Samoa 1918 Letter Correct Postage?

Hello everyone. I have this 1918 Samoa Registered letter posted to Europe. The postage on the letter is 1 shilling and 10 pence. Can anyone tell me if this is correct? Kind regards. Johan.

Johan, it's a pity the cover is cut at one side, but it's very interesting.

6d will probably have covered the correct international letter postage with 1/- for the registration fee, so it's overfranked by 2d on this basis. I don't know whether or not this was the correct postage but it seems about right, attested by the fact that it arrived at its destination without tax, albeit after 3 months. It was posted 8th February 1918, San Francisco transit stamp dated 12 March 1918 (that's a sloooow steamer!), New York transit stamps dated 18 March 1918 and Berne receiving stamps 2 May 1918. I assume the delay between New York and Berne will have been as a result of WW1.

The cover itself looks philatelic, but this shouldn't detract and it should write up nicely, with a good story behind it. Why did it take a month to cross the Pacific Ocean? Which vessels did it take on its journey? That information may be readily available from port records or marine postal historians.

Could the clipped corner indicate that this letter was fumigated for influenza?

Consider the letter is mailed in early 1918 when influenza is running rampant and addressed to go half way around the world. Somewhere in its journey the corner is generously clipped to aid in fumigation - and not marked as such, unfortunately. (It is known that mail from Hawaii was corner-clipped and fumigated in 1899-1900 due to plague.) When the recipient got the letter, the clipped corner made it easy to slit the rest of the way across the bottom edge. Most recipients open mail at the top, which makes me believe the corner was clipped some time before the letter arrived. And a pause for fumigation may possibly explain some of the delay. Just a theory - support it or tear it apart as you like.

Thank you for your reactions. Some really good thoughts. First of all I have to correct myself. The postage is 1 shilling and 12 pence. I also think that Samoa simply was not a frequently visited harbor and therefore it took longer than you would suspect. I also think that WW 1 or its aftermath is resposible for some delays. I have letters from 1917 from Netherlands Indies to the Netherlands which took 5 months(the other way around across the world, but still) Influenza fears might also explain the missing corner although at that moment Samoa was not suffering from the Spanish flue, that started in December 1918 when an New Zealand ship brought the flue to Samoa.

I did not assume where a possible fumigation took place, whether Samoa, the US, Europe or points in between. I lost 3 direct ancestors to the lesser outbreaks of flu in early 1916.

John, this is an interesting and unexpected twist to the story. A well-researched write-up of a single letter could provide a nice article in a stamp publication!

When writing it up... unless I am missing something... the postage stamps add up to 13d which, in old money, was 1/1 (one shilling and 1 penny)

As for the cut corner... normally slits would have been enough and, as the registered envelopes frequently contained valuable items, a cut corner would not be applicable or appropriate.

I made it two bob - that's a 1s red, I think.

Hello scotzm, The orange stamp on the bottom right is a 1 shilling stamp. So we have 1 shilling and 12 pence or as I understand, you can also say 2 shilling.

The cut corner is free to interpretation. It might be to fumigate, or quit simply to open the letter.

If it is for fumigating, I do not think that it being a registered letter matters. At that moment in time controling a pandemic flu situation was probably more important than the content of a registered letter.

Having said that, it would make sence, if the person who send a registered letter was told about the fumigation at the post office. And maybe a closing of the cut corner with a label would also make sense. But that a whole new line of thought.

By the way excuse me for my English it is a bit rusty.