Malaysia: Postage Due Aerogramme

Malaysian aerogramme (Wiegand #14, imprinted "Security Printers Malaysia" on bottom) sent from Sungai Petani (5 MEI 1982) to London, UK. At the time of posting, the aerogramme rate was 40 cent. Hence, the aerogramme was short paid by 10 cent.

The Malaysian postal clerk applied a triangular "T" handstamp and endorsed the tax fraction "20 / 40" in red. Double the deficiency in the numerator, however, was the rule of taxation established at the 1964 Vienna UPU congress, which had already been abolished by the decisions of the 1974 Lausanne UPU Congress. The new regulations, which came into effect on January 1, 1976, stipulated that single deficiency has to be noted as the tax fraction's numerator.

In the UK, a green boxed "To pay" handstamp was applied and a postage due of "29 p" was endorsed. The UPU letter rate of the UK was 19 ½ p. So, the postage due was 20 / 40 x 19 ½ p = 9.75 p, which was rounded down to 9 p, plus a fixed surcharging fee of 20 p for a total of 29 p.

The payment of this amount is documented by four postage due stamps with a total face value of 29 p.

Reference:
Wiegand, Katalog der Aerogramme von Asien, 2000.

 

Malaysia: Short-Paid Air Letter to Canada

Malaysian air letter form sent from KUALA LUMPUR (7 JAN 53) to Montreal, Canada. Franked with 25 c stamp. Since March 14, 1949 the air letter rate to Canada was 35 c. Hence, the air letter is short paid 10 c.

According to UPU rules effective in 1953, double the deficiency (20 c) had to be converted into UPU gold centimes at a rate where Malysia's international first weight step surface mail rate, which was 20 c in 1953, is equivalent to 20 UPU gold centimes. Accordingly, "20" was endosed in pencil within the Malaysian hexagonal T handstamp.

Canada calculated with an exchange rate of 1 c = 3 UPU gold centimes. So 20 UPU gold centimes were equal to 7 c, which is endorsed in the rectangular Canadian handstamp. The endorsement, however, could be misread as "1".

UK: Decimalization - Stamps not Valid

This UK 9 d aerogramme was uprated with a 1 p stamp and sent from PRES… in June 1972 to Penang, Malaysia.

Pre-decimal stamps were, with few exceptions, demonetized February 29, 1972. Hence, the 9 d  aerogramme was regarded invalid.

The aerogramme rate in 1972 was 5 p, so the aerogramme was short paid 4 p. The tax fraction endorsement “4 / 5” is not correct, as it should have shown double the deficiency in the numerator. The single deficiency rule only started with the 1974 Lausanne UPU congress regulation that came into effect January 1, 1976. The denominator correctly shows the first weight step international surface letter rate of the UK at the time of posting (5 p).

As less than half of the required postage for air mail transmission was prepaid, the aerogramme was diverted to surface mail as is indicated by the two-line handstamp “Insufficiently Prepaid / For Transmission by Air” and the the parallel bars crossing out the “By Air Mail”  routing instruction.

Upon arrival in Malaysia, the (incorrect) tax fraction “4 / 5” had to be multiplied with Malaysia’s first weight step international surface mail letter rate (30 c). The result, therefore, should have been 24 c. However, only a 10 c postage due stamp was affixed.