Help With 1800s Great Britain And Netherland Rates On Letters

Hello, everybody!

I have difficulty understanding the handwritten rates in these letters from Brazil to Netherlands.

The letters passed through England. So, how do you know what is the exchange rate due to the English and what is the Dutch rate?

Can someone help me, please?

That is 1800s (19th century), 1859 and likely 1872.

One of those 1859 letters may have been carried on the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company's 'Avon' built 1842, wrecked at Colón 1862.

Hi,

I'm not an expert on rates from Brazil. Unless someone else pipes up, I'll see what I can find.

Each of these covers has two rates on the front, one Dutch and one English. For example, I read the first cover as 70 (cents) and 1/2 (1 shilling, 2 pence) and the third as 190 (cents) and 2/6 (2 shillings, 6 pence), but I could be wrong. I'm less sure of the second one.

Jan

There are a couple of books listing the postal rates of this period, but I don't have access to them. I also couldn't find any other examples of letters from Brazil to the Netherlands. Based on examples from other countries, I would interpret the rates as follows:

First of all the exchange rate appears to be 1 pence (English) = 5 cents (Netherlands).

The first example is rated 1/2 (1 shilling 2 pence) = 70 cents Netherlands.

The second example is rated 1/3 (1 shilling 3 pence) = 75 cents Netherlands to England only (amount written at right). At this time period there was an additional charge for the remainder of the journey which appears to be 20 cents Netherlands for a total of 95 cents Netherlands (written at left).

The third example is like the second, but a double rate letter: 2/6 (2 shilling 6 pence) = 150 cents Netherlands to England only. The additional charge for the remainder of the journey appears to be 40 cents Netherlands for a total 190 cents Netherlands (written at left).

Again, I don't have any access to literature on these rates, so treat them as a guess. If anybody knows better, I am happy to be corrected.

Jan