Page 16 - Prepaid Reply Cards
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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.
Two German domestic prepaid reply cards returned from Bohemia/Austria. The card shown above (1875) was
transmitted without any objections while the card at the bottom (1874) was correctly taxed at 2 Groschen.
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