Australia To England Postage Due Question

Hi ikeyPikey,

Nice postcard!

This is my favourite postal taxed cover (and my most troublesome).





The Royal Mail appears to treat this cover as surface-rated and yet, from the date on the cancel and the date from the letter, the cover appears to have been sent airmail.

I have read the explanation several times and I still do not understand it. Perhaps someone else can do better?

Thanks,
AndrewG

Hi,

You may be interested to know that the Tax fraction system was implimented in GB on 1st January 1966. It was one of the provisions of the Vienna UPU Congress 1964.

The foreign letter rates of member countries were to be used as the bottom number of the fraction regardless of the class of mail - surface letters, airmail letters, postcards etc.

From 1st January 1976 the postage dificiency ceased to be doubled - the surface letter rate was still used in the calculation. The fraction was again multiplied by surface letter rate. A fixed handling fee was added to the calculation. Initially it was 11p and has increased several time since.

Regards

Mike

I would like to out myself as still unsure as to why there is a denominator in this, at all.

Step #1, 5c Australian postage due I can grasp.

Step #2, penalty doubling to 10c Australian I can grasp.

Step #4, conversion to UKP (or, in this case, UKp) I can grasp.

But what is the sense of Step #3, scaling to the surface (or any other) rate?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Hi,

A postcard from Australia to England:



It appears that the $0.33 Sea Dragon underpaid the $0.50 surface postcard rate to England. The "22/50" is a bit of a puzzle. (Why not "17/50"?) The British postage due labels appear to cover an airmail sticker, which may not have been crossed out?

Any ideas?

Best wishes,
AndrewG

Here's another example of the math I'll never believe in ;)

I'm guessing that the '23' is a letter carrier route number, but that's me.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

They sent this on with, like, zero postage paid?

Australians have really earned that reputation for taking things in stride.

"No stamp? No worries, mate!"

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey



Might be the lousiest image ever printed of the Blue Lake



http://www.jenolancaves.org.au/

Edited to add: Postcard from the collection of Michael Lebbert.

Hi,

I am unsure about this Australia to England cover:



The cover was postmarked 6 OC 1969 from Bowral, Australia to Gloucestershire, England.

If I understand correctly, the five 5 cents Paterson stamps underpaid the airmail cover by 5 cents, which was 30 cents in 1969. If the postage due fee was twice 5 cents, or 10 cents, then why were the 1/1 (2x6d + 1d) postage due labels used?

Best wishes,
AndrewG

The 10/7 indicates that 10c (double deficiency) was due. The 7 indicates the minimum cost of a letter to the UK (obviously surface mail) and that would appear from the fraction that it was 7 cents at the time. On arrival in UK the fraction 10/7 would have been multiplied by the minimum letter rate to Australia to get the total of 1/1 (13d). Cannot remember off-hand the rate to OZ at the time but that is the calculation.

doing the maths it would be 9d which works with the fraction...
10/7*9 = rounded up to 13d or 1 shilling and a penny (1/1)

Thank you scotzm, I appreciate the Maths lesson.

Best wishes,
AndrewG

Hi,

A Christmas cover from Australia to Britain:



The cover was mailed from Maroochydore, Queensland on 11 OCT 1979 to Portsmouth (unable to read date). The cover is franked with the 25 cents Christmas issue from 1979 and was underpaid by 5 cents. The surface face for a regular cover was 30 cents, for a greeting card with fewer that 5 words 25 cents.

In Britain, 18p was added to pay for the postage due fee: 2p, 5p, 11p.

The cover appears to have been left unsealed.

Perhaps the greeting card had 5 or more words?

Best wishes for the Holiday season,
AndrewG

Hi ikeyPikey,

Perhaps your postcard was printed pre-WWI?

Best wishes,
AndrewG

From Australia to England,



The cover was franked with a 30c UPU 100th Anniversary issue. The stamp underpaid the 35c airmail rate. Australia Post added the T10c/35c marking.

The cover was taxed 3p with the note "3P./TO PAY F.S (sic?)".

The sender may have been confused about the rates. The airmail rate to Britain was 30c until 30 September 1974, and the 30c UPU issue was placed on sale on the 9th October 1974.

Best wishes,
AndrewG

agondocz two postage due covers show how different times had differing calculations for the postage due.
The 1974 cover show that double the deficiency (10c) was the numerator in the calculation.
The later 1979 cover shows that there was a single deficiency (5c) numerator and after the fraction calculation was done a fixed handling fee of the recipient country involved was added.

Hello scotzm,

I appreciate your pointing out the difference to me. I will see if I can find a few postage due covers from Australia.

Best wishes,
AndrewG

re the 1979 cover...
A Christmas cover from Australia to Britain:
The cover appears to have been left unsealed.
Perhaps the greeting card had 5 or more words?

The cover might well have had the correct number of words on the card and been an unsealed envelope but it fails in one respect... To qualify for the "cheap rate" the cover MUST have "CARD ONLY" clearly written on it and that cover seems to lack that.