More to Say - Postal History Sunday

Welcome to the first Postal History Sunday after Thanksgiving 2024.  The American Thanksgiving holiday has been, and continues to be, an important one to me.  It reminds me to exercise my gratitude muscles in all things that I do, including the postal history hobby.  So, let me take a moment and thank everyone who has taken a moment to read and enjoy Postal History Sunday, it is a privilege to be able to share what I can with you.

I am also grateful for those who have provided feedback to me.  I received kind appreciation for my efforts while I attended Chicagopex last week.  And, every so often, someone will leave a comment on the blog, or in social media, or in an email providing encouragement, additional information, and positive criticism.  All of this helps me to feel the effort has value. 

This week, we're going to provide more information about some recent Postal History Sundays.  It never seems to fail - after I complete an entry and put it out "into the wild" for everyone to read, I discover something else that might have been good to include.  Well, is this my blog or not?  Since it is, I can certainly take the time to do a PHS entry that shares some of these things with you!

A Subtle Difference

On November 12th, Postal History Sunday featured letters mailed from the United States to Switzerland during the 1860s.  The topic was certainly big enough that it made sense to gloss over a detail or three just so the main points weren't obscured.  

But, there was one omission I felt sure that someone would bring to my attention. Then, much to my surprise, no one did.

35- cent per 1/2 rate via Prussian Closed Mail - to Andelfingen, Switzerland

So, let me show two letters a bit closer together.  The first letter was mailed on April 27, 1863, just days before the postal rate was going to change to 33 cents.  In fact, by the time it arrived in Aachen on May 12, the rate had changed.

33-cent per 1/2 ounce rate via Prussian Closed Mail - to Ambri, Switzerland

And this letter was mailed on July 30, 1866, arriving at its destination by mid-August.  It is interesting to note that this letter was mailed just after the final battle of the Seven-Weeks War (Austro-Prussian War) on July 24 in the Grand Duchy of Baden.

And now I am going to ask the question I thought someone else might have asked:

What's going on here?

1863 Cover to Andelfingen	1866 Cover to Ambri

These markings are called weiterfranco markings and they were used by members of the German-Austrian Postal Union (GAPU) to indicate that a certain amount of postage was to be "passed forward" to the next postal service.  In both cases, the postage was fully paid by the person who sent the letter in the United States.  The US sent 12 cents to Prussia to cover the expenses Prussia was responsible for.  That included the amount of postage that was due to Switzerland!

So, these weiterfranco amounts represented the amount of postage, in German currency, that was supposed to be handed over to Switzerland for each letter.  The kicker here is that the amounts for each letter is different.

The first letter has markings that read "f1" and "3"

The second letter has markings that read "f2" and "6"

The first thing we need to know about these is that the members of GAPU used two different currencies.  The Prussians and northern states would be passing silbergroschen and they would include the "f" before the amount to indicate it was a weiterFranco (paid amount forwarded).  So, the "f1" and "f2" would indicate 1 silbergroschen and 2 silbergroschen.  These markings were applied at the Aachen exchange office in Prussia.

The southern states used kruezer (3 kruezer for every 1 silbergroschen).  So, the corresponding "3" and "6" refer to kruezers and were applied in Baden - likely on the train that carried the mail. 

So, the first cover, mailed in 1863 at the 35 cents rate, was paid in full.  The Prussians passed 1 silbergroschen on to Baden and then Baden passed the equivalent 3 kruezer on to Switzerland.  The second cover, mailed in 1866, was mailed at the 33 cents rate and was alos paid in full.  The Prussians passed 2 silbergroschen to Baden, which then passed 6 kruezer to the Swiss.

So, now the questions is... why?

The answer lies with the destination for each cover within Switzerland.  At the time, Switzerland still had a distance component to their postal rates.  In their agreement with the GAPU, there were two rayons (or regions).  The amount of postage due to Switzerland was based on a rate of 1 silbergroschen (or 3 kruezer) per rayon for a simple letter.  Our second letter was in the second rayon, so it required more postage to be paid to Switzerland.

If you would like to learn more about this, this Postal History Sunday looks more carefully at mail between Switzerland and the GAPU.

And, for those that are curious - the rate people in the United States paid to send a letter to Switzerland via the Prussian Closed Mails did NOT change, even if the letter went to the second rayon of Switzerland.  This was simply how Switzerland and the GAPU accounted for letters exchanged between them.

More Humbuggery

On October 15th, I got to have some fun and write a bit about Humbugs and Dead Letter Mail.  This 1865 letter was sent to the Dead Letter Office as either an "unclaimed" or an "unmailable" item.  But, the postmaster wrote the word "Humbug" at the left.  They were apparently aware that James E Dunnell was working some sort of scam that encouraged people to depart with their money.

In this case, the amount was $10.

I surmised that this might have been a lottery scam.  But, guess what I found soon after writing that article?  

This letter - which, unfortunately, does not have a corresponding cover (envelope or wrapper). It is a lithographed circular that is promoting a lottery with an entry fee of....  ten dollars.

This letter is from the "Office of Thos Boult & Co" who professed to be General Lottery Agents.  In fact, they claimed to be "Licensed" by the government.  And, even better for me and my story - this letter is dated March 21st, 1865.  While it is certainly not directly related to my "Humbug" envelope, it is direct evidence showing that the lottery scams were quite active at that time.

The letter opens by recognizing that most states had laws against lotteries:

"Dear Sir, From what we can learn of Public Sentiment in your State, we are satisfied that there is among your People, a strong prejudice against dealing in Lotteries and feeling that this want of Confidence, cannot be removed until some person draws a good Prize."

Of course, like any "good" scam letter, they make certain to underline the last part to get the mark's attention.  The idea being proposed is that the recipient can trust them to represent them for a lottery (thus getting around the law).

"... we offer you the chance of a Handsome Prize in a Certificate of a Package of Sixteenths of Tickets on the Grand Havana Plan Lottery to be drawn ... on the 30th day of April 1865."

Thus far, the letter has not quite gone so far as to promise a positive result.  However, they do go on to illustrate how much there is to gain - with so little to lose.

"... no deception lies concealed under this communication; now as our object is to increase our Business among your Citizens; by putting you in the possession of a Handsome Prize; we offer you the above described Certificate with however this understanding that after we send you the money it draws, you are to inform your friends and acquaintances that you have drawn a Prize at our Office."

Of course, the saying "thou doth protest too much" comes to mind.  No, no!  Of course, we don't intend to take your money and run.  We just want to take your FRIENDS' money and run. 

Now, they still won't promise that the mark is guaranteed a win, but...

"... if the Certificate does not draw you net at least $6000 we will send you another Certificate in one of our ever Lucky Extra Lotteries for nothing you perceive that you now have an opportunity to acquire a Handsome Prize; that may never again present itself; Improve it before it is too late, by sending your Order immediately..."

This letter seems to have everything.  It tells us that we shouldn't delay and it even has it's "but wait, there's more!" moment.  They'll send you another chance at a special lottery for free.  It's a two for the price of one deal!  And, of course, by the use of capital letters where they don't exactly belong and some judicious underlining they do a fine job of pointing us to the main issues of concern.

"To facilitate the prompt execution of our proposal use the enclosed envelope and make your remittance to our Office... Wafer or Seal your letter so that it will not come open in the Mails.  Please consider this letter Strictly Private and Confidential, and send your order without delay"

So, we come to the bottom of the letter.  The very same people that are hoping to improve their business by having more people participate are now attempting to tell the mark that this correspondence is a secret.

And how much was the cost to enter to have the opportunity for a "Handsome Prize?"  

Ten Dollars.

So, even if the envelope to James Dunning had nothing to do with this particular scam, there was likely no end to copy cats of this scheme.  It really does seem like a good possibility that the envelope held money to enter an illegal lottery.

from US Mail and Post Office Assistant

 The US Mail and Post Office Assistant was a monthly periodical that provided a wide range of material concerning the US Post Office and the mail during the 1860s.  Lottery swindles show up periodically in this periodical, including the one described above for a "Wright, Gordon & Co."  If you would like to read some of the detail, you can click on the image for a larger version.

This is where I realized that Jas. Dunnell may not have been the individual who was running the scam.  Instead, someone who would claim to be their "agent" might have attempted to pick up the mail for this, potentially fictional, individual.

Perhaps the one person from this period of history you might think of when we talk about humbugs would be P.T. Barnum.  And, as a matter of fact, Barnum wrote a book titled "The Humbugs of the World" that was published in 1866.  In it, he reveals a wide range of scams, including the very lottery scheme outlined by this letter.

P.T. Barnum 1851 - public domain image

Barnum revealed that there were several "companies" that used the same scheme including Boult & Co, T Seymour & Co, Hammett & Co, and Egerton Brothers.  And, while he ridiculed the scam itself, he had very little patience for those who sent them money either.

"Now, those who buy lottery tickets are very silly and credulous, or very lazy, or both. They want to get money without earning it. This foolish and vicious wish, however, betrays them into the hands of these lottery sharks. I wish that each of these poor foolish, greedy creatures could study on this set of letters awhile. Look at them. You see that the lithographed handwriting in all four is in the same hand. You observe that each of them incloses a printed hand-bill with “scheme,” all looking as like as so many peas. They refer, you see, to the same “Havana scheme,” the same “Shelby College Lottery,” the same “managers,” and the same place of drawing. Now, see what they say. Each knave tells his fool his only object is to put said fool in possession of a handsome prize, so that fool may run round and show the money, and rope in more fools."

 Later on in the same chapter, Barnum outlines another lottery scheme that appeared in late 1864.  This scam took the approach of telling the mark that they had a lottery ticket with their name on it that had already won, but since they hadn't purchased the ticket, they had to do something to collect their winnings.

“Your ticket has drawn a prize of $200,”—the letters all name the same amount—“but you didn’t pay for it; and therefore are not entitled to it. Now send me $10 and I will cheat the lottery-man by altering the post-mark of your letter so that the money shall seem to have been sent before the lottery was drawn. This forgery will enable me to get the $200, which I will send you.”

Barnum outlines clearly how the post office is often used for the lottery swindle.  The perpetrator could mail a batch of circulars at any post office.  And since they were printed (lithographed) they qualified for the cheaper postage rates.  They could drop the circulars off at a post office and leave town.  There would be no office or person there to whom it could be traced.

As far as payments, those too could be directed to some smaller post office where a relatively anonymous person could call for letters.  And if the postmaster or others in the town started acting as if they were suspicious, they could simply leave the area and allow the rest to go to the Dead Letter Office.  All the better to run the scam again some other day without being caught.

Mr. Meeker, I presume?

This envelope, mailed in 1936, was sent to a Mr. Lincoln V. Meeker.  The address directs the letter to the ship at Port of Spain, Trinidad.  However, when delivery was attempted, it was found that Mr. Meeker had "left the ship" and apparently no forwarding address was known.  As a result, the letter was returned to Albany, New York.  

The letter was sent via a Foreign Air Mail service to Trinidad at the cost of 20 cents per 1/2 ounce of weight.  This airmail letter rate was effective from Jan 1, 1930 until Nov 30, 1937.  For those who enjoy collecting US air mail, I believe this was carried on FAM route 6 from Miami.  Those who know air mail far better than I can confirm or deny that bit of information.

The September 10 Postal History Sunday included this item as one of a few that I featured on that date.  And, to be honest, I didn't give it too much space then.  Since that time, I have identified someone who could possibly be our mysterious Mr. Lincoln V. Meeker - the person who left the ship called the Steel Navigator before he could receive this letter from Albany, New York.

Lincoln V. Meeker (at left), Regional Director of Union Carbide Pan America 1967

I was able to locate someone with that name in a publication titled Revista das Classes Produtoras (Magazine of Production Classes), 1967\Ano XXIX N.991.  The connection between Union Carbide (where this Lincoln V Meeker served as Regional Director Pan America) and the Steel Navigator is largely coincidental - but how many Lincoln V Meekers existed that allow us to draw those lines?

The Steel Navigator was a commercial steam ship for the Isthmian Line.  This line of steamships were an outgrowth from the US Steel Corporation.  It was not uncommon for companies, such as US Steel, to begin looking to acquire ships and building their own transportation service branch.  

cover - US Steel News, July 1936

The Union Carbide story has some parallel history in that, like US Steel, it was first incorporated in the early 1900s.  Union Carbide's focus was on metal alloys early in its history.  It is credited with a low carbon ferrochrome that was a precursor to stainless steel.  

This is how we make a connection for Lincoln V. Meeker.  Is it possible that he was a passenger on the Steel Navigator - and perhaps an employee of US Steel?  His position with Union Carbide as the Pan America Regional Director gives us both a connection to related product lines and an area of the globe.  It is possible that the intended recipient for this letter was a young Lincoln V. Meeker and, at the point this letter got to Trinidad, he had gone forward on another ship, a plane, or whatever, to another location.

Or maybe he jumped ship to Union Carbide from US Steel?  

For now, this is all I've got to go on.  Obviously, we can't yet draw any conclusions - it's all just a few facts that, with a lot of imagination, just might hold together.  But, it's progress.  Even if that progress turns out to have gone in the wrong direction.

And now, we find ourselves at a stopping point for this week's edition of Postal History Sunday.  I hope you were entertained, at least a little bit.  And maybe, just maybe, you learned something new.

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Thank you for joining me today!  Have a fine remainder of your day and an excellent week to come.

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.

A Sense of Fun - Postal History Sunday

This week's Postal History Sunday is being written "on location" at Chicagopex, an annual event held in (surprise!) Chicago every November.  The name "Chicagopex" is a combination of the city name and a shortening of "Philatelic EXposition" or PEX and it is a three-day event where philatelists (stamp collectors) and postal historians gather.  There are opportunities to buy and sell items, chances to view interesting exhibits of material, and time to chat with others who have similar or related interests.

I was enjoying my time at the show, but there was a low-grade worry niggling at my brain as Saturday progressed.  What was I going to do for Postal History Sunday this week?  I'd started a few things, but none were so close that they would be an easy finish.

item in John Hornbeck's exhibit

Then, as I was looking at an exhibit that focused on a specific type of Dutch postmark called a "point cancellation," I saw a cover from a town called Sneek.  While the name is pronounced to sound more like Snek, I still can't help myself but read it as an American might (sneek).  And that's when I started considering my sense of fun.

After all, if my mispronunciation amuses me and then gets me to look a little longer at Dutch point cancels - why not?  And the good news is that there was some nice postal history from the 1860s in that exhibit that caught my interest too.

 

For example, here is an item that might make a nice "Merry Chase" PHS entry.  It was mailed from Amersfoort in the Netherlands to Florence.  It looks like Milano (Milan) and Venezia (Venice) were also part of its travels.  This is the sort of thing that is often "fun" for me.  But what is fun for me may not be the main interest for someone else.  In this case, John Hornbeck focuses on those cancellations, postmarks that were used to show that a stamp was used to pay the postage.

from Chip Gliedman's exhibit

 Here's a different sense of fun that might be understood by a broader range of the population (unless more people than I think like the "Sneek" angle).  How about a piece of mail that was salvaged from the wreck of the Hindenburg?  

Yeah. That wreck.

While there is nothing actually fun about the disaster and the loss of life that came with it, there is something amazing about seeing, in person, an artifact that survived the crash.  It's the sort of amazing thing that most people can relate to.

from Omar Rodriguez's exhibit

Postal history and philately covers a lot of territory and those who enjoy it can approach it from all sorts of directions.  The first postage stamp issue for Mexico was overprinted with the name of each district and it could be an interesting challenge to see if a person could find an example from each district.  Including Tabasco.

And yes, tabasco sauce used a pepper that originated from this region as a principle ingredient. 

from Jim Mazeppa's exhibit

Sometimes, philatelists and postal historians pick different ways to focus on what they study and collect.  We can focus on cancellations, geographic regions, time periods or maybe a specific postage stamp issue.

The Overrun Countries issue of 1943 and 1944 featured the flags of countries overrun by the Axis powers.  As a young collector, this was a series that I hoped to complete some day.  So, of course, I can't help but appreciate seeing a whole exhibit featuring that series.

And when you focus on some smaller portion of philately or postal history, a person can dig into all kings of details.  For example, the process of printing these bi-color stamps could result in some flaws in the printing.  Shown above are examples where the red ink was doubled, making it look blurry.

from the exhibit of Charles O'Brien

And that brings me to another way to have fun with philately and postal history.  We can look at ways where things went... well... wrong.

If the paper being used to print a postage stamp was folded at the time it was run through the printer, it left an unprinted area when (and if) it is unfolded.  Stamp printing processes typically had good quality control processes, but enough are printed that errors sometimes find their way into the wild.  Some people enjoy the hunt for things that are different because there were errors in the production process.

from John Hotchner's exhibit

Speaking of things that didn't quite go as intended.  There are people who enjoy tracking down forgeries of postage stamps.  Sometimes, those forgeries can be found on a cover that someone actually tried to use a forged stamp to pay the postage.  

In the case above, the attempt was not successful and the Postmaster at the town of mailing contacted the Postal Inspector.

from Hugh Sebag-Montefiore's exhibit

 

And sometimes, you can have fun by exploring reasons for odd things like - why is Napoleon frequently featured with one hand tucked into his clothing at his stomach?  Apparently, it was a way to symbolize "gentlemanly restraint" and was often associated with nobility.  It wasn't because he bit his fingernails and it left them unsightly and distracting to look at.  And it probably wasn't because he had a perpetually upset stomach. 

And, hey, have a little fun. Pick your own absurd or not so absurd reason why it was important for Napoleon to conceal one hand while being painted.  But, I do think the idea that it was a way to cultivate an image of nobility and power was certainly consistent with his ambitions.

My own sense of fun

Frankly, I found myself enjoying just flitting around the exhibits, taking an image of things that just popped out at me for whatever reason.  And, once my attention was grabbed by something in an exhibit, I allowed myself the opportunity to try to appreciate what made the topic fun for the person who was sharing their efforts with all of us.  I found myself appreciating the work of all who put together their materials to build a display - even if the topic or approach was not something I would want to do myself.

After all, my own sense of fun often tends toward rate and route puzzles like this one that was posed to me at the show by someone else.

This particular item is a cover front (the back has been cut off - and maybe some of the sides have also been reduced).  But ,there are four, 5-cent stamps and a single 1-cent stamp from the US 1861 postage series.  The color of the five cent stamps is known as "buff" and is an uncommon color to find in this condition on a piece of postal history.  And that's probably one of the biggest reasons a philatelist would like it.

But, what about a postal historian?

This is not a typical example of a letter sent from the United States to Switzerland in 1862.  There is a lot of different stuff going on and there was some question as to whether there was any reasonable explanation for how it all hangs together.  We even have to consider if it doesn't hang together!  And if that's the case, we have to decide if that means it's been altered in a way that its value as a postal history item was in question.

And here's where I make you all shake your heads and wonder what in the world is wrong with me.  How can ANYONE possibly enjoy looking at an old, messy, piece of paper and think it would be fun to decipher and determine as much as they possibly can about it?

Well, that's the thing about a person's sense of fun.  It doesn't have to make sense.  It just has to be fun for that person.

This letter was mailed at the post office in Hallowell, Maine (located south of Augusta), and postmarked on May 27, 1862.  From there, it traveled to Boston, which served as a foreign exchange office for mail to France.  Yes, Boston was an exchange office for other locations, but I opted to say France because that's where this item was originally addressed.

The address panel reads: G.D. Gelman, Esq, care of John Munroe and Co, Bankers in Paris, France.

The Boston exchange marking says: Boston, May 28, Paid 24

This corresponds with the departure of the Cunard Line ship Niagara on that same day.  It crossed the Atlantic Ocean and arrived in Queenstown (Cobh, Ireland) on June 8.  The "Paid 24" indicated that 24 cents needed to be passed to France for their share of the postal expenses.

And that's our first indication that something might be amiss here.  There's only 21 cents in postage on this cover.  With the "Paid 24" marking and a letter addressed to France, we should expect 30 cents in postage to pay for a double weight letter from the US to France using the 15 cents per 1/4 ounce rate.

Shown above is another cover with 30 cents in postage sent from New York to France in 1866.  It clearly shows a "Paid 24" credit in the New York exchange marking.  It too, was carried on a Cunard Line steamship across the Atlantic.

The red double circle marking is French (dated June 10), and the red box marking that reads "P.D." tells us that the French considered this letter paid in full.  So, now we have both Boston and the French postal clerks declaring this letter paid.  That tells me there was likely 30 cents paid... somehow... for this item.  Maybe the extra nine cents were paid in cash.  Maybe there were some stamps on the back (which is now missing).  We can't know for certain.

But here's where it gets really interesting!

John Monroe and Company served as a forwarding agent for travelers.  They remailed this letter to a new address in Interlaken, Switzerland.  The two black Paris marks indicate that it was remailed and no additional postage was provided.  Instead, there are two "40" markings on the cover that indicate to us that 40 Swiss centimes would be due at the point of delivery.

It just so happens that the postage rate for a letter from France to Switzerland in 1862 was 40 centimes per 7.5 grams at the time. Shown above is an 1865 letter from France to Switzerland that was short paid (and treated as unpaid).  It too, shows us the red "40" marking to indicate 40 centimes must be collected on delivery. So that also matches up - another good sign.

So let's review for a second.

The US to France rate was 15 cents per 1/4 ounce which is about 7.1 grams.  This letter was sent as a double weight letter from the US to France, which means it weighed more than 7.1 grams.

The Swiss rate for an unpaid letter from France was 40 centimes per 7.5 grams.  Which means this letter weighed no more than 7.5 grams.

Yes, sometimes you can get that precise if there are enough clues.  Fun for me.  Maybe it makes no sense for you.  But remember, my sense of fun only really needs to be fun for me!

So, that leaves us with a question.  The 21 cents in postage appear to have been purposely placed on this letter, even though it ended up being the incorrect amount. So, we need to answer the question - why would someone so badly miss the payment amount for a letter addressed to Paris France?

One theory that seems to fit:

The sender in Hallowell knew G.D. Gelman was traveling and that the itinerary placed them in Switzerland by the time the letter got to Europe.  Knowing this, they put postage on the letter for the 21 cent per 1/4 ounce rate to Switzerland.  But, they only knew to send the letter to the forwarding agent in Paris...

Upon presenting this at the post office, the sender was informed that not only was the letter overweight, they could only pay the postage to France because the letter was ADDRESSED to France.  At that time, it looks like this person paid cash OR additional postage was placed on the reverse of this cover (which is now missing).

The letter got to Paris and was recognized as paid in full, but then had to be remailed, postage due.

The back of the cover probably had one or two Swiss markings and maybe one or two French markings.  I am guessing it had a Paris receiving marking for its arrival in Paris on the 10th.  I suspect it might have had a French rail transit marking from Paris to Bale (Basel). The Swiss markings might have been a Swiss rail exchange/transit marking and a receiving mark at the destination.

A second theory that might fit is that the letter was intended to be sent via British Open Mail on an American Packet (steamship), but through some series of errors it went on the British Packet and was treated as fully paid.  In my mind, the first theory seems to fit better.

Well, if you made it this far, good for you!  I appreciate your willingness to tolerate my sense of fun for a little while.  

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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.

Let's Send a Letter to Switzerland - Postal History Sunday

Welcome to Postal History Sunday!  

Everyone is welcome here, whether you know a lot or a little about postal history.  Bring a little curiosity along for the ride, grab a favorite beverage and a snack, tuck those troubles away and put on the fuzzy slippers.  This week, we're going to see what options a person in the United States had for sending mail to Switzerland from 1860 to 1867.

While those dates might seem somewhat arbitrary, I can provide a short justification.  The start date is because I like studying postal history during this decade (the 1860s).  The end date is derived from the point when significant changes in available rates were happening.  It might be just as well to write a whole new blog entry starting in 1868 and ending in 1875 when the General Postal Union went into effect rather than try to cover all of that territory here!

Postal treaties set the rules for mail exchange

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.  

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.  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 the United Kingdom and Switzerland.  

That's actually quite a few choices a person could make just to send a letter to one, smallish, country in the middle of Europe!

1860 - 1867 Letter Rates - US to Switzerland

Effective Date	Treaty Rate	Unit	Mail System
Oct 1852 - Apr 1863	35 cents	half ounce	Prussian Closed Mail
May 1863 - Dec 1867	33 cents	half ounce	Prussian Closed Mail
Apr 1857 - Dec 1869	21 cents	quarter ounce	French Mail
Oct 1860 - Dec 1867*	19 cents	half ounce	Bremen-Hamburg
Jul 1849 - Dec 1867**	5 or 21 cents	half ounce	British Open
May 1863 - Dec 1867	28 cents	half ounce	PCM to border

* The prior postage rate was 27 cents per half ounce (July 1857 - Sep 1860)

** This rate was advertised from Jul 1849 to Jun 1857, but still available afterward

Prussian Closed Mail

If you look at the table shown above, you will find Prussian Closed Mail three times on the table.  For the first part of the decade, the fully prepaid amount was 35 cents.  But, in May 1863, the amount was reduced to 33 cents.  And, you will see a third option at the end of the table where a person could pay the postage up to Switzerland's border, but no further, for 28 cents.

We will start with a letter that illustrates the 33 cent rate to Switzerland via Prussian Closed Mail.

33-cent per 1/2 ounce rate via Prussian Closed Mail

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 reduced by 2 cents in May of 1863 in part as a response to the postal rate to Baden (a German State bordering Switzerland on the north) being reduced from 30 to 28 cents at the same time.

Mail to the Prussian system typically traveled through Belgium after a stop in England.  Mailbags would enter the Prussian mail officially at Aachen (Aix la Chapelle) or on the mobile post office between Verviers and Coeln.  This particular cover shows a boxed Aachen exchange marking that was applied once the letter was taken out of the mailbag.  

Aachen exchange mark

This letter was put in the mailbag in New York City and remained there until Aachen, even though it did transit the United Kingdom and Belgium.  This is why it was referred to as "Prussian Closed Mail."  Despite carriage in territory not served by the Prussian mails, the intermediary postal services did nothing to process the individual mail pieces. 

Both Belgium and Prussia featured highly advanced rail systems that facilitated rapid mail dispersal.  Travel to Switzerland from Aachen required transit through Prussia and Baden or through Prussia, Hessian states, and Wurttemburg.  

"12" - marking applied in New York City

Like many of the postal agreements at the time that involved the United States, a significant amount of effort was made to show how the postage was to be split between postal services.  A letter sent at the 33-cent rate via Prussian Closed Mail to Switzerland required that the US send 12 cents to Prussia.  This marking was applied using red ink, which was a message to the clerks in Aachen that the letter was considered fully paid and that the US owed Prussia twelve cents for this letter.

Some of the postage sent to Prussia was passed on to the Swiss for their costs to deliver the letter.  Another piece of that postage went to pay the Belgians and British for transit through their territories.  As for the 21 cents the United States kept, five cents paid for mail on US soil and 16 cents paid for the trip across the Atlantic Ocean.

Baden railway marking - Z 23 is the train number

Since I mentioned Baden earlier, this particular cover does a nice job of tying it all together.  A significant number of the letters via Prussian Closed Mail to Switzerland from the US traveled through Baden.  And, while Baden was part of the German Austrian Postal Union, they still maintained control of their mail system.  So, they liked to process mail that went through their territory.  A clerk on this particular train made sure to mark this letter to show that it had, in fact, gone through Baden on August 17 of 1866.

A 35 cent rate example 

That brings us to a second envelope that was mailed to Swtizerland via the Prussian Closed Mail.  This time, I get to show you a pretty cover with a 24-cent 1861 stamp on it.  The letter itself was sent from the Swiss Consulate in Philadelphia (the docket at the top right tells us this information).

35- cent per 1/2 rate via Prussian Closed Mail

This letter is particularly interesting to me because it was mailed on April 27, 1863, just days before the postal rate was going to change to 33 cents.  In fact, by the time it arrived in Aachen on May 12, the rate had changed.

Baden railway marking

On the reverse of this particular cover is a different type of railway marking for the Baden "Eisenbahn."  So, once again, a letter to Switzerland from the US took the route through this particular German State.

And one that was paid to the border only

Our next item was mailed in 1866 and it only has 28 cents of postage, which means it could only be paid up to the border between the German States and Switzerland.  This letter also exhibits the boxed Aachen marking and it traveled on a Baden railway before entering at Basel, Switzerland.

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 paid 'up 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.  

This rate was not advertised in the postal rate tables at the time, so the clerks or patrons had to be aware of other options that were not shown in those tables.

Since the letter was not fully paid to the destination, the recipient was required to pay 10 rappen (or centimes) in Swiss postage for the privilege of receiving their mail.  This Postal History Sunday illustrates a situation where some mail was sent from Switzerland to Rome and the postage was split.  So, this was certainly not unknown at the time.

French Mail to Switzerland

Double the 21 cent French Mail rate from the United States 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 here if you are curious.

Mail to Switzerland via France would travel by trans-Atlantic steamship 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, this post will provide you will provide you with that information.

border region of France and Switzerland

The rail systems in France were developing rapidly from the 1840s through the 1860s and, for most of the 1860s, 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.

The envelope shown above 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 at Geneva depending on the completion dates of some of the rail lines in the Jura mountains.

The difficulty for a postal historian who wants to figure out the route a letter took is that letters transiting France to Switzerland from the United States were not provided some of the same markings seen on Swiss/French mail.  As a result, we get fewer clues from the piece of mail to isolate the route once it was in Europe.  Instead, we are left to speculate by looking at train schedules and, perhaps, looking in a crystal ball or some tea leaves.

And now we take a quick diversion!  Someone asked me show, once again, how I display postal history.  So, below is the exhibit page I created for the letter shown above - feel free to click on it to view a larger image.

This cover 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 to cover their parts in carrying this letter.

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.

Did you follow all of that?

No?

Let's try this instead:

• 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 crossing.
  
• Britain retains 2 pence for internal rail service and the English channel crossing.
• France passes 30 centimes to Switzerland (equal to 30 rappen) for the Swiss mail service.
• France retains 70 centimes for their internal mail.

Now you're all saying - why didn't just put it this way in the first place?  The answer?  I don't know, I think it's because I like to hear myself write.

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 and they walk away with 70 centimes instead!

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" that is crossed out may well reflect some early confusion by a clerk in New York.  They might have expected the item was going to go via Prussian Closed Mail, where that "12" would be an expected credit marking.  But, once they realized it was for a double weight letter via France, they crossed it out.

Bremen or Hamburg Mail Treaty to Switzerland

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

Bremen and Hamburg were two Hanseatic cities that negotiated mail treaties with the United States including 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.  

Initially, mail packets (steamships) traveled between New York and Hamburg every four weeks , but that increased to every other week (alternating with the ships that traveled to Bremen) as we progress through the 1860s.

Once again, I share an exhibit page for those who might enjoy viewing it.

Mail from Hamburg and Bremen typically traveled through Frankfort (Hessian territory) and would go through Baden to western Switzerland and Wurttemburg to eastern Switzerland.

The different numerical markings help us figure out how the postage was shared between mail systems.  First, the blue "8" is in the German silbergroschen currency, which would translate to 19 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.  

Thurn and Taxis 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). The red marking next to the "8" is "2 fr"* which represented the amount passed to Switzerland.

* this is a weiterfranco marking, weiterfranco is a German postal term that indicates an amount of postage passed forward to the next postal service.

British Open Mail to Switzerland

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

There was no option to send a letter via the British Mail to Switzerland as a fully paid letter.  Instead, the only option was to split payment between the person sending the letter and the person receiving the letter.

In the case of British Open Mail, the US postal patron had to pay the US portion of the postage and the recipient would pay for all postage costs from the point the letter entered the British mail to the point it got to its destination.  It is interesting to note that this rate was advertised in rate tables as an option until the middle of 1857.  After that, it was not advertised, even though the postal treaty between the US and the UK provided the option for destinations like Switzerland and the Netherlands.

The open mails were especially valuable for mail that was overweight but not paid as such.  The sender of this 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 at 21 cents per half ounce, since an American contract ship took this mail across the Atlantic).

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 - eventually.

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 pay 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 a letter that had postage due.  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 for some.

The last 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. Apparently, the choice was most often made by selecting the least expensive option

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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.

 

Dutch Treat - Postal History Sunday

Another Sunday, another Postal History Sunday entry!  This time around, I am dispensing with all of the introduction stuff I seem to like to put up here and get right to it.  I hope that's okay with all of you?

Well, even if if it's not, I'm the one writing it - so that's what's happening today!

Today's question: Why do I like this cover?

A few people sent a comment that they really enjoyed learning why I found a cover with the word "Humbug" written on it to be fascinating.  This was especially true for people who were less familiar with postal history.  This makes perfect sense to me.  It's the process of exploration and discovery that is often compelling.  And, if that's the case, it becomes easier to write with some enthusiasm and bring you all along for the ride - even if you aren't sure why a person wants to collect and study old pieces of paper!

So, I asked myself the question (on your behalf) - why I am I so interested in this envelope that was mailed from New York, December 1866, to the Netherlands in January, 1867?

The short answer is this - this envelope can be likened the scavenger hunt item on the list that is unlikely to be found.  The 27-cent per 1/2 ounce prepaid postage rate using British Mail was only in effect from July of 1866 to December of 1867 - a fairly short period of time.  But, there is more to it than that.

Choices choices

One of the things that makes international mail prior to the General Postal Union so interesting to me is the different postal rates available to send mail between two locations.  Just because you could mail a letter from the United States to Holland for 27 cents per 1/2 ounce doesn't mean that this was the only option.  A person mailing a letter actually had some choices to make, and those choices could change how much it cost and who paid for those costs.

To simplify things, let's focus on how a person would send a simple letter from the US to Holland in the 1860s. I shaded the background for the rate that applies to our first cover to make it easy to see where it belongs.

Advertised Letter Mailing Options - US to the Netherlands, 1860s
	British Open	French Mail	British Mail	US direct	Bremen Hamburg	Dutch Mail
1860	yes	yes	-	-	-	-
July 1866	-	yes	yes	-	-	-
October 1866	-	yes	yes	yes	-	-
February 1867	-	yes	yes	yes	yes	-
January 1868	-	-	-	-	-	yes

When the decade opens, there were only two choices for the exchange of mail between the US Post Office and the Dutch postal system.  One used the British mail as an intermediary and the other went through the French mail.  There was no direct agreement between the US and the Netherlands at that time.  

The British mail option is often referred to by postal historians as the "open mails." If a person selected this choice, they could not prepay all of the postage.  The recipient would be responsible for everything except the US costs.  The French mail, on the other hand, would allow the sender to prepay all of the costs OR they could send the letter unpaid if they wished. 

A likely choice: French Mails

So, if a person were to go searching for old letters written in the 1860s that were sent from the US to the Netherlands, it stands to reason that the French Mail rate of 21 cents per quarter ounce would be one of the most likely to be found in this scavenger hunt.  The rate was actually in effect starting in April of 1857 and it was in force until December of 1867.  So, it was available through 80% of the 1860s.

But, being available is only part of the battle.  A service can be available, but people might not select it if it is inconvenient or if it is perceived to be too expensive.  

Well, for six and a half years (1860 to mid 1866) the only other option was to send letters via the British Open Mail, which did not provide the option to prepay all of the postage.  The costs were fairly competitive as well.  There were circumstances where each was a better deal, if a person wanted to do a little shopping.  Typically, French mail was a better deal for very light (7.5 grams or less) correspondence.

In both cases, letters had multiple opportunities to get on a ship and cross the Atlantic each week, so there wasn't much of a time incentive to use one option over the other.

What this folded letter looks like unfolded

This folded business letter, written in Dutch, is an excellent example of a simple letter sent through the French Mails.  The dateline on the letter itself tells us it was written January 24, 1863 in New York.  The earliest dated postmark on the cover is the red New York exchange marking dated January 28.  This does not mean the letter-writer waited until the 28th to get to the post office, instead this was the date of the intended departure of the ship that would carry it across the ocean.

It was a standard practice for the New York Foreign Mail Office to place an exchange marking that featured the scheduled departure date of the trans-Atlantic ship intended to carry the letter.  The 28th was a Wednesday in 1863, which was the day of the week Cunard Line ships let New York City for Queenstown, Ireland.  And, sure enough, the ship named China was to depart on that date - and if you look at the front of the cover you will see the words "per China."  

Like many letter writers of that day, this person was aware of the scheduled mail sailings that went "across the pond" (Atlantic Ocean).  So, while they wrote this letter on Saturday, the 24th, they knew they would not get it to the post office in time for the Saturday ship departures.  We can't know which day of the week they actually took this letter to the post office for certain, but it was some time after Saturday mails closed and before mails closed for the Wednesday ship departure.

This letter is a good example because it is clean, all the postmarks and dates can be read, and it illustrates for us beautifully what a letter from the US to Holland via France looked like when everything went as it should.  It even has some content I can work to interpret some day!

Another worthy choice: British Open Mail

British open mail is a topic that is worthy of its own Postal History Sunday, so I will gloss over some details with our second item because it will probably be featured when I complete an entry on that topic.

This folded letter was posted in Baltimore on May 31, 1867.  A five cent stamp was placed on the envelope to pay only the United States portion of the postage required to get it to Rotterdam, Holland.  As soon as this cover left the control of the United States' mail, it was unpaid from that point forward.  That means the Netherlands treated it as if it was an unpaid letter from... the United Kingdom.  So, they collected 55 Dutch cents from the recipient (the big dark ink scrawl is a "55" for those who want to know!).

The five cent postage stamp essentially paid to get this letter from Baltimore, to New York City and then Boston.  Once it boarded the ship named Africa, all postage costs from that point were the responsibility of the recipient.  This letter left the control of the United States Post Office as soon as it boarded the Cunard Line ship on June 5 in Boston.  

What we need to remember at this point is that some trans-Atlantic shipping lines had contracts with the US and some had contracts with the British.  If this were carried on a ship that had a contract with the United States, the sender would have been required to pay 21 cents, because the sea voyage cost 16 cents for a letter weighing no more than a half ounce.  

Once again, letter writers could use knowledge of ship sailing dates to save themselves (or their recipient) some money.  In this case, the sender's choices resulted in the recipient paying for the sea voyage.

 

At this point, I am wondering if some of you have noticed a discrepancy within this article?  Did you notice the dates I provided in the opening table for British Open Mail?  According to what I wrote there, this option was not available for mail to the Netherlands in 1867.

I guess you can't believe everything you read - nor could people in 1867, apparently!  Even though this option was not listed in the effective rate tables of the time, this cover clearly was treated just as mail via the British open mail was treated PRIOR to the July 1866 rate announcement.  The Post Office's intention was that the 27 cent rate was to replace the previous British open mail arrangement.  But, not everyone followed that logic and it seems when someone used the "old approach" everyone else just followed along with the old procedures and treated it as if nothing was wrong.

The treasure in the scavenger hunt

This brings us back to our original question - why am I so interested in this particular cover? 

Well, of course, there is a 24 cent stamp from the 1861 series on this envelope, so that plays into it.  That postage stamp and the 3 cent denomination fully pay the 27 cents required for a prepaid simple letter from the US to the Netherlands using the British mail rate effective from July 1866, to December of 1867, a total of eighteen months.

A short effective period for a postal rate is certainly going to make an item harder to find. I don't think anyone reading Postal History Sunday is going to argue with me that it would be harder to find something mailed during the effective 18 months for this postal rate versus eight years (if we only include the 1860s) for the French 21-cent mail rate.

But, we need to remember the other important factor here.  Were the competing mail options more attractive than this one?

The short answer is this - it depends on how you look at it.  And, I also need to remind you that my British Open Mail example was from May 1867.  So apparently, a person could ALSO send a letter via that option instead of paying this postage rate during its active period.  There was more competition than it might initially have seemed.

courtesy of Chip Gliedman

So, how uncommon was it for a person to select this choice over the other options they had at their disposal?  To my knowledge, there are no surviving or accessible post office records that will tell us how much a particular mail rate option might have been taken.  

But we can piece some things together.  For example, we can work backward and search for and study covers from that time period from the US to the Netherlands.  At this point, I can tell you that I have only located two examples of this postal rate being prepaid.  The other is shown above and was once in the collection of Chip Gliedman.

I tell you folks, this is the scavenger hunt item that encourages even a typically stoic individual to raise their voice above a murmur!

Stiff competition

Letter Rates - US to Netherlands

Effective Date	Treaty Rate	Unit	Mail System
Apr 1857 - Dec 1867	21 cents	quarter ounce	French Mail
Jul 1849 - Jun 1866 *	5 cents / 21 cents	half ounce	British Open
Jul 1866 - Dec 1867	27 cents	half ounce	British Mail
Oct 1866 - Dec 1867	17 cents	half ounce	US direct
Feb 1867 - Dec 1867	18 cents	half ounce	Bremen-Hamburg
Jan 1868 - Jan 1870	15 cents	half ounce	Dutch Mail

* British Open Mail was apparently available after June 1866, likely until Dec 1867.

First, we should probably consider that mail volume between the US and the Netherlands was fairly light in contrast to other European nations.  There are records in the Reports of the Postmaster General that can help confirm this.  Also, there was a reason there were mail conventions with the British, French, and Germans, and not the Dutch (until 1868).  The demand to act quickly on an agreement just wasn't there.  

Already, I think you will agree with me that finding mail to the Netherlands will be more difficult simply for that reason.

announcement in the July 1866 US Mail and Post Office Assistant

Now we need to consider that there were years where there were only two available options (French and British Open mail) to the relatively small number of people who wanted to send an overseas letter to Holland.  Postal patrons and postmasters were all used to using those two options and it was going to take some time to get them to remember and use this new 27 cent rate.

Then, we need to consider whether the 27 cent per half ounce rate provided a marked improvement over these existing rates.  If you compare cost to the mailer, it was only better than French mail for a heavier item.  And, if you preferred to make the recipient pay more of the postage, British Open Mail could be used to do that.  So, there wasn't exactly a financial reason to select this option in most cases.

Oct 1866 announcement, click to enlarge

Then, only three months after this rate was introduced, a new, cheaper rate, of 17 cents per half ounce was added for mail that was carried on US contract steamships that sailed directly to Antwerp, Belgium.  While this WAS cheaper, it relied on steamship lines that could not maintain the service.  In fact, it is probably true that finding a cover using this rate is even harder than a prepaid 27 cent rate.  However, this rate's mere existence might have been enough to raise the question regarding the cost of the British 27 cent rate.

Feb 1867 announcement, click to enlarge

Not long after that, Bremen and Hamburg mails added an 18 cent rate per half ounce.  With a longer history of reliable mail service and established trans-Atlantic sailings to both German ports, the argument of reliability was removed for a service that was less expensive.  Certainly, those who studied mail ship sailing dates could find reasons to pay a little more to shave some time off of the transit for an urgent piece of mail.  But, I am guessing that was a fraction of the customers looking to use the postal services to Holland.

And, one more consideration...

Other than the initial British Open Mail rate, all of the other rates allowed the sender to either prepay the postage or send the letter unpaid and allow the recipient to pay full postage.  This actually means it might be even more difficult to find a cover that shows the 27 cent rate prepaid than I've already argued. Why?  Because it seems to me that sending mail unpaid to the Netherlands was used more frequently than it was for other western European destinations.

As it stands, there probably aren't many examples of this postal rate being used for unpaid mail either.  Dick Winter, a recognized expert in trans-Atlantic mail, states in his Understanding Trans-Atlantic Mail, Vol II, that he has seen less than a handful of covers sent under the 27 cent rate unpaid and he was apparently unaware of any prepaid examples since he illustrated none in his excellent book.

More reason to like it

The rest of the story is tied to my long-standing search for interesting postal history items that bear the 24-cent stamp from the 1861 US postage series.  This postage stamp can be found on hundreds of covers to the United Kingdom.  It's not terribly difficult to find things sent to the German States, France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium.  I've been aware of letters to Sweden, Norway, Greece, Turkey and other European nations for quite some time.

But, it has taken a long time to find something to the Netherlands.

This makes sense if you consider the postage rates to pay for a simple letter to Holland were all less than 24 cents until this 27 cent rate came along.

In the end, I like it because I can claim success after a very long search.  Maybe that's the best reason of all.  Have a great 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.