Tonga: Uprated Aerogramme

Tonga #1, uprated with 3s "peel and stick" stamp to meet the 12s aerogramme rate,  sent from NUKUALOFA (cds 25 JA 73) to Australia. Philatelic.

Australia: Aerogramme Uprated to Surface Mail Rate

This is Australia Stein A-3 uprated with a ½ d stamp. 7 ½ d was the international surface mail letter rate up to 1 oz. The additional franking only would have made sense if the aerogramme contained an enclosure and the sender were not willing to pay for an ordinary air mail letter. However, the message on the writing panel does not give any idea for an enclosure. In this case it also would have been required to cross out the "By Air Mail" routing instruction.


Reference
Stein, The Aerogrammes of Australia and its Dependencies, 1944-1980

Australia: Hallmark Privatley Manufactured Aerogramme Form

Privately manufactured aerogramme form (Hallmark trademark) sent from GAWLER (2 JA 81) to Germany franked with two adhesives matching the 33 c aerogramme rate.

This aerogramme form was "Approved by Australia Post as Aerogramme No. 17 VIC".

There is a large variety of Hallmark aerogramme forms, definitely more than 60 different designs. However, these are not very often seen used.

Australia: Uprated Aerogramme

Australia AUSPEX 84 aerogramme (Roggenkämper/Russ/Wiegand #68) uprated with two stamps, total face value 20 c, to match the 50 c aerogramme rate. Commercial usage.


Reference
Roggenkämper/Russ/Wiegand, Katalog der Aerogramme von Australien und Ozeanien, 2003

Australia: Uprated Aerogramme, Enclosure not Detected

This 30 c aerogramme (Stein A-48 - late usage about 12 years after beeing issued first in 1978) was uprated with 35 c to match the 65 c aerogramme rate at the time of posting (5 OCT 1990). According to the message on the writing panel ("I can offer per enclosed photocopies ..."), the aerogramme contained enclosures, which was not detected.


Reference
Stein, The Aerogrammes of Australia and its Dependencies, 1944-1980

Australia: Air Letter Franked at Air Mail Letter Rate

British Forces air letter form (Adby # OF-9F 1.r) sent from Sydney (20 OVT 1945) to Haifa, Palestine. The air letter was sent by a former Dutch PoW at ADEK camp, Batavia, Dutch East Indies.

Air letter service to Palestine had already started September 11, 1944. Paying 1 s 6 d air mail letter rate, then, can only mean that the air letter contained an enclosure.


Reference
Adby, Aerogrammes, Air Mail Letter Cards, Air Letters, 1997

Sierra Leone: Inland Aerogramme Uprated for International Use

Sierra Leone #6 (3 d inland aerogramme) uprated with 3 d stamp for international use.

Australia: Military Aerogramme FDC

 

Australian military aerogramme (Stein AM-1, yellow-ochre paper) sent from Albury (11 SEP 1944) addressed to LAC (Leading Aircraftman) Tindall M., c/o Air Ministry, London WC1, Great Britain.

This is a first day cover!

According to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald (Sep 23, 1944; p. 3)

"Of approximately 25,400 letters in the first week, 17,000 were for civilians and 8,400 for members of the Forces More than 80 per cent of the letters were for addresses in the United Kingdom."

 

Opened and censored (Passed by Censor 425). Re-direction label of Record Office, R.A.F. Cloucester. Returned via Durban, South Africa (transit cds 15 XII 44) to Australia. The next attempt was made at Westlake, Qld. Endorsement in red "Not known at Westlake 30/12/44" and finally returned in Febriary 1945 (transit cds Westlake, 17 FEB 45, on reverse) to the sender's address at Geelong, Vic.

As there is no message on the writing panel and the sender had instructed to return the air letter "if unclaimed within 21 days", the FDC is most likely philatelic -  but very rare anyway.


Reference:
Stein, The Aerogrammes of Australia and Its Dependencies, 1944-1980

Ceylon: Short Paid Aerogramme to the UK

Aerogramme sent from Colombo (25 NO 59) to London, UK. The aerogramme was pre-paid 40 c, which is 10 c short of the 50 c aerogramme rate. Circular “T centimes” handstamp (endorsed “13”) applied at Colombo. Upon arrival in the UK, a “3 ½ d TO PAY F.S.” handstamp in green was applied. Two postage due stamps with a total face value of 3 ½ d were affixed, documenting that the postage due was collected from the consignee.

Postage due calculation in country of origin

The 1957 Ottawa UPU congress (effective April 1, 1959) fixed the foreign letter rate at 25 UPU centimes (ctms). Member countries, however, were allowed to increase their letter rate by up to 60 % or decrease it by up to 20 %. Ceylon was one of the countries where the foreign letter rate differed from the 25 UPU ctms standard.

The foreign letter rate was 35 c. Assuming that this rate was equal to 25 UPU cmts, double the deficiency (20 c) would have equaled 14.3 UPU cmts. As only 13 UPU ctms were endorsed the exchange rate must have been different, i.e. Ceylon’s foreign letter rate was set below the UPU standard.

Starting, as endorsed, with an exchange rate of 20 c = 13 UPU ctms (or 1 c = 0.65 UPU cmts, a straight forward calculation shows that the correct exchange value of 25 UPU ctms must have been about 38.5 c, which means that Ceylon had set its letter rate 10 % below UPU standard.

Postage due calculation in country of destination

Since 1943, the British postal authorities ignored any postage due markings in UPU cmts on incoming international mail. According to Michael Furfie,

"The British Form P114 included only rates to Britain, so in cases where the
letter rate to Britain was less than the country's UPU rate, postage due
calculation could not have used the relationship

Country's UPU rate = Britain's UPU rate

because offices of exchange using the form would not have known the first of
these.

Although I've never found any official explanations of how it was done, I
believe that, for the most part, the equivalent of the letter rate to
Britain was calculated at PO HQ (which would have had all the information)
as

Country's rate to Britain x Britain's UPU rate / Country's UPU rate

and rounded to the nearest halfpenny. If Ceylon's rates were 25 cents to
Britain, 35 cents UPU, then the equivalent of this 25 cents would have been
25 x 6d / 35 cents = 4.29d, rounded to 4½d. The relationship 25 cents = 4½d
would then have been used to convert double the deficiency into pence: 20
cents x 4½d / 25 cents = 3.6d, rounded to 3½d.

Unfortunately, no copies of Form P114 seem to have survived from between
late 1957, when the 6d rate was introduced, and 1966, when taxe fractions
replaced gold centimes, so we can't be absolutely sure. No equivalence of 25
cents other than 4½d gives 20 cents = 3½d, though."

Credits
Thank you, Allan, for establishing contact to Michael - and most of all thank you Michael for sharing your expertise. 

Sierra Leone: Mixed Pre-Decimal and Decimal Franking

This is Sierra Leone (Müller/Sehler #7)  6 d  Climbing Lily
 
The new currency 1 Leones = 100 c with 1 Leones = 10 s = 120 d  was introduced on August 4, 1964. 

The aerogramme was sent from MAGBURAKA, 10 SP 64. It was uprated with a 2 c stamp, a pre-decimal/decimal mixed franking.


References
Müller/Sehler, Aerogramme Afrika 2012.