Postage Meter Cover, Certified Mail, Rate Make-Up

Seeking help on this cover franked with three separate postage meter imprints (August 27, 1969) totaling .51¢ postage. Certified mail for the time period involved was .30¢ and first class postage was .06¢. That accounts for .36¢ in postage leaving .15¢ unaccounted for. Return receipt for this time period was .15¢, but there is no related marking requesting this service.

If a triple weight cover (.06¢ x 3 = .18¢ + .30¢) that still leaves .03¢ unaccounted for.

Because a postage meter was used I'm not counting as a possibility an over payment due to convenience.

Dave

Sorry, forgot to inform that there are no markings on the reverse.

Dave

I agree with the general principle to keep rate interpretations simple, and that most covers have the proper rate.

That said, I suspect the missing 0.15 is indeed the return receipt fee and that the return card was paper-clipped to the envelope. The presence of the return card "spoke" for the request without having the envelope formally marked. The township also likely mailed a stack of these that day.

John, there are two "pin holes" angled in the return address portion of the cover. One is towards the bottom left of the "T" in Township and the other is just above the "O" of OF in the third line "BOARD OF SUPERVISORS". Possibly the return card was attached at this point? Here's a scan of the reverse which shows the "pin holes" more apparent.

Dave

Another explanation for the 15c Return Receipt fee sans Return Receipt is that the clerk always used 51c for Certified Mail, whether/not there was a Return Receipt attached, because they had been taught how to apply 51c, not when/why/not.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey