12c Prexie Solo Airmail To Guatemala

I am interested to understand the postage rate on this cover. 12¢ is an odd number. I think the normal airmail rate for this route was 10¢ in 1943. Is this an overpayment? As this is a 1st flight cover, is it considered a "philatelic" cover and not quite as collectible as a prexie solo cover?

"As this is a 1st flight cover, is it considered a "philatelic" cover and not quite as collectible as a prexie solo cover?"
I would say yes/

As with all generalities, there are exceptions. The 10 cent Prexie Coil shows on first flight covers to Canada with the correct rate paid for only that part of the fight to Europe. Those few covers sell for the 10 cent coil solo price, not a simple FF cover. Also the FF was different from all other flights due to the fact the mail volume to too great to be handled at a small airport and this one fight was rerouted to one different town to handle the cover volume. See one of my posts here: https://goscf.com/t/82510 specifically he Botwood item.

As to the correctness of a solo 12 cent rate for your cover, I am not near my required publication currently. Not to mention that US foreign airmail rates were not the simplest during WWII. Perhaps someone can chime in with the rating possibilities including possible convenience underpayment. While covers such as your can be prepared by collectors, collectors were also directed to send in money and the airline handling the route would provide and affix the proper postage.

Sometimes a philatelic connection is the only way certain items provably exist. My favorite example is US helicopter transit from point a to a large airport for continued airmail service. No special normal and routine postal marking identify such except the first flight marking. Yes HPO markings occur but for a Highway, not Helicopter, Post Office.

My last observation on the subject is to point out that commercial mail as opposed to philatelic mail often can be carrier on such "firsts" since the routes are in place for commercial mail every subsequent trip after the first that commercial mailers can be aware in advance of the new likely more speedy route as well as the clerks handling the commercial mail.

Edit: For eyeonwall, check out the link. You did not post on it so I am not able to be certain you ever saw it. Worth a look.

The 10 Prexie coil solo is exceedingly difficult on any cover, so if yo want one you may have to settle for a philatelic cover. The subject at hand here is te 12c Prexie, which is not all that difficult to get as a double weight domestic air mail cover, so no need to settle for a philatelic cover.

I would argue strongly that this is no more philatelic than any other piece of mail that was carried on a new official postal route in the first mail bag of mail actually carried. While there are some souvenir flight covers that were created to commemorate events or one-time service, the great majority of first flight covers, including this one, were actual properly paid mail carried on real and official mail routes. This particular one was carried on US Postal Foreign Air Mail Route #5 that began its regular mail service between New Orleans, Louisiana and Guatemala City, Guatemala on June 13, 1943. The contract mail carrier to whom the US Post Office awarded the Foreign Air Mail Contract for this permanent, official US postal route was Pan American Airways and this inaugural carriage of real mail is listed in the American Air Mail Catalogue as flight number FAM 5-150. This piece of mail was prepared by Pan Am itself and not a collector and as further evidence this was real mail it was censored by the US. Since Pan Am was the official carrier of air mail between the US and Guatemala I can only assume they knew what the correct amount of postage was for a letter carried by air mail at that point in time.

"as further evidence this was real mail it was censored by the US"
Not remotely proof it wasn't philatelic. If they didn't check philatelic mail a spy could have exploited that.

What percentage of WW 2 era First Day Covers are censored? What percentage of WW 2 patriotic event celebration covers are censored? Or in airmail, what percentage of aviation anniversary event covers are censored? My point is that the cover shown actually went through the official mail channels with the correct postage and the US government's official censors felt that they needed to censor this and other covers that were sent on this route. At the time, there was nothing special about the prexie stamps - they were just plain ordinary definitives and were not even regular airmail stamps or some kind of commemorative stamps or some old and very outdated stamps that were still valid but long out of general use that someone who may have wanted something prettier to look at or be something more 'philatelic' to use.

Another point is if this were intended as a philatelic creation type cover, why would they use just a single 12-cent stamp instead of a plate block of four 3 cent prexies, or a larger plate block of six 2-cent ones or even a giant block of twelve one-cent ones that would have fit on such a legal size envelope?

According to "US International Postal Rates, 1872-1996" by Wawrukiewicz and Beecher, the airmail rate (FAM from Brownsville) to Guatemala was indeed 12 cents per ½ ounce from 1 Dec 1937 to 31 Mar 1945.

Jan

Interesting points Kimo! Also parcel guy from you comment then you agree commercial mail can in theory have a cachet on it? I was told the only mail on these are sent to a special location for applying the cachet. So no other mail would be on this flight with a cachet.