basically, this is the universal symbol for postage due, used throughout all UPU signatory countries to indicate money that needs to be paid for a short-paid mailing
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy.. 05 Aug 2019 08:12:26pm
re: South African letter underpaid
Often there will be a written fraction
to show the receiving nation what percentage
of their current charge they should charge,
since they usually would have diverse
monetary systems.
However in this case, the sending postal
official used a neat hand stamp to show the charge
to be collected.
What I wonder about is that the SA official did
the conversion from SA cents
(100 cents to a Kruger Rand) tp UK pence
(240d to the pound) since the cover was mailed
in '67, six years after SA made its currency change.
Perhaps so many South Africans made the mistake
of using a stamp intended for domestic mail that
they utilised what I believe was a rubber
hand stamp left over from the pre-independence days. (1961)
That is if my vision is good today.
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".... You may think you understood what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you think you heard is not what I thought I meant. .... "
Actually more like 2,200,000 South African cents to the Kruger Rand at today's rate
A Kruger Rand is 1oz of pure gold, the South African monetary unit is the rand which is made out of nickel-plated copper and at the current exchange rate it is worth about 6 cents US.
When South Africa changed currency in 1961 from £sd to rand and cents, simply assigning R2 to £1 made for an easy conversion. Given that there were 20 shillings to the £, and 12 pence to the shilling, then:
R1 = 10s
10c = 1s
10c = 12d
5c = 6d
2 1/2c = 3d
etc.
By 1967 when the cover was mailed, it was likely that the currencies had diverged (my memory is a little rusty), but for a number of years, before sanctions took their toll, the ZAR (South African rand) was much stronger than both the British Pound and the US$ - oh how the mighty have fallen.
Clive
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy.. 19 Aug 2019 01:52:01pm
re: South African letter underpaid
Thanks for adding that Clive, of course as an ounce
of pure gold the Kruger Rand is today unimaginably
valuable.
1 KR is over $1500.00 (US) unless the stock market
tumbles again this week as fears of a recession
prance along the financial horizon.
And the poor SA Rand is running around seven to the
US dollar
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".... You may think you understood what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you think you heard is not what I thought I meant. .... "
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