Page 89 - Prepaid Reply Cards

5.1 ERRORS, MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND MISUSES –BYTHE POSTAL CUSTOMER

INADMISSIBLE USAGE OF SINGLE CARDS
All UPU reply card regulations were directed towards true reply cards originally sent as double cards. Still, as a
typical misuse, single cards, either severed reply cards, single cards with added manuscript «carte réponse» or just
single cards with no additional inscription, were used mostly to acknowledge the receipt of a package or sometime
as inlay to a letter. All these usages all were obvious misuses but often slipped recognition by postal clerks.

Backside of the card
(reduced copy)

Two regular US international postcards sent back from Odessa/Soviet Union in the 1940s without any reply
inscriptions. Both cards show the Odessa mail surveillance agency date‐stamp and are addressed to known
front organisations of the US communist party arranging either travel («World Tourists Inc.») or merchandise
shipment («U.S. Service & Shipping Corporation») to the Soviet Union. The backside of card is shown below
and acknowledges the receipt of a gift consignment.

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