Postage Paid - Port Paye Hand Stamps - Question

I have several of these covers where the postage on them was less that the current international rates. These date from the 1970s - 1980s. Typically the covers have a bilingual hand stamp Postage Paid - Port Paye.

I also have some postage due cards sent to the senders asking for more postage to be paid - an honour system.

Any on line literature source on this topic would be most appreciated. I cannot find one.

A few questions -

1) Was a postage due request always sent to the sender if there was a return address. Some of my covers do not have this.

2) When did the system start and end (if it did)

3) Who decided weather to charge or not

4) Did all post Offices have the option to do this.

AQ

Are you asking for what was done in Great Britain?

Hi Anthraquinone, and welcome to this forum. Could you maybe scan and show us an example of what you are talking about?

Peter

Welcome to the forum Anthraquinone (this IS a mouthful!)
I'm not sure what sort of item you are talking about (Peter's right, we like pictures), but could it be something like this?



A tourist postal stamp. Sold to Scandanavian tourists and good only to destinations in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.
This web site will tell you tons more than I can.

http://www.stampcollectingblog.com/...e-stamps.php

This sort of thing which was addressed to the UK





The postage rate to the UK in 1984 was 64 cents and the Canadian domestic rate 32 cents. There is only the 32 cent stamp on the cover However this cover was hand stamped PORT PAYE ie paid to destination and not surcharged in any way.

There are many variations of this type hand stamp. I am looking for info as to how, when & why etc. this system operated. please see my original post

AQ

Interesting. But we still would love to see the whole cover, especially the addressee and the senders address. This is not because we are nosy, but that info may tell us something. Like maybe this was a special rate for military personnel or something? If you can give us another scan please include the back of the cover, or let us know if there is a cancel there or not!

Peter

We saw a thread about postage due cards left with senders not too long ago. I'm having a dickens of a time finding it, though. The OP was Canadian, I remember.

Peter OK here is the rest of the cover but it will not add any more information. It is one of many although with an unusual hand stamp most are much smaller. These covers are not uncommon. The POSTAGE PAID / PORT PAYE system was used in Canada from the mid to late 70 for at least 10 years.



The only common theme is that they are all addressed abroad and underpaid. With or without return addresses. You can see many others on ebay. Some covers have these type of hand stamps and also a postage due marking. It is confusing.

For a system that was quite widely used over a reasonable long period information about is is proving hard to find.

AQ

Try this out ...

http://www.fundystampclub.ca/dues/P...ge_dues.html

Thanks. I will send them an email. I am finding this quest frustrating as I am not getting far but you never know something may turn up.