Mail to Australia - correctly paid in 1990 but underpaid in 1970.

Reader MikeM has sent two examples of mail to Australia.  The 1970 letter is underpaid, the 1990 postcard properly paid but with an unusual postmark.

Starting with the postcard.  29p paid the worldwide airmail postcard from 2 October 1989 to 16 September 1990 when it rose to 31p.  For the collector of 'solo use' this is the obvious way to find them. 

29p Machin solo use on airmail postcard to Australia 25 May 1990.

The original deep mauve stamp was issued in 26 September 1989 in sheets printed by Harrisons on phosphor paper (SG X979).   It was also printed in booklets of 4, in litho by Walsall, and issued on the date the rate came into force, 2 October 1989.  These litho printings are quite distinctive, not least because the stamps have two phosphor bands and the booklet pane is imperforate on three sides.  These (SG X1054) should not be difficult to find.

Although these booklets were available from most post offices they were also sold by tourist destinations in addition to the domestic rate booklets.  Having one worldwide rate meant that they only had one airmail booklet to stock.   

The booklet was reprinted on phosphor paper and issued on 17 April 1990 with imperforate edges as before (SG X1055).  This is probably more difficult to find due to its shorter usage period.

From 17 September 1990 the 29p stamp paid the under 10gr airmail rate for Printed Papers to Zones A and B (basically the whole world outside Europe excluding Australasia and the far east of Asia.  I suspect these are much more difficult to find.

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Mike's other piece is pre-decimal, a 1970 letter also to Australia, bearing the rarely seen 2 x 10d stone stamps, SG 741.  The potential problem here is that 2 x 10d = 1s 8d, and the correct rate was 1s 9d. evidently the Post Office didn't take the time to surcharge this international item for 1d, but they were not slow to do so for domestic mail.

Pair of 10d drab stamps on Airmail letter to Australia, May 1970, underpaying the 1s 9d rate by 1d.

The question which will never be answered is why were the 10d stamps used at all?  I don't think it was because the writer used them for an 8 ounce inland letter in July1968 when issued, or for a 10 ounce second class letter after the introduction of two-tier post from 16 September 1968. 

Much more likely is that they had some for sending airmail postcards to Australia, as 10d was the rate from 3 October 1966 to decimalisation on 15 February 1971. 

Or perhaps the sender was a collector, using a variety of stamps on different letters?  Whatever the circumstances they got the rate wrong! 

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Common stamps - but what were they used for?

The first set of Machin definitives included an 8d in red (or bright vermillion) issued on 1 July 1968. This was just one of the range from ½d to 1/9d replacing the Wilding definitives started in 1952.

But with the 4d brown difficult to process, that value was changed to red, and the 8d to pale blue (light turquoise-blue) on 6 January 1969.  But was there a specific purpose to this value, both colours of which are not at all uncommon in either mint or used condition?

According to British Postal Rates 1937-2000 (Johnson & Peet) the uses at the time of issue of the 8d red were:

Inland Letter 4 - 6 ounces (until 15 September 1968)
Inland Printed Papers 8 to 10 ounces (until  5 January 1969)
Foreign Printed Papers Surface 8 to 10 ounces (to 31 August 1968)
Foreign Samples Surface 4 to 6 ounces (to 31 August 1968)
Foreign Newspaper airmail Group B destinations ½ to 1 ounce and 2nd class airmail group C up to ½ ounce (both to 5 January 1969)

The specific uses of the 8d pale blue all ran from 6 January 1969 to 14 February 1971:

Inland letter 2nd class 6 to 8 ounces, and printed papers 8 to 10 ounces
Foreign Surface Printed Papers 4 to 6 ounces and Samples 6 to 8 ounces
Foreign Airmail 2nd Newspapers Group B ½ to 1 ounce and 2nd class Group C up to ½ ounce.

So, how how easy is it to find any examples of these uses on full cover or wrapper today?  Well, I would suggest very difficult.  Newspaper wrappers are usually discarded, bulk printed paper envelopes or packaging are rarely 'attractive' (or small) enough for people to have collected in the past, and of course collectors in foreign destinations would (at that time) want the stamps for the collections.

So although the red had been replaced by the time of the use shown here, it is still scarce enough, and attractive enough to be worthy of including in a postal history usage collection.  These two Printed Paper usages from Norwich to Australia, the red on 26 February and the blue on 20 November 1969 sold fifty years later on eBay for AU$65.99 - £35.50 at present.

But I'm not actually certain what postage rate they were paying, given the above tables!

I apologise that the covers are not showing. I don't know why they were not embedded in blogger at the time but hosted on imgur.com, where my account was closed some years ago.

Another aspect of Postal History collecting is the inclusion of at least the name and address of the recipient (and maybe the sender), and sometimes content.  From these pictures we can establish the background of the addressee:

Austine Marshall

Another outstanding lady [amateur radio] operator was Austine Henry (nee Marshall), VK3YL, first licenced in 1930. In many ways, Austine had similarities with Florence. She constructed her own transmitters, for which she won prizes and was a keen operator who was deeply respected by other amateurs.

In 1934 Austine joined the R.A.A.F. Reserve and during WWII, went on to train many operators in Morse code at the WIA during WWII.

Postal History collectors - certainly the purchaser of this pair - should be grateful that Mrs Henry kept the envelopes in which, presumably, she received QSL cards (confirmation of radio contact from other radio amateurs.\

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Postcards are a good source of solo uses.

The postcard pictured was drawn to my attention when it recently sold on online auction site eBay.

The rate to Zone C (which includes Australia) from 3 October 19966 to 15 February 1971 was 10d, so this is a good and not easy to find solo usage of the 10d Machin.  Not easy to find in Britain, but maybe easier in the pacific area?  So how did it fare?

My apologies that this image is no longer available. I hosted it on ingur, and I don't know why it was linked there rather than uploading to blogger as usual. I can't at present find a copy on my computer.

It's not perfect with a few rust spots around the stamp and airmail label, but otherwise quite good for a postcard.  From a starting price of £5, it remained at a low level until a bidder came up and tipped it through to £20-ish.  That bidder seems to have dropped out, being outbid by the early bid of £100.  But even that was not enough as a late (snipe?) bid for £102 won the day.  The seller is located in the UK; bidding is hidden, so we cannot tell where the buyer was.

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