Page 23 - The Sideways Experimenatal Duplex 1852-1858

CHELTENHAM

TYPE II
Continuing with further examples of the Type II hand stamp.

TYPE A recut
Issued on 27th July 1857. In this recut stamp you can see that the letters appear a little larger and of course
much sharper than the original hand stamp.

The above strike is seen used on a 2d mulready letter sheet which was in normal use from the start of the postage
stamp in 1840. They proved to be unsuccessful with the public and were often ridiculed so saw far less use than the
postage stamps and were replaced with the Postal stationery Envelope in 1841. The strike you see above is dated
14th September 1857 and has been used 16 years later than would have been expected. The 2d cost of the letter
sheet was also the postage cost. You can see that on the front there is a manuscript 2 which has been crossed out
and replaced with a manuscript 4. In my opinion I think the postal clerk was unsure how to treat it and decided to
make a charge of 2d double the postage rate of Id. Doubling the postage rate was post office rules for unpaid mail.
Then perhaps realising that it was over 112 ounce crossed it out and charged 4d double the next postage rate of 2d for
up to 1 ow1ce. Of course it should not have been charged at all as the postage had been paid.
The code used was letter F the most often seen used with this hand stamp.