Page 11 - Prepaid Reply Cards

2.2 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT: FIRST «REPLY CARDS» AND «THE GERMAN AGREEMENT»

1873 AND FOLLOWING: MORE COUNTRIES JOIN THE «GERMAN AGREEMENT»
Soon after the introduction of double cards with pre-paid reply parts and their mutual acceptance between
Bavaria, Württemberg and the German Imperial Post, other postal administrations joined and signed respective
bilateral or multilateral agreements. The usage of reply cards still was very scarce and led to many problems in
the acceptance of the «international» stamps as valid franking.

1870s mutual agreements:
Date Countries
01.01.1872 German Reichspost, Bavaria and Württemberg
01.02.1873 Luxembourg joins German agreement
15.04.1874 Romania joins German agreement
21.06.1875 Belgium joins German agreement
1876 Heligoland joins German agreement
According to some texts, also The Netherlands joined the «German Agreement» but no real evidence could be
found

Reply postcard from the Royal Mail in Heligoland returned 1878 from German Imperial Post territory, franked
at the German domestic rate of 5 Pfennig, equivalent to 3 Farthings.
The card was initially issued in 1876 following a bilateral agreement between Heligoland and the German
Imperial Post on the mutual acceptance of reply cards.
The card is part of the well known «Pilger‐Korrespondenz» of the Royal Postmaster residing on Heligoland and
his wife living in Zehdenick in Imperial Post territory ©

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