Help With Rating On German To USA Cover 1940

The cover below was mailed Feb 13, 1940 by Air Mail (Flugpost) to New York, NY, USA. The franking is 65 Pfg.

I have a German rate table that indicates that for this time period, Foreign destination rates were 25 Pfg. for a letter up to 20 gm, and an airmail surcharge of 10 Pfg. per 20 gm.

With the assumption that the blue "5g" indicates the letter weight, I can't make the rates match with anything that makes sense. My rate table is an old one, and I have only assumed it is accurate. Is there a reliable rate table available on line somewhere?.

Can someone help with an explanation.

Thanks,
Mike

Mike,

Sorry for the delay in responding. Had to dig out the correct reference.

You are correct that the basic letter rate (<20 g) to the U.S. was 25 Pf. As to the airmail rate...

The Michel postage rate handbook for Germany includes airmail rates to 1933, but after that, it defers to reprints of the Luftpostlisten -- the books the German POs used to determine airmail rates.

Philabooks secured the rights to reprint the Luftpostlisten from 1933-1945, and I have a copy of the volume that covers Aug/Sep 1939 to the end of WWII. If Philabooks ever comes back online, I need to grab 1933-1939. If you see one for sale, you can't miss them -- the font is horrific!


Looking at 1 Feb 1940, this is what it says.

If I'm reading it correctly, the base airmail rate to New York was 40 Pf., with an additional 10 Pf. for any further routing within the U.S.

And that works with your letter -- 25 Pf. base foreign rate + 40 Pf. base airmail rate = 65 Pf.

PostmasterGS:

That nails it! Thank you!!

I was working with an old, apparently not accurate rate chart I had found in a publication.

Apparently someone entered 10 Pfg. in that chart, when it should have been 40 Pfg. They probably confused the surcharge of 10 Pfg. to continue by air within the USA, thinking it was the the base airmail rate instead of the 40 Pfg.

Mike