USA Underpaid Aerogramme: Attempted Cross-border Collection of Postage Due

 

USA 15c aerogramme posted at Fort Fairfield, Maine, in the United States by a sender who lived just across the Canadian border in Perth, New Brunswick, in July 1974. Since the aerogramme rate was 18c, the item got a slip of paper attached reminding the sender to re-post the aerogramme with the missing 3c paid.

As no sign of payment of the missing postage is visible, the attempt most likely had failed.

As the rate indication is "per half ounce" the hectographed slip of paper was prepared for air mail letters, not for aerogrammes.

Canada: 1944 Air Letter with "Onwards Air Transmission" Instructional Handstamp.

Canadian Armed Forces air letter form used for civilian communication.

The air letter was originally posted unpaid on 26th December 1944. The postal authorities marked the air letter with "Returned for Postage" and returned it to the sender.  The air letter was posted again, with the correct 10 cents franking for India, on 28th December. This is a bit difficult to see, as the two machine cancels overlap.

Also, the air letter received a "O. A. T" (Onwards Air Transmission") handstamp.

"It is thought that an OAT cachet was applied to the top letter of a tied bundle of up to 60 letters. These bundles always travelled in open mail bags to a single intermediate or final destination, but where the quantity of mail was insufficient to warrant a closed bag. Closed mail bags did not attract OAT markings, as the whole bag was sealed and all letters went to the one destination as marked on the outside of the bag. Open mail bags were resorted en route as required and bundles replaced into other bags for the next section of their journey."

(Source: The Philatelic Database, http://www.philatelicdatabase.com/great-britain/onward-air-transmission/)

Canada: Contains Unauthorized Enclosures

Aerogramme sent from Quebec (NOV 1 1955) via Montreal (NOV 3 1955, on reverse) to Jeumont, France. Handstamped „Contains unauthorized enclosures“ and „ Shortpaid for air conveyance / Port insuffisant pour avion“, „Aerogramme“ type designation and „Air Mail - Par Avion“ routing instruction voided with two parallel bars. Diverted to surface mail-.

Canada: Forces Air Letter Form Used in UNMOGIP Operations

 

 

Canadian Forces air letter form sent by a member of UNMOGIP (United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan) to Canada in February 1974. Originally franked with Pakistani stamps, the air letter was taxed as short paid and returned to the sender  for 50 Paisa additional postage.

 

The instructional handstamp reads "KAR. AIR 3 / DATE.......... / UN-PAID / RETURNED / PLEASE AFFIX / ......... PAISA / STAMP MORE". A box to which the additional stamps were to affix is on the right hand side of the instruction.

However, no additional Pakistani stamps were affixed and the air letter most likely travelled to UN headquarters in New York in courier mail. There, a 11 c UN New York stamp was affixed and the letter was forwarded to Canada on Feb 19, 1974.

In 1974 the air letter rate of UN New York was 15 c.

Canada: Presentation Card for Aerogramme

This is a presentation card for the December 27, 1991 "Hang Glider" (Wiegand #97) aerogramme issue of Canada.


Reference:
Wiegand, Katalog der Aerogramme von Canada, USA, UNO-New York, 1994

UK Airletter Used on HMC Ship

This airletter is UK #1c (according to the Greiner catalogue), identifiable by the following features:

• Dotted address lines, with 11 dots per cm
• Line below "If anything is enclosed ..." admonition is 20 mm wide
• Area in which the indicium is printed is 23.5 mm wide
• Rectangular area recessed from overlay to indicate where the sealing flaps have to be fixed to

Greiner specifies October 1943 as the month of issue. Deviating from this, the message on the writing panel is dated September 29, 1943.

The airletter was posted aboard HMC Ship Edmunston, a flower-class corvette operating as a anti-submarine convoy escort, and was addressed to Canada. Interestingly, a regular UK airletter was used instead of one of the military airletter forms.

The airletter was censored and handstamped "From H. M. C. Ship / Examined by DB N 621".


Reference:
Greiner/Greiner, Aerogramme von Europe, 3e, 1993.

Canada
Return to Sender, Double Taxed

 The aerogramme below is Wiegand no. 8.

Front panel

Back panel

Legend: [n] in the text below refers to the respective number in the scan of the back panel above

Aerogramme sent from PORT HOPE (cds 14 11 49) to a post box address in Salisbury, South Rhodesia (today’s Harare). Transit via MONTREAL (cds 1949 NOV 15) on back panel [1].

Short paid 5 c, because the 10 c aerogramme was only prepaid for UK destinations.

Double the deficiency (10 c) converted into UPU gold centimes at a rate of 1 c = 3 UPU gold centimes. Hence, endorsed „T 30 ct“ and h/s „T“ 30 Centimes“. 

At arrival endorsed „Not Box 43“ in the lower left corner of the front panel to indicate that adressee and post box address did not match. H/s with pointing finger „Return to“

Returned via CAPETOWN, South Africa (cds RETURNED L.O. 6 DEC 49 on back panel) [2] by surface mail

On arrival in Canada the postal authorities applied a meter mark in red (MONTREAL JAN 18 50) [3], a boxed h/s „BUREAU DES POSTES / DEAD LETTER OFFICE / 18 I 1950 / No. 5 / MONTREAL, CANADA“ [4] and another h/s in red for a dead letter office [5], which is only partially visible.

The aerogramme got a second taxation (13 cents) on arrival [6], which is calculated from the original taxation (10 c) plus a 3 c surcharge incurred by routing the aerogramme through the Montreal Dead Letter Office.

References

Wiegand stands for Wiegand, Katalog der Aerogramme von Canada, USA, UNO-New York, 1994