International Postage Due

One of my latest acquisitions is this postal card (unlisted by Stanley Gibbons, Michel number P48) sent to Schenectady,New York, as part of my Great Britain postal stationery collection. It has a lot of interesting features, including a postage due stamp stuck directly over the imprinted GB stamp, and obscuring most of the postmark, so you can't really tell when it was sent. The only clues are that it's a King George V card first issued in 1921, and if that's part of the date just to the left of the stamp, then it's probably the 14th of some month between January and September (0.. something). But the thing that intrigues me most is the note and stamp for 2 cents postage due, which leads me to wonder about the collection and reimbursement for postage due money between countries, and leads to a whole slew of questions, like how was (I don't think postage due stamps are used much any more)the amount due determined? Did each country have a rate chart for each other country to determine how much postage should have been put on, and how were the revenues collected delivered to the country of origin? (and what happened during periods of hyperinflation when rates were changing almost daily?) Were there treaties between each pair of countries involved, if so there would have to have been thousands of treaties, because every country would have to have an agreement with every other country with international mail service. For instance, did Mozambique send postage due money to Liechtenstein, did Latvia send money to Nicaragua? How did the system work, and now, with seemingly nobody using postage due stamps any more, what do they do?

Postage due fees were handled under the Universal Postal Union procedures and policies since 1871. You can use an online search (search on "Universal Postal Union postage due") to dig out the details or see this link
http://www.upu.int/uploads/tx_sbdow...entionEn.pdf
And look at the section titled "Article 06-006 - Unpaid or underpaid items" (Page 16 - Volume one)
Don

Using your illustration as an example. The British Post Office noticed that the postal card rate was underpaid for transmission to the US. It was the British Post Office that applied the "T/10" marking. The marking says that 10 (gold centimes) were due from the addressee.

When the postal card reached the US, the NY post office or the exchange office applied the handcancel "New York Due 2c" which was paid when it reached the destination post office, Schenetady, NY. The NY offices translated the 10 gold centimes into 2c since 5 gold centimes equalled 1c.

At that time, each Postal Administration kept the postage due monies since it was thought in the long run, everything between Postal Administrations would basically wash out.

The agreement struck with the UPU was that a common currency would be a theoretical 'gold centime'. There was flexibility as to how the gold centimes could be calculated back to the recipient currency and the agreement changed from time-to-time.

On 13 June, 1921 the postcard rate to the US increased from 1d to 1½d. The card must have been posted after this (and more than two weeks after, a grace period usually applied at the time of postage increases).

In the UK, the hexagonal T/10/L has been applied in London. This marking indicates the double-deficiency of 1d (2 x the ½d short-payment) in centimes at the rate of 1d = 5 centimes.

In the US, the 10 centimes has been converted to $US at the rate of 5 centimes = 1 cent. The 2c postage due completes the chain of action.


You have raised the excellent question of how the work of transmitting a letter paid for in, say, Australia via London to Iceland is paid for.

I have a copy of "The Universal Postal Union" by G A Codding Jnr, 1964 and it speaks of the UPU operating as a clearing house where necessary but generally countries had bilateral agreements with one another.

I will find out more and report back.