Victoria To USA

Interesting cover. 1898. Front and back shown.

I don't understand it myself... Why the two different due markings, one for two cents, one for five? Why are the due stamps cancelled 'forwarded'? It certainly doesn't look like it'd been forwarded, with the Victoria origin cancel, the SF transit and then the Lafayette arrival. If the first due marking (US charge to collect 2 cents) were actually a collect 2 pence, that might have translated into five cents on the US side, but the marking doesn't say pence...

That is a nice cover. The T is for taxed at a 5 centime rate. I can't tell you what the exchange rate was at the time. I'm not sure why they marked the PD stamps forwarded but it's not unusual.

So perhaps a postal clerk (or the carrier) in Lafayette misread the 5 centimes as 5 cents and charged that to the recipient.

from the web,

Unpaid or short paid international letters and post cards were liable to a charge equal to double the amount of the deficient postage, to be paid by the addressee. The country of origin applied a "T" (tax) mark on the underpaid correspondence with the amount due in UPU gold centimes.

UPU Monetary Unit

(The UPU monetary unit was the gold franc of 100 centimes of a weight of 10/31 of a gramme and of a fineness of 0.900. The gold franc was a notional currency. No country actually minted the UPU franc. Nations converted their currencies to gold francs based on the definition above.)

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