German Infla experts please…
I can’t make sense of the franking on the cover below, sent 12 Oct 1923. Foreign letters (20g) were 15 million marks; registration added 5 million more. But there is 15.8 million extra postage on this cover.
???
The only possibility I can think is that the extra is to pay Customs duty—there is a notation to that effect, “Inspected, Liable to Custom Duties”. But I thought duty was only paid in the receiving country. How could German stamps pay U.S. Customs charges anyway? So back to square one.
