Page 20 - Prepaid Reply Cards
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2.4 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT: THE 1879 UPU AGREEMENT AND THE «OPTIONAL PERIOD»
1879‐1886: THE «OPTIONAL PERIOD» ‐ MORE AND MORE COUNTRIES JOIN THE AGREEMENT
It was the task of the originating postal country of the reply card to prevent and mailing of double cards to
countries not permissible and return such cards to the sender. Still, in many cases cards ended up in countries not
permissible.
UK double card mailed to Brazil from the UK on 23.03.1883. Brazil did not join the special agreement for the
mutual acceptance of reply cards until 21.05.1884. Thus the British PO marked the card as «not transmissible
to»
German prepaid reply card correctly franked at 10 Pfennig returned from Cambridge/UK with CDS 18.01.1882
and marked «contrary to regulations F.L» and «not transmissible» by the Foreign Exchange Office London. The
UK did not acknowledge the prepayment since it did not join the agreement until 01.01.1883.
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