Commercial Postage Due Penalty Fee Of 5 Cents During July 1-31, 1958 So-Called 'Plus A Nickel' Cover

During a 31 day period the USPOD assessed a five cent penalty fee for any domestic mail matter which was postage due in addition to the amount short paid. Previously there were times other penalty fees were assessed on postage due matter in addition to the amount short paid, but those penalty fees lasted years and example not uncommon.

If you have such a July 1958 cover with the assessed five cent penalty fee (plus a nickel), show it here please for all to enjoy. Also as they are rare modern postal history if you have an illustration of such a cover or covers, those posts would be a welcome addition to this tread too.

Below is commercial mailing of a two ounce first class letter but with only one ounce paid (3 cents) sent July 29, 1958. The local (within the same city) recipient refused the item as not willing to pay the postage due of 3 cent plus the 5 cent penalty for a total of 8 cents. This is the likely reason one set of 3 and 5 cent postage dues were marked void. A second set was attached when the postage due was successfully collected on 8-1-1958 from the sender.

Of the known, potentially a few dozen (two but not three), examples of covers with this five cent postage due fee, this is the only one I have recorded for which the fee was correctly assessed in July but collected in August, when domestic mail then was no longer subject to the five cent penalty fee in addition to postage due if short paid. This is my latest addition to my specialized small collection of such 'plus a nickel' mail matter.

Also, on August 1, 1958 the first class rate was raised to 4 cents as was the addition ounce rate. Should the second postage due been 4 cents plus a nickel?

No. The date of mailing postage paid rate is honored for first class. First class mail pay for both the sending and if necessary, the return of the first class matter. Thus the return was "free" for first class. This did not apply to other classes of mail where there was an additional charge for either forwarding or return.

My examples of such a rate change return involve 3rd Class matter (mostly permit mail) sent on or before April 14, 1925 but were returned to sender on or after April 15, 1925. The 14th was the last day of the 1 cent rate and the 15th the first day of the 1.5 cent rate. There are examples of this one rate out, another rate back collection of postage due in bulk stacks with the top piece have all of the dues and often the math calculation to arrive at the total. Clorox (bleach) Company items made it into collectors hands in some quantity both at the 1 and 1.5 cent rates with a few that spanned the 4-15-1925 rate change. They are found with the dues of the day affixed, which included the Parcel Post Postage Due stamps, normally the 25 cent (JQ-5). I have at least one each of the three types of returns, 1+1, 1+1.5 and 1.5+1.5 with the amount due paid in part by a JQ-5.

I believe similar cross rate change covers exist for the subsequent third class rate changes but since those are after the PPPD periods, I do not track them.

Given your user name I will expand a bit even though you indicated elsewhere your PD interest is with the final set issued beginning in 1959.

The JQ-5 is the most difficult to find Parcel Post Postage Due stamp of the five to be found properly on cover, tag or piece. The next difficult, the 10 cent (JQ-4) lists on cover at $650.00 with the JQ-5 having a dash, "--" as the price. Several decades ago after an article I wrote was published, Scott stopped listing the price as $750 and went to the dash. The JQ-5 usages are quite scarce and vary widely, with single usage no more common than usages with multiple copies resulting in generally one of a kind usage for each example. In short, the usages are not fungible. There are several covers incoming from Hungary I will use as an illustration, one with the largest number of JQ-5s on cover, the other has one less and as such are quite different. A third has less than half the amount at three if memory serves.

Regarding the article mentioned above, after describing the diverse and non-fungible then known JQ-5 covers, I offered up one question, "The catalog price listed is for which cover?"

[As an aside, I too have been searching for a J88 usages. ]

Edited for strikeout.

The information I glean from this forum just completely astounds me. Thanks, parcelpostguy for this listing. The information was enlightening.