Found an interesting cover mailed from the UN around Christmas, or less than three months after cessation of hositilites in the Second Kashmir War.
UN postal rates are identical to those of their host countries, be it US, Austria, or Switzerland, so this cover is properly franked with Scott 149 and correctly pays the international airmail rate in place from 1946 through 1975.
A December 24 receiving cancel graces the reverse showing it took a mere week to get from New York to Karachi.
What makes the cover so interesting, though, is the juxtaposition of the UN machine slogan cancel commemorating the UN's UNICEF Nobel Peace Prize with the Pakistani censor mark. There's an unrelated and barely visible red "AIRMAIL" sharing the same space.
I'd be delighted to hear from anyone who knows more about this censor marking about which I know nothing.
I also wrote this up for a non-philatelic online journal from a more historical, less philatelic PoV for anyone interested; look at http://juicyheads.com/link.php?PLIYHDLE
David Teisler
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"Save the USPS, buy stamps; save the hobby, use commemoratives"
