Postal history research is a form of detective work. Sometimes the social environment is more interesting than the postal history.
On this Hungarian first inflation registered cover, the sender’s coat of arms really stands out. If you look closely, you can see the Order of the Golden Fleece. There were 31 Hungarian members of the order, and the only one still alive was László Batthyány-Strattmann, the “doctor of the poor”.
(I’m not a coat of arms expert, so if I’m wrong, please write me the right answer.)
In the past, collectors threw perfin stamps away, but nowadays they have a large collector base. This early collecting behaviour also explains why perfin stamps have become rare. It is particularly dear to our hearts to see perfin stamps on postal history items. The parcel card shown here was sent to Switzerland by the Hungarian representative of the YOST typewriter factory. For security reasons, the seal of the package had to be glued on the coupon side of the parcel card so that the addressee could check the package was unopened. This meant that the company’s letter seal also survived with the six Y-punched stamps. The postage for colis postal was 1 korona, which was paid with six stamps. It should be noted that companies rarely kept high value stamps in stock, hence the rarity of high denomination perfin stamps. It is likely that Yost did not have stamps with Korona currency in stock, so they paid the 1 Korona postage with the fillér stamps.
The Hungarian 2 kr imprinted postage stamp is equivalent to 4 fillér which, together with the 6 fillér stamp, makes the correct postage of 10 fillér. Such use of the postal tariff reply card was theoretically irregular, but the surviving material shows that these cards were accepted. The mixed use of the krajcár and fillér stamps were possible for 9 months, so fortunately we have several beautiful mixed frankings left. This period (01.01.1900 – 30.09.1900) is one of the most popular collecting periods of Hungarian philately. The 6 fillér stamp of the 1900 issue was issued in four colours, the history of which is quite interesting, but I will tell you about it later.
The spice of collecting postal history is always the rarities, the postal items and tariffs waiting to be deciphered, and as an avid collector of postal history I am always on the lookout for them. So it was that I came across a registered letter to Germany marked “Discount rate book”, a discount rate I had never heard of before. As a result of my research, I found the answer to this question in the Universal Postal Convention of 28 August 1924 in Stockholm and the related postal regulations.
Allow me, fellow collectors, to introduce you to the book tariff!
From 1 October 1925 (PTRT 1925 / 38), the book rate was only available for mail sent abroad under very strict conditions: 1. newspapers sent directly by the publishers, 2. scientific works sent between scientific and literary societies, or 3. hardcover or softcover books published by publishers (excluding any advertising).
The range of beneficiary countries varied for the three categories, but we will only consider in detail the book tariff, which at the time of publication of the Regulation was addressed to Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Latvia, Portugal, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Only brand-new, unused copies of books published by the publisher itself could be included in the mailing. For example, ‘The Franklin Society can only send a shipment of books at the above rate if they are self-published and this is stated at the bottom of the title page [or on the back cover] of the book’.
Tariffs at the time of publication of the Regulation: – 400 Korona per 50 grams, – a different rate was applied to book tariff consignments to Italy sent directly by publishers: 600 Korona per 50 grams.
However, the restrictions were not limited to the content of the consignment and the country of destination. There was also a further restriction on the sender: the tariff could only be used by a publishing company or a branch of a publishing company located in the area of the post office concerned.
So there were Korona Inflation items under the decision, although I have not yet had the pleasure of coming across any. The discounted rate was always 50% of the current foreign form rate under the Postal Convention, and subsequently changed with it. As you can read in the introductory regulation, book-type items could initially only be sent to 11 countries. Any additional service (recommendation, express, airmail, etc.) could be used for book items in the same way as for printed matter. The list of beneficiary countries changed several times over the years: first it was extended and then, after the outbreak of the war, it was reduced. The PTRT 1926 / 61 lists 26 beneficiary countries (for example, in addition to Greece and Saarland, which are relatively far away, there are exotic countries as far away as the Ivory Coast and the Somali coast). The last known extension is the accession of Gdansk on the Baltic coast on 15 May 1930 (PTRT 1930 / 20). The tariffs were introduced on 1 January 1927, when the Pengő was introduced into the circle of denominations, which by then already included 25 associated countries: – 3 fillérs per 50 grams, – For Italy, the rate remained at 4 pfennigs per 50 grams, which was different from the other recipients.
The preferential rate for foreign books was thus linked to the tariff of the foreign publication in question and changed with it, and the number of countries benefiting from it was also reduced in the light of the current war situation. As a result, the change in the printing tariff applicable from 15 September 1941 was also affected, with the following tariff coming into force – 6 fillér per 50 grams to Germany, Czech-Moravian Highlands, Poland (General Government) and Croatia,
The recipients of other mail sent abroad at reduced rates were then all member countries of the UPU (Universal Postal Union). Unfortunately I have not been able to find the date of the introduction of the domestic book tariff, the earliest I could find was in August 1941 in Várady: Posta és Távirda tarifák XXXIV:
until 100g
4f
until 250g
8f
until 500g
12f
until 1000g
16f
until 2000g
32f
until 3000g
48f
From 1 July 1943 (PTRT 1943 /32) the tariff was changed as follows:
until 100g
6f
until 250g
10f
until 500g
16f
until 1000g
24f
until 2000g
40f
until 3000g
60f
On 2 July 1945, the reduced book rate was officially abolished, and its replacement was regulated in PTRT 1945 / 6:
“In the future, these items will be subject to the printed matter rates”.
PTRT 1945/6
The introduction of the forint also marked the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the book tariff, and although it was reinstated after its abolition in 1945, it was only used for domestic circulation.
The original article appeared in the March 2022 issue of Bélyegvilág magazine.
Measuring distances on the internet is now child’s play: just type in two places, choose whether you want the results by road or by air, and you’re done. But how did it work in the 1850s?
How did a postmaster in the mid-19th century know the value of a stamp to put on a letter when there was no internet and not even the standardised system of quadruple rates?
I recently found the answer to this question in an antique shop, where I came across an interesting table for the Kiscell post office, showing the rates for the area. The fact that such a wonderful piece of postal history has survived in the fine condition shown in the attached picture is truly remarkable, and I can only encourage fellow collectors not to forget antique shops and antique dealers among the sea of stamp shops and auction houses available on the internet.
The table shows four groups according to postal rates:
Post offices within 10 miles: 3 krajcár.
Post offices within 10 miles of the post office and belonging to the small postal district of Kiscell: 2 krajcár (local/suburban mail).
Post offices between 10 and 20 miles away: 6 krajcár.
For all other domestic letters, the rate is 9 krajcár.
The charges shown in the above rates are per lats, for heavier (multiple lats) items the above charges are of course a multiple of the basic charge in direct proportion. Until 31 December 1865, the weight of letters (domestic) was measured by the so-called Viennese lat, which was 1/32 of the Viennese pound, i.e. 1 lat = 17.5 grams. This was replaced by the customs pound / customs lat and then, from 1873 / 1874, by the kilogram / gram.
The table of charges must have survived from some time between 1850 and 1865, which can be deduced from the fact that the stamps appearing in the text of the table in 1850 are already mentioned. In the absence of further information, the end date is 1865, as the postal tariff was abolished on 15 November 1865.
The mile referred to in the text is the Austro-Hungarian postal mile, which is equal to 4000 Viennese fathoms. One Viennese fathom is 1,896 metres, so 1 postal mile = 7,5859 km.
It is worth recalling the concept of the delivery area (column 2 of the table):
This refers to municipalities that did not have their own post office, and therefore belonged to a larger municipality in the area for delivery purposes.
It was also called a suburb, and may be familiar from the term suburban express tariff.
In any case, local rate letters sent to outlying areas are a rarity and are worth many times more than normal local mail. For example, a local rate letter sent to a suburb of Kiscell, say Baba or Adorján, would fetch a much higher price at auction than a local rate letter addressed and sent to Kiscell.
This meant that postmasters did not have to measure the distance when sending the mail, they simply had to find the municipality of the addressee using the table they received. This may be the reason why mail from this period is usually correctly franked by distance.
For those interested in the subject of postal distance calculation, I recommend the detailed study by Ferenc Orbán in Philatelica 1988/1, which can be downloaded free of charge from the MAFITT website.
Table of the rates for the post office in Kiscell
The original article was published in the April 2022 issue of Bélyegvilág.
A wonderful letter with the rare dove stamps from the days of Hungarian hyperinflation, the inflation was just a bad memory when the letter reached its target.
The biggest inflation in the history was in Hungary, the monthly inflation rate was close to 41.900 trillion percent, more simply put, prices doubled in every 15th hours. The philatelic aspects of this period are also a particularly fascinating and interesting area of collecting. At the Hunfilex 2022 stamp exhibition we were able to admire several outstanding collections from this period, from Robert Morgan, Ito Fumihisa and last but not least from Florent Tricot.
The other day, I came across a very interesting, but definitely philatelic object from the hyperinflation period. The letter was sent from Pestszentlőrinc to the Saint Lucia island. Interesting fact, that the name of the island was given by Columbus, because he discovered the island in 1502, on Saint Lucia’s day. The addressee of the letter was Colonel Hector Gowans Reid, known as an illustrious philatelist of the British West Indies, who by his own admission was involved in the Manhattan Project too.
The date of dispatch was 11 July 1945, which was in the 24th tariff period of the hyperinflation era, when the tariff for foreign mail was 400,000 Bpengő (i.e. 400,000 trillion Pengő which is 400,000,000,000,000,000,000 Pengő). We can see several stamps on the letter which had been withdrawn from circulation at the time of the dispatch. Altogether 31 400 Milpengő stamps were still in circulation, but this amount had no practical value due to the money deterioration, the total value in Bpengő was only 0.0314. As well as the first two values (the 1 and 2 trillion stamps) from the trillion series (known as the “dove” stamps). So only the two dove stamps can be counted in the 400.000 Bpengő fee, but whether they are counted or not, will never be known. All (400,000 Bpengő) or at least a large part (399,997 Bpengő) of the fee was paid in cash. The “dove” stamps are common as unused stamps, but on ordinary letters, they are one of the greatest rarities of the era, because their validity period was only a few days. So the letter with the dove stamps began its 42-days journey to the Caribbean, and reached its addressee on 22 August. Which time the Pengő and hyperinflation were a bad memory, because the Forint had been in use for 22 days.
The original article appeared in the June 2022 issue of Bélyegvilág magazine.
This blog was created with that goal in mind, that all of the beautiful and rare postal history item should be properly introduced for the whole collector community.
In the last years I saw a tendency, that the most collector only collects letters, registered and / or express letters, postal cards, perhaps printed matters type of items. No one can argue that these are the most common types in the postal history, but there are more, less well known, true rarity items in this area of collecting.
This blog would like to educate the community and those who are interested for postal history about these rarity items, how they should be calculated for proper tariff and organized.
I hope that this would be a nice place to come for knowledge and inspiration which would add new layers to the wonderful world of postal history.
