I´m interested in what all the different cancellations on this cover means... Some of them are quite obvious but some I don´t know.
I´m thankful for all help I can get.
i see several postage due notices. one is in pencil at upper left, indicating .20 (probably in francs, I'm guessing); a second below it "1D to pay" was likely applied in Essex (PO 723?). It doesn't look like it was paid. A third due is shown at bottom right "T 7c" in a hexagon. This was likely applied in Chile? It looks as if this travelled from Essex to Perth to Chile and back to Essex. The dues all double the 1/2D deficiency (not sure when this changed or under what circumstances a doubling is assessed). The whole process took 2 years from November 49 to December 51. I'm guessing the 1D due was applied upon its return, 2 years later, but i can't see the cancel well enough. The purple Southampton Duty cancel on reverse supports that supposition.
I'm sure others have more to add. this is a very nice cover.
David
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"Save the USPS, buy stamps; save the hobby, use commemoratives"
Of the string of 5 circular date stamps on the back 1, 3 and 4 are all From Valparaiso, Chile. The first one a simple received cancel. The third one is an Air Mail cancel and the fourth one, most interestingly says "Recep Alta Mar" which literally means "Received on/from the High Seas" though might also mean "Received from Overseas."
Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy.. 09 Jun 2014 02:52:35pm
re: Postage due cover and more....
It sure looks like one of the occasional covers that chased me around the world when I went to sea. A year or two and crazy cancels were quite normal. I wish they had all been saved.
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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. .... "
The cover was posted 1/2d underpaid. The underpayment was stamped as 7 ( gold centimes) by the London foreign section(hexagonal mark),for the deficiency to be collected in Chile(not possible as the item was undelivered). The backstamps show the journey of the cover out and back to the UK. The desconicido mark was applied in Chile. I think that the "surcharged due to insufficient postage" box was applied on the outbound journey with the expectation that the recipient would subsequently notify the sender that he had applied the wrong stamp ( for future reference). The 1d to pay mark was applied on return as an instruction to collect the underpayment by use of the postage due stamp applied and cancelled. The return to sender was also applied in the UK as an explanation of the Chilean mark. The only mark I cannot explain is the red 3d I S mark, unless this was to explain the correct rate which should have been applied -but why? - the other marks explain it all.BTW the postage due of 1d is double the deficiency. Also the blue Southampton mark on the back is not a standard date stamp, and could be some sort of audit mark for returned mail,but to be honest I have never seen the like before.
Quite an interesting bit of paper, and I am sure that a keen postal history buff in the UK would be glad to have it.
Malcolm
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