USA-Grossbritannien

Here is a short paid letter to England.

Any letter not fully prepaid was counted as unpaid under the conditions set out by the convention. This item weighed more than 1/2 ounce and as much as 1 ounce. It required 48 cents in postage, but only 24 cents were supplied.

2 shillings were due on delivery. This went by an American Packet, so 42 cents (21 pence) was required to be returned to the US to cover postage - thus the 42 in black.

Best,

Rob

This one is not as pretty, but it illustrates the same situation as the one above - but using a British Packet.

Only 10 cents belongs to the US this time.

Rob

Indeed! It is an exhibition page in my exhibit.

Here are a few more exhibit pages for some of the items shown in other posts. Most of these are in the exhibit right now. There are a few I wish to add.

Rob

Tim,

Very glad I could help.

Ralph,

Lucky, yes. And, probably just determined more than anything. For many years, all of my collecting money went ONLY to these types of items. And, I was very good at finding things for less money because I studied the subject very carefully. Several came from the early days of ebay - that was a good time to get started on this - so very lucky that my timing was good.

The RA letter was an ebay find. The 5 times 24 cent cover was also ebay as was the letter returned to the US. I got that letter and the other letter from the same correspondence in the same ebay lot for much less than I would spend if it were in a named auction. finding such things for less money in ebay is much less likely now.

Rob

Tim,

Your question is encouraging me to finish a post on mail between the US and the United Kingdom that is similar to this one for US and France. I will post it here when it is completed. I also have one for US and Switzerland, but I need to update it.

Rob

Ralph,

I will do so.
I have not been as good at telling others about things as I should - so I will work to improve on that.

Below is a properly paid letter with 48 cents postage for the second weight class level (over 1/2 ounce up to 1 ounce). 6 cents are passed to the British post office because it was sent via an American Packet.

I wonder what I will show tomorrow?

Rob

Today we get to look at a cover that attempted to pay a "triple" rate. The weight was likely over 1 ounce and no more than 1 1/2 ounces. The sender figured that 24 x 3 = 72 cents should be enough.

Unfortunately, the rate progression was actually this:

up to 1/2 ounce - 24 cents

1/2 to 1 ounce - 48 cents

each additional ounce - 48 cents

So, anything over 1 ounce up to 2 ounces would cost 96 cents.

That means this envelope was underpaid. And anything underpaid was treated as unpaid.

As a result 4 shillings were due from the recipient.

As of April 1, 1866, the US and UK agreed that they would change the rate structure to a rate of 24 cents per 1/2 ounce. That means cases like the one above no longer happened.

This is an item that weighed 1 to 1 1/2 ounces and it cost 24 x 3 = 72 cents to mail. This change in the rates was effective until the treaty, that had been effective since the late 1840s ended on Dec 31, 1867.

I hope everyone has a great day.

Rob

Hello Ralph,

I have often wondered this as well. Unfortunately, most trans-Atlantic letters with the 24 cent stamp have had content removed and i am guessing the same is true for those coming back to the US from the UK.

The vast majority of letters were light enough that this was not an issue, only requiring the first rate - so it would take some time for the complaints to be enough to cause change.

Rob