Page 100 - Prepaid Reply Cards

5.2 ERRORS, MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND MISUSES –BYPOSTAL AGENCIES

OFFICIALLY RECORDED LACK OF KNOWLEDGE
As reply cards were a scarce usage, lack of knowledge and routine in handling prepaid reply cards with foreign
stamps affixed always posed a challenge to postal clerks. Still, sometimes it occurred that a post office showed its
ignorance in an official statement.

Question side of the card
(reduced copy)

Reverse side of the above question card, originally mailed from an East German philatelist requesting the reply
card to be returned with a special cancellation in 1967. The West German post office applied a marking
indicating the rules for answering such requests, which is according to the UPU rules, stating that foreign
stamps only could be cancelled if affixed on a reply card. Still, a local postal clerk added a handwritten
statement, that this rule does not apply to adhesive stamps (!) As we all know, he was wrong but prey to a very
common misconception.

99