Great Britain 1/ 3d What?

This looks like it might be meter mail, but I don't know. I also tried to figure out the date. It looked like November 1953. Elizabeth would have been crowned but they were still using George meter mail? Too soon for her own mail?? And lastly the backstamp in Mirror Image? There is nothing on the inside of the envelope. Does anyone know what is going on here. It sure is nice to look at but I have no idea what I am looking at. Anyone?? Thanks Jeff

March 11, 1953. I agree about the meter i.d.

So Elizabeth had not yet been crowned. Ok I feel better about that. Thanks Cjd

Jeff, you have such great covers !!

Alex Cowan & Sons Ltd were makers of fine papers. Your cover emanates from their London Offices which is situated about here.....

http://www.portcities.org.uk/london...kground.html

....while their Paper Mills were in Scotland, here...



[Sorry for small pic, it wouldn't enlarge].

They were making paper from the Mid-18th Century and at one time produced banknotes. The Mills closed in 2005 and were demolished. If the Cowan Family were there until the end, I have not yet been able to ascertain.

Love these little stories from covers. I wonder if the recipient of the letter is still making paper today ?

Londonbus1....off on a Boston hunt !

Nice story Lb !

It is interesting to note, the double
impression on the back of the cover.

This proves that the cover was inserted for the 1/- value
then again for the threppeny.
I always wondered about that,
I have seen covers with 1d printed six times.

Jeff, The coronation date doesn't really matter. She became Queen when King George died in 1952. The Wilding definitive set with her portrait started to appear in December 1952.

thanks everyone for comments and research - I love to learn Did anyone figure out the strike on the front left? I got 1953 but that was it.

Rod (or anyone that understood it)- help me with your language "This proves that the cover was inserted for the 1/- value
then again for the threppeny." INSERTED?

I am not the full bottle here,
but the impressions you see are made by
a "franking machine"

If a business used lots of mail, then the Post Office
could issued privately used franking machines.

Pre paid mail up to a certain value say 10GBP
The machines in the main were made by "Pitney Bowes"
and you often see a PB on the meter impression.

One would insert the cover, press the buttons
to set the meter value stamp, in this case
once for a shilling then for threepence.

The amount used would be deducted from the 10 pounds

Not very eloquent explanation
hope you get the drift.

Obviously the 1/3d was not an option on that
particular meter machine.

I actually operated one of those infernal machines years ago, but I just was not registering that that is what you were referring to. Once you explained, it all fell into place and I remembered. And of course that is just what happened, I am sure. Thanks for the memories - Jeff

ack: r ingraham rcsd

Ah! good,
I have never seen one of the PB machines,
nor read where anyone has ever used one!

Perhaps you can write and tell us about it ?

That certainly is older than the one that I used, mine was probably 1985 vintage at a Wonder Bread factory. I worked in the office and once you set the postage rate, it claimed you could run a whole stack through (electronically, one at a time of course), but you would never get more that 5 or 6 before it jammed. That Pitney Bowes machine looks a lot older that 1985 (probably jammed less too). It was alot like the first printers that decided to jam every ten minutes, but claimed you could print 12 pages per minute (they never mentioned that it would only work for one minute before jamming).