Let's Play - WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS COVER

Thanks for your post, JeffS!  I have absolutely no special expertise of any kind in this area, but I like a good teaser, so I will make a few comments about this interesting postal card/cover to see if I can guess any of the suspicious features.

I will add that I don't know what the US postage rate was for a postal card sent internationally from Detroit to Berlin in Jan-1932, but if I had access to a postal resource, I would begin by checking that to see what the rate was.  It appears to have been mailed with 2 cents postage, and then assessed an additional 10 cents.

What looks OK:

• The 2 cents US postage and postmark look OK to me.
• I think that the German auxiliary mark "Nachgebühr" means postage due and would go with the large blue number "10".  While doing some searching, I found examples of other covers showing these markings together, so I am thinking that these are also probably OK.

What seems suspicious to me:

• If postage due is being assessed in Germany on this card, then why is the US postage due stamp there?  That looks like an add-on.
• Again, if postage due is in Germany, that means that the 10 would be "pfennig" so what is the other auxiliary mark "10 centimes" for?  Centimes would have been the currency in France, Belgium, and other countries in 1932, but not Germany.

OK, that's what I can see.... how did I do?

I start Like Chris, Beryllium Guy , with the basic presumption that the card begins life as a genuine postal item, franked 2 US cents, machine cancelled in Detroit, but deficit noted in New York .

I believe the rate should be 3 cents, so the 1c deficit is doubled ...2 cents owing.

As this is going abroad, the UPU convention is that the deficit is expressed in a universally accepted currency the "gold centime" which is equivalent to Swiss pre war currency. Hence the US circle stamp for (10 Centimes / 2c US.)  Nothing to do with France or Belgium, Chris.

In Germany the deficit is noted and expressed in blue crayon as "10"   but now it means pfennigs,    roughly equivalent to the 2c US Deficit .



So what is the 10C US due doing there ? 
  1.  did some clerk way back in Detroit stick it on by mistake?   10c is far too much,  but it has to be accounted for . that pencil "x" is not convincing 
or 2 did some collector have a 10c due stamp and just stuck it on for the hell of it ?

With my limited knowledge I would question the 10 US stamp and the pencil cancel. I question the significance, if any of the penciled A as well.  The comments by the other members seem to be right in my view.


David

The exhibit JeffS provided the link for indicates that on May 8, 1889 the inland registration fee was changed from 2 cents to 5 cents. Perhaps the sender mistakenly applied the 2 cent stamp. I'm guessing that, because postage stamps could not be used to pay the registration fee, the only option was to pay the registration fee by applying either two more 2 cent registration stamps or a 5 cent one.

@wert it would be helpful to know the stamp beneath the RLS

I am unable to get @wert to work correctly, both on my iPad which I was blaming, and now my desktop.

The Introduction to the pdf does state that 'From 8 May 1899 it was allowed to use any combination of Registered Letter Stamps and postage stamps to pay the registration fee, but at least one Registered Letter Stamp was required on registered mail', so adding another 3 cent postage stamp to a 2 cent Registered Letter Stamp would have been acceptable. However, since this is not what happened here, I'm sure Steve is right and the correct 5 cent Registered Letter Stamp was precisely placed over a 2 cent (or it could even have been an 8 cent) Registered Letter Stamp, probably by the counter clerk. If you scroll down to page 69, you will see Robert's exact same second example. 

The cover from Topsail is a Mixed franking with George vi Newfoundland + 1961 Canada, used in1966.

So my dear Canadian friends , are the Newfies legal for postage ? What is the correct rate in 1966 ? Ie 8c or 5c?


can we identify the underneath stamp? Is it Canada or Newfoundland,?


Ps WERT please slow down a little and let us sort out answers to the covers already posted before you give us another…….due to time differences we are getting a little overlap and confusion .

Thanks, daniel. So the cover is a nice legitimate mixed franking at the 8 c rate for a heavier letter , possibly with an enclosure. The stamps are valid the envelope re used.


I think the stamps below are 1c+ 4c definitive Canadian from 1954-62.


It is possible The Canon was a stamp collector using up some of his unwanted stock of pre war Newfies.