Stampless Covers, Any Experts?

Thanks Nigel, Noocassel, penniblackie.
Interesting stuff.

Letter asking for money, how original nothing changes much.

One of the first letters that is easy reading for its age, the sender is obviously very well educated, and the request for a £25 advance, suggests the family had means.

The Macadams were a large family at Kilmarnock from what I can see,
I wish I could translate the sender's Christian name..........

manuscript is probably 1 shilling 2 pence postage. The handstamp is the extra 1/2 pence for the Scottish road tax.

See this site for more info on the Scottish road tax:
-/webgil/Adh.html

Thanks for the link. It seems that this is an unpaid letter since it was stamped in black instead of red. May be worth looking for the rarer duty stamps. Apart from the books mentioned in the link, I don't think there is much literature into these.

Yes this is what I meant above. Apologies for any confusion

Hi chipg and Bobby,

Yes, that makes sense, thanks.

Very interesting thread on "stampless covers". My late dad was very keen on stampless letters from New Brunswick (Province) Canada and he always wrote a piece of History on each one - Congrats on this thread !!
René

Notes: In the letter, the author refers to "Air". Air and Airshire was common spelling in those days, as opposed to Ayrshire.

The Farmer's Magazine 1838
Castlehill was a large estate which may explain why both Ballantines and Macadams were addressed there

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As an aside.........from the Farmers Magazine 1838

No wonder the "Penny Postage" was such a marvelous introduction in 1840, look at the cost of rail from Reading to London (if I read it correctly)
(The average weekly wage in 1838 was circa 12 shillings)

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This I do not understand "coaches" ? "inside and out" ?
anyone help here?

It seems a coach could only carry 3-4 inside? whilst 8 outside?

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Very interesting info Rod!

The inside and outside prices would be for sitting inside the coach or outside in the rain.

Hi Rod,

I guess it could be, for example, four passengers inside side by side in pairs facing each other, up to six on the roof with the luggage, one next to the coachman and one at the back.

Thanks Nigel,
comes as a surprise, always thought they configured 6 inside.
6 on top ! Yikes, does not sound pleasant.

I looked at the GB coaches set in 1984 not look like they could carry such numbers.

Sundry images of coaches, Australia and GB

Click image for full screen.

Looking at pictures, I see there were sometimes three passengers sitting outside at the front of the coach, with one sitting next to the coachman, and two in a row of seats behind them.

On a mail coach, there would be a guard sitting outside high up at the back protecting the mail.

I wonder how the prices compared for sitting inside and inside?

In a quirk of spelling, we also note, Buenos Ayres is now Buenos Aires.

There are some pre-stamp covers that can have some good value when they are to and from exotic places or very famous people or have really interesting supplemental markings but from what I have seen about 95 percent do not seem to be very sought after. I am not sure of the reason but perhaps it is because they do not have stamps and the hobby is very stamp oriented - even among the majority of postal history collectors. Personally, I like the pre-stamp letters, especially the very early ones and ones with great letters inside (not boring business related letters or letters that natter on about Auntie Jane's aches and pains and the like. Juicy letters are quite hard to find though.

Kimo, I think most early covers to exotic places will fetch a premium. A penny black cover sent to croatia is currently being sold by SG for 32000 pounds. If that same cover was used internally, it would be less than 400 pounds.

Hi Kimo,
I agree with your conclusion but I always feel guilty when reading someone else's personal letters when I am sure that they never meant them to be public. Many of the letter's that were saved for years were those which contained some very meaningful personal content.

As a young collector, I dug thorough my family records stashed in the attic. While I found some great stamps and covers, I also uncovered a hidden family secret which then caused a lot of heartbreak.

I assume that some folks might 'spin in their grave' knowing that some of their most personal thoughts and feeling are being read by strangers. Even worse is when we post them in a public forum like this one; imagine how we would feel if the most personal letter we ever wrote were to be publicly published. Yikes!
Don