Austrian 1922 Postcard/Cancellation Question.

Before I ask my question, I would like to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year.

My question is about this postcard. The postcard is posted on the 04.08.1922. with stamps on the front. The 15 kronen stamp would be the right postage. Then there is the 2 kronen greyblue stamp with the diagonal placed cancellation Graz 4. Question 1: Is there a valid Postal reason for this stamp to be on this postcard? Question 2: What type of cancel is the graz 4 cancel. Thanks for your thoughts. Kind regards, Johan.

Johan, it is a strange cancellation, almost like a pre-cancel. It clearly had postal validity because the card has passed through the postal system. There's nothing in any of my catalogues about Austrian pre-cancels. Maybe cross-post this in the "pre-cancels" section of this forum?

Does it say Graz or Crazy

A very nice card.

The Deutsch-Oesterreich stamp was only valid up to 31st July 1922 and it appears that the card may have been posted in August so maybe the 2 kronen stamp was no longer valid.

Maybe it was applied to the stamp prior to sale back in 1921 when 2 kronen was a valid postcard rate?

As you suggested this could have been a precancel or an indication that the stamp was now invalid.

Also 17 kronen seems a strange rate for the postcard.

I don't have the details of the postcard rates but according to Higgins and Gage reply cards were issued for 5+5, 12½+12½, 15+15 & 50+50 kronen during 1922 (and then again later in 1922 with higher rates as inflation kicked in faster and faster).

I'd guess that 15 kronen was the international postcard rate for this card.

Here are dates and rates for just local postcards in 1922. At a guess I'd say the 2 kronen stamp may have been a local surcharge to keep pace with the increasing postal rates which were just beginning to rise steeply...soon to be 50K three weeks after the date of the postcard shown.

This is an international card to France.