Page 84 - Prepaid Reply Cards

5.1 ERRORS, MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND MISUSES –BYTHE POSTAL CUSTOMER

INADMISSIBLE MIXED FRANKING
Many postal customers tried mixed franking to uprate reply cards not sufficiently prepaid. The simple logic of
the Goldfranc System thereby often led to misunderstanding, that stamps from different countries simply could
be added.

German domestic reply card treated according the popular «5+5=10» logic, since the correct postage would
either been 10 Pfennig – if fully prepaid – or 10 Centimes – if fully paid at time of posting of the reply card.

Besides the simple «5+5=10» logic, often more «creative» approaches were used. This was either applied where
the exchange rates could not be easily converted to the Goldfranc system or if the reply card.

German reply card at the domestic 5 Pfennig rate instead of the necessary 10 Pfennigs. Franked with 3 Kopek
Russian stamp, which did not cover the Russian international postcard rate either, which was 4 Kopek by
01.04.1889. Maybe the sender calculated the value of the 3 Kopeks as equal to the missing German 10
Pfennigs since the value of 3 Kopek was 9.72 Pfennig (1 Ruble = 3.24 Mark)

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