Show Us Your Oldest Stamped Or Stampless Cover.

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Another cover 1854

Oops will pos again

St.Catherines-West 1854

Two Free Rate Covers

Sorry for some of the earlier posts,just getting to know the software and my new scanner.

Often wondered what free rate cover was whizard...Soooooo, what is it...

Doing a great job whizard...Keep them coming.

Mail to a member of Parliament needed no postage,I think that is still the case today.

Hi Whizard
Your response with respect to FREE mail omitted some important features. I have reproduced below Section 38 of the Post Office Act 0f 1867 which was enacted April 1, 1868

FRANKING AND FREE MAIL MATTER.

Certain Letters and other mailable matter to be free of Postage
All letters and other mailable matter addressed to or sent by the Governor or sent to or by any department of the Government at the seat of Government, shall be free of Canada pottage under such regulations as may from time to time be made in that respect by the Governor in Council ;

Senate and House of Commons
Letters and other mailable matter addressed to or sent by the Speaker or Chief Clerk of the Senate or of the House of Commons, or to or by any Member of either House at the Seat of Government, during any Session of Parliament, or addressed to any of the members or Officers in this section mentioned, at the seat of Government as aforesaid, during the ten days next before the meeting of Parliament, shall be free of postage ;

The same
All public documents and printed papers may be sent by the Speaker or Chief Clerk of the Senate or of the House of Commons, to any Member of either House, during the recess of Parliament, free of postage ;

Limitation
The privilege of free transmission as above given in this section shall apply only to mail matter passing between the seat of Government and places in Canada.

Parliamentary papers
Members of either the Senate or House of Commons of: Canada may, during the recess of Parliament, send by Mail free of Postage, all papers printed by order of either House.

Post Office letters, etc
The Postmaster General may prescribe the conditions and circumstances under which letters, accounts and papers, relating solely to the business of the Post Office, and addressed to or sent by some officer thereof, shall be free from Canada Postage ;

Petition, &c., to Local Legislatures
Petitions and Addresses to either of the Provincial Legislatures of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick or Nova Scotia, or to any Branch thereof, and also Votes and Proceedings and other papers printed by order of any such Legislatures or any Branch thereof, during any Session thereof, may be sent free of postage under such regulations as the Postmaster General may prescribe.

The full text of the Act is available at http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Post_...ce_Act,_1867

GJP

gportch....Very interesting information..A lot of it, but interesting....Thanks for that.

By the way whizard...Nice covers.

My oldest postal item: Stampless folded letter, sent from Barcelona to Tarrega (Central Catalonia) on May 18th 1763. Not specially rare or old; since Barcelona's oldest known postmark is from 1717.

WOW...Cursus...That is a neat cover...I am impressed, and the date 1763...

Where would you get such a cover from anyway....???

who wrote 1763 on it?

I have some stampless covers up to the 1870's , why do they have handstamps and not postage stamps?

I got it from a Barcelona auction house. In fact, it's nothing that special. a 1717 wrapper was at auction last week (for a 300 € starting price!).
The date was pencil written, I guess, by the auctioner or a previous owner.The letter is complete and bears the actual sending date: "May 18th 1763".
We are used to very old things, Catalonia is a 1100 years old country. Our oldest city dates from 776 B.C. and my city (Barcelona) was founded just in 10 B.C.
So,what's a 250 years old letter? A too new item!
Anyway, there are many British and French older potsmarks.