Page 43 - Prepaid Reply Cards

4.1 REGULATIONS AND PRACTICES –GENERAL UPU REGULATIONS

HARMONIZATION OF POSTAL RATES AND THE GOLDFRANC‐SYSTEM
One of the key issues of early GPU/UPU activities was the harmonization of rates. In 1874 the rate for
international postcards was fixed at half the price of an international letter. In 1897 this was changed to the
equivalent of 10 centimes according the gold franc system. These rates remained unchanged until 1921.
The gold franc rate first was introduced by France in 1803 and later adopted by many of contract countries of
the Latin Monetary Union, as well as several informal adopters. Basically, the value of the franc – in some
countries other names were used – was fixed at 10 francs being the equal of 2.9032 grams of fine gold. The gold
franc system remained intact until WWI with more and more countries dropping out of the system. The UPU
continued to use the system to calculate rates and fees between its members. The UPU goldfranc remained a
virtual currency – listed as XFO – from 1920 until 2003.

COUNTRIES PARTICIPATING IN THE LATIN MONETARY UNION
The rate for an international postcard was fixed at 10 goldcentimes or 20 goldcentimes for a double card covering
both ways. A random selection is shown.

France, using the
goldfranc since 1803

Switzerland,
using the goldfranc
since 1850

Venezuela, using the
goldfranc since 1879

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