Page 15 - Prepaid Reply Cards

2.3 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT: FIRST MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND MISUSES

2 ND HALF OF THE 1870S: PREPAID REPLY CARDS NOT VALID IN INTERNATIONAL MAIL
One of the biggest problems were prepaid reply cards send to Austria-Hungaria. Due to the history of the
German-Austrian Postal Union the relations between Germany and Austria-Hungaria were special. Still, Austria-
Hungaria never joiung the «German Agreement» and therefore did not accept any prepaid reply cards originating
from Germany. In the German Reichspost’s announcements from 23.061975 this fact was explicitally stated.

Domestic postal stationery reply from the German Imperial Post used back from Austria in 1875.
Even though the card was sufficiently franked in theory – postcards between Austria and the German Empire
were accepted at the domestic rate – the franking was not accepted due to the lack of respective bilateral
regulations, and an extra 2 Kreuzer adhesive stamp had to be affixed
[Ex Schindler]

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