bwiphilately,
That's an excellent item (from my perspective) to encourage people to re-explore the building of the Panama Canal. Here's a short PBS piece on the Culebra Cut.
malolo,
During what period did the Swiss use N and V for Nachmittag and Vormittag? Or did they ever do that? This is an area that I often "kind of figure out" and then forget what I learned - so I'm trying to find a hook so it sticks.
Shown below is another registered use to a foreign destination with National Parks issues. This time the destination is Argentina. Fifteen cents for registration and five cents for the postage to a destination outside the US and to a member of the Universal Postal Union. And, yes, this is, in all probability, a philatelic use given the variety of stamps and the preprinted postage. But, it pays the rate properly, so no real complaints here except that, if I were wishing, the whole thing would use National Parks issues.
CHILE COVER FROM TALCA TO BELGIUM 1912 ON AMBULANCIA ROUTE #48 NOCTURNO SANTIAGO - TALCAHUANO SMALL CIRCLE W/#93 must indicate postage due 93c
Hi nadams3 - The 93 on your cover is most likely the delivery route in Brussels. There is no postage due on this item. There are two missing stamps which made up the international rate to Europe.
Rob - The Swiss didn't use the N or V. The illustrated cancellers and another (total 2 cancellers), identical except there are no stars in the circle, were sent from Germany in 1903 in hopes of receiving a contract to supply the Swiss. They were both sample devices which the Swiss chose not to buy. Of course being frugal, there was no point in throwing away the devices nor sending them back to Germany. The Germans used the N and V all the time to determine morning or afternoon.
8 November 1881
Domestic letter 10 centimes plus 20 centimes registration from St Gallen to Hoffeld near Mogelsberg (about 20km distance).
nadams3,
I think Roger has the right of it. This is likely a marking to indicate a carrier route. By the time we get to the date of your cover, UPU agreements should take precedence. If postage were due, it would be most common to have a "T" marking, indicating "taxe" due. Nonetheless, your information is interesting and potentially very useful for its period. Where did you find that info?
Today is a crazy day around the farm, so I'll go with "easy" for me to do. Here is a 24 cent 1861 issue used to pay the 24 cent rate for an item up to 1/2 ounce from the US to the UK. The dockets agree with sailing data that this is an 1864 mailing. The docketing illustrates the common use of envelopes for business filing and later reference as needed.
9 November 1900
Registered letter from Spiez to Hotel Schweizerhof, Luzern. 10 centimes postage plus 10 cetnimes registration. These stamps were valid from 2 July until 31 December 1900, and notice there is no country name on them just the Swiss Cross on the shield.
Hi nadmas3 - That website is great, but the red numbers in circles were stating the postage for the letter, that's why they were 15, 25, 45 etc. Those were the postage rates for different domestic rates, international rates would have been different for different countries depending on the postal treaties between two countries. They were also circa mid-1850's which do not equate to later rates and markings found on letters from 1912 such as the one you illustrated above.
If there was postage Due in 1912 there would most likely have been a large "T" or smaller "Tax Due" in with the amount due in gold centimes. I'll take a guess that the 5 centavos cover (the domestic inland rate) was uprated with two 5 centavos stamps to pay a 15 centavos international rate. Attached is a cover (from my cancel collection) from Chile similar to yours posted in 1908 to (by chance) Bruxelles using a 10 centavos stamp to uprate it to Europe..
Outside my area of best expertise, but here is a letter sent from South Africa in 1935 that did not properly prepay the postage required for it to be sent to the United States. The T "Taxe" marking is at the right of the envelope that is next to (and under) the 2 cent US postage due stamp. According to the Universal Postal Union, rates were based off of the French currency and then converted to local currency. To, the T 10 c refers to 10 French centimes. One US cent was equal to five French centimes. So, 2 US cents were due from the recipient to pay for this letter on arrival.
10 November 1902
Domestic postal card from Aarau (using Type 2 razor canceller) to Thun.
Welcome to 11/11/22!
Today I thought I would share something I don't know much about. At one point, I enjoyed collecting some of the stamps of Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika - so when this item was available inexpensively (yes, I know that word means different things to different people), I added it to my collection.
It is a 1934 registered use from Kampala, Uganda to New Zealand. I have no idea if the postage stamp pays the combined rate of postage and registration correctly, or if it is an overpay. I don't really know much about the route to and from these locations either. And that's ok, because I can always learn. That's part of the joy of the hobby for me.
11 November 1869
International pre-UPU letter to Paris, France from Zürich. PD indicates paid to destination, and the blue transit stamp indicates the letter crossed into France at St. Louis.
