Shanghai Local Post To U. S .postal Agency/Shanghai To USA

I don't really collect this type of covers anymore. Since I found it in one of my "junk" boxes. I'd like to share it with you. Like the cover that was posted at SCF recently requires Chinese translations, this mail was handled by the U. S. Postal Agency / Shanghai, physically located in the American Consulate in Shanghai. China did not become a member of UPU till 1920s. All outgoing mails to foreign destinations had to be handled by a foreign post office in China and nearly all foreign powers took this advantage of having a post office in China. Mails to the US were normally handled by the US Postal Agency or Imperial Japanese PO in China (IJPO). This "Guest Post Offices" in China is the reason that we find so many combination covers from China. This cover sent by an American lady missionary was not posted directly at the USPA. It was first dropped off at the Shanghai Local Post office, which was not run by the Imperial Chinese Post. but by the Shanghai Municipal Administration. What a mess when you are not a member of UPU. Note the Shanghai Local Post postmark in blue on revere. Using low value 1c stamps to make up the 5c rate is quite unusual. Too bad the lady placed this strip of 5x1c Franklin too close to the edges. What a philatelic disaster, indeed.

Many of these covers were passed over for years because it was so hard to understand them. Not just the writing but the different post offices and routes. They were turbulent years for China and finding nice covers from Treaty Ports and foreign post offices that survived in good shape are hard to come by. I had a good number of them but sold about half to finance purchases elsewhere. The rest are currently locked up. Most of them are from missionary groups.