently in the messages mail clerks were sending to each other on the envelope.

If we learned anything from all of the prior items I've shown, it was that an odd number of 24-cent stamps (other than a single stamp) was going to result in some unhappy recipients as they ended up paying the full postage just to open the letter.

On April 1, 1866, the postal rate from the US to the United Kingdom was altered so that it would be 24 cents PER 1/2 ounce.  Suddenly, these odd multiples that the public seemed to think should be allowed WERE allowed.  It only took 17 years (the treaty became effective in 1849), but some relief was granted to those who were honestly trying to pay the postage yet fell prey to a bad assumption.

The postage rate itself would decline to 12 cents per 1/2 ounce on January 1, 1868.  So, these odd multiples of 24 cent stamps that were accepted as paid are difficult to find.  Once you put this envelope together with the other items in this Postal History Sunday, it makes a pretty good story.

Thanks for joining me.  I am hopeful that you learned something new!  Have a great remainder of the weekend and a good week to come. 

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Postal History Sunday is published each week at both the Genuine Faux Farm blog and the GFF Postal History blog.  If you are interested in prior entries, you can view them, starting with the most recent, at this location. 

Historically Imperfect - Postal History Sunday

Welcome to the first Postal History Sunday of June 2023.  Believe it or not, this is the 146th Postal History Sunday published since August of 2020.  My current goal is to reach the three-year anniversary (the August 20 entry).  This is how I reach bigger goals, I focus on subgoals that are close enough to glimpse - and then we go from there!

Before we get started, I would like to invite everyone who reads Postal History Sunday to give feedback as you see fit.  There is a contact form in the right column in the web version that will send an email to me.  If you are viewing this on your phone, you will need to select "view web version" to see it.

I am always happy to receive suggestions for future topics, corrections and other thoughts.  I am particularly interested, as I reach another milestone, what you would like to see here in the future - and remember, if there are specific things you have enjoyed with the prior 140 or so posts, then tell me what has worked for you so I keep doing those things!

The Golden Age

I had someone make a common lament to me recently.  "I just want to go back to the way things were."

We can all understand that sentiment at some level or the other.  There was a time when you knew less and were aware of less, so things were simpler - yes?  Perhaps you had less responsibility?  Or maybe you are having trouble navigating the uncertainties of your world today.  After all, since you've already lived yesterday, if you could go back and live it again, you might have a shot at doing better because you had some insight as to what would happen.

I have also heard people make claims that the current generation "doesn't know how to work" or that they "don't care about anything."  And, "things worked better then."

Yep, I'm sure they did and I am also sure that they didn't!

As a postal historian, I have the privilege of looking into the past and visiting, through the words of those who lived years before.  I can tell you that regardless of the "when" you choose, the new generation never knew how to work and things were always better during an earlier time!

Shown above is a cover mailed in Phildelphia in 1863 to Andelfingen, Switzerland.  Many who collect such things will tell you that this is a very nice looking item.  But, it has a fault - can you see what it is?

A Piece Missing

Here is a different item that was sent to France in 1862.  Three different stamps were used to add up to the 30 cents required to pay for a piece of letter mail that weighed over 1/4 ounce up to 1/2 ounce.  From a collector's standpoint, this is a very nice looking item.  The colors are bright and the envelope is pretty clean - especially considering it is almost 160 year old.  I like it - that is for certain.

But, look carefully at the bottom center of the brown 5 cent stamp.  There is a nice little chunk out of the stamp.  Many people living today barely understand the function of a postage stamp, with the advent of the internet, email and social media.  Even fewer will recall fully that stamps came in sheets with perforated holes that were intended to give you a guide so you could 'easily' separate them.  You also had to wet the back of the stamps (usually by licking them) to activate the gum so it would stick to the envelope.

The US Postal Service has been issuing primarily self-adhesive stamps since the 1990s and the first US self-adhesive was actually issued in the 1970s.  The US Postal Service recently announced that all postage stamps would be self-adhesives going forward.  But so few recent issues have been perforated and gummed stamps that most people under the age of 30 will not have the experience of separating these stamps unless they are (or are related to) a stamp collector!

Some collectors are nostalgic for the 'good old days' when these water activated gum stamps with perforations to separate them were the norm.  But, I am certain they are forgetting how often the stamp itself would tear in the wrong place (like the 5 cent stamp above) if you rushed the job.  They are conveniently omitting experiences where the gum on a sheet of unused stamps would get wet (for whatever reason) and they would stick to each other - or other things that you didn't want them stuck to.  I am also guessing they don't remember the time their cat found a sheet of stamps and licked them until they folded over and stuck to themselves.

Okay, that one happened to me.  Maybe I am unique in that instance?

This marking (and the one that follows) are two of the reasons I find this particular cover attractive.  They are clear enough to read, which means I can learn more about the travel story for this letter. 

The marking above reads "Etats Unis Serv Am Calais 14 Nov 62"  This is the French exchange marking that tells us when and where the letter was removed from the mailbag after it crossed the Atlantic Ocean.  It also gives us a clue that the ship crossing the Atlantic was under contract with the United States Post Office.

The Boston marking is the US exchange office marking that tells us when (Oct 31) the steamship was to depart on its crossing of the Atlantic.  Once this exchange marking was applied to the envelope, the letter was placed in the mailbag until it got to the French exchange office.  

The portion of the marking that reads "PAID 12" can be confusing to people who are not used to reading covers during the 1860s between France and the US.  It would be tempting to think that the total postage paid was 12 cents.  But, there are stamps on this cover that add up to 30 cents in postage.

What's up with that?

The postal rate for mail from the US to France from 1857 through 1869 was 15 cents per 1/4 ounce in weight.  So, twelve cents seems to make... no sense.

This is where you have to understand that the US exchange markings included the portion of the postage intended to be passed to France to cover THEIR portion of the costs in handling this mail.  This marking tells us that the US KEPT 18 cents and passed 12 cents to the French.  Because of that amount, we can determine that the ship carrying this letter across the Atlantic was under contract with the United States.

I thought I would include this table from a prior Postal History Sunday for those of you who might like the reminder.  If it only serves to confuse you at this point, never mind.  Either way, read on and enjoy with the knowledge that there is no quiz at the end and no one will judge you if you don't want to waste the brain space on figuring out whatever tangent Rob is currently taking!

Imperfect Solutions

We live in a world where things aren't perfect.  And, the solutions we create for problems rarely work out on the first, second, and maybe every try.  And, before you try to tell me that we were better at that sort of thing in the past, I'll remind you that we have always used the trial and error process with varying degrees of success.  This is true now.  It was true then.

The letter above was mailed in 1863 from Chicago to Liverpool England.  It was then forwarded to another address in England.  The 24 cent stamp paid for the mail from the US to England.  The red stamp paid one British penny to pay the postage to forward the letter.  But, that's not what I want to focus on for this envelope.

The blue postmark reads "Chicago ILL  RA Oct 30."   The letters "RA" were part of a short-lived experiment that likely was an attempt to help with mail routing problems.  Apparently, Chicago had a significant volume of mail lose its way en route to its destination.  Enough to encourage some experimentation in hopes of finding a solution.

You see, they didn't use return address labels AND it was common for mail to be refused, to have a bad address, or for a recipient to have moved on with no forwarding instructions.  Such items would go to the "Dead Letter Office" where clerks would attempt to ascertain who sent the letter in hopes that they could return the contents.  This was especially important if the sender was mailing anything of value.  And, yes, it was pretty common to mail money.

Even in 1863, there were lots of people in Chicago (an estimated 160,000 people).  How do you find the sender of a letter in "Chicago" if they leave no further clues in the content? 

If you add misdirected mail into the pile of items in the Dead Letter Office (DLO), it makes sense that options would be explored to prevent mail items from going to the DLO in the first place.

Well, what if you use some codes in the postmarks to indicate how things were routed OUT of Chicago?   Other letter combinations, such as "GA," "SB," and "X" can also be found in these Chicago blue ink postmarks.  An excellent analysis by Leonard Piszkiewicz provides us with the explanation that each of these letter combinations corresponds with a train station or routing. The "RA" has been deduced to likely mean "Randolph" train station.  It's actually a fairly clever idea, but it apparently wasn't deemed a success after a short trial. 

Since 1863, we have made return addresses at the top left common practice and we have implemented ZIP codes to help focus where things go in our postal system.  And, if you want to pay for tracking, you can see where your mail is going as it finds its way - assuming no one makes a mistake.  So, it wasn't perfect then - and it could likely be improved now.

Close Enough
 

I'll close with an item that has 30 cents of postage on it.  But, the required cost for a letter via the Prussian Closed Mails was 28 cents if the letter was prepaid. I'd like to remind everyone that 2 cents in 1865 was a bigger deal to people than it is now, though it was a small enough amount that some might not consider much more than a nuisance to overpay that much.

There are two things going on here.  First, the postage rate had declined from 30 cents to 28 cents early in the decade.  So, it is entirely possible that the person mailing this item was just working with a memory of an older postage rate.  However, there was still an option to send mail without postage.  So, if someone in Germany sent a letter to someone in the US unpaid, the recipient would need to pay 30 cents to receive the letter.  It is possible this over-payment was the result of someone reading the postage tables incorrectly and selected the rate for unpaid mail.

Or, maybe it had to do with convenience?  There were 2 cent stamps issued at the time and there were one cent stamps as well.  In other words, there were plenty of ways a person could select stamps to add up to 28 cents.  Is it worth it to overpay by 2 cents if you only had 24 cent and 3 cent stamps?

Of course, we do not have enough evidence to tell us the reason why this letter had two more cents in postage than it needed.  Mr. DeForest, the recipient, was likely traveling in Europe.  Maybe the postage was placed on the letter with the intent that it would go to France, just like the second item we shared today.  But, by the time the person was ready to address the envelope, DeForest's itinerary indicated he would be in Brunswick, Germany.  It's all speculation, but sometimes it can be fun to explore the possibilities as long as we acknowledge that we'll never know for certain.

So, we go back to our first item.  If you will recall, I mentioned something was not quite perfect for this very nice looking cover from 1863.  Once again, this item has too much postage.  The rate to Switzerland via the Prussian mail system was 33 cents per 1/2 ounce, but there are 35 cents in postage on the envelope.  I suspect we'll be featuring this particular cover in the future as well, so stay tuned.

Human error won't leave us.  I misread things, you misread things.  We also make daily decisions about what is going to be 'good enough' and often accept less than perfection as an acceptable result.  It is not new and it is not likely to change.  Historically, we are imperfect - which is exactly why we have so much we can strive for.  So, as we strive together I hope that you will have a fine remainder of the day and an excellent week to come.

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Postal History Sunday is published each week at both the Genuine Faux Farm blog and the GFF Postal History blog.  If you are interested in prior entries, you can view them, starting with the most recent, at this location.