Postage Due From A Foreign County

Got this top part of an envelope the other day that had been mailed from Hungary (I think). Did someone at the post office goof up and added more postage or did they have somebody that knew what the sending country charged and decided it was not enough.

The latter.

I don't have the rates memorized, but someone at the P.O. at the time knew that 7 cents was still due and so on delivery the recipient had to pay the additional 7 cents Postage Due.

Although the rubber stamp advising that 7 cents postage due was applied in Chicago, the 5 cent and 2 cent postage due stamps look suspect (like they were added later) as the cancellations don't look right.

Postage due stamps on a single piece of mail would have normally have had a cancellation affixed by utilizing a round handstamp. The fact that the two postage due stamps have a machine cancel that DOES NOT extend onto the cover in any way, suggests to me that the postage due stamps were added later, perhaps to illustrate the postage due amount required.

I just took it to be a couple of postage dues from a sheet the clerk had used a roller cancel on to tear off and slap down onto this (and probably several other) envelopes.

But I totally get what you're saying also, wt1.

It is quite common to find previously-cancelled postage due stamps from this period. They were, in fact, roller-cancelled in advance to save time and counting. Perfectly normal. Postage dues also exist with many precancels, I can't explain why this was done -- seems like a waste of time.

What klange says is correct, that was a common practice in US post offices - precanceling sheets of postage due with a roller cancel.

Hold on, or we'll confuse everyone. Using a "roller cancel" on a sheet of postage dues (or anything else) does not make "precancels" out of them. Yes, they are "pre-cancelled" in the sense of pre[viously] cancelled, but a precancel is a very specific thing.

I still don't get the original concept. Incoming international mail was double checked somehow in the US to make sure that it had enough original postage on it? Or were there other fees associated with incoming international mail?

Sorry for the confusion - Doug222 is correct, I did not mean the "Precancel" as those stamps produced with the horizontal bars and city, state, or rate. I meant cancelled in advance of sticking on the envelope.

As for the postage due charge, the T was applied in Hungary, being the international symbol for underpaid mail. The orange scribbling seams to indicate the amount short, but is unclear. On arrival to the US, the calculated charge for the receiver was applied.

So the T indicates short postage from Hungary but instead of routing the letter back to the sender for insufficient postage they forwarded on to the U.S.. Then the U.S. guys added their 7c and politely asked to be paid to get it to the receiver. From a money standpoint does the Hungary P.O. get any of the 7c or does the money split 50/50? I would think that the money Hungary charged stayed in Hungary and the U.S. money stayed with the USPS.

Bee See

I have seen plenty of true Town and Type precancels as well on postage dues and wondered why. How were they affixed. Was it on the office end or did the postman stick them on the envelope when he got the money as proof of payment.

The deficiency of postage was calculated in french currency, centimes, and , in most cases, double the deficiency was collected by the delivering postal administration. According to this, the deficiency was the equivalent of $US3 1/2 c, doubled to 7c in the postage due adhesives.

I don't like postage due covers where the dues aren't tied. I have a lovely Aussie cover, unstamped but cancelled Wee Waa 12NO45 with a clear 5d deficiency and a pen-cancelled 5d due affixed. All looks fine until you discover that the 5d value was not issued until 16 December 1948!

One of the functions of the Universal Postal Union is to sort out all the reimbursement schemes and shared costs of delivery and compatible insurance and registration rates, and subjects like that. The system has worked reasonably well for well over a century.

This is a good time to remind the Members that you are not particularly safe using "Registration" to cover stamp shipments, especially in view of the cost. The maximum reimbursement for Registration is about U.S. $45, versus a cost over $10. You are "betting" that about 1 out of 4 shipments will be lost, plus the registration markings confirm to criminals that there's likely something valuable inside.

Sort of a postal "Kick Me" sign.

A combination of Registration + Insurance works much differently, and can save you money while providing full protection, but you can only use that combination to a United States address, not to foreign countries.