Page 95 - Prepaid Reply Cards

5.2 ERRORS, MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND MISUSES –BYPOSTAL AGENCIES

ERRONEOUS TAX CALCULATION
The UPU regulations clearly stated: if the prepayment did not cover the international postcard rate of the
originating country, the franking should be valued as zero. This rule was often not obeyed by postal clerks, who
accepted the undervalue prepaid postage as partial payment at face value.

Above: Belgian reply card returned from the German post office in Constantinople. Insufficiently prepaid at 5
instead of 10 centimes. Incorrectly, the Belgium post took the 5c stamp into consideration and charged
postage due at 10c, equalling the missing postage of 5c plus a collection fee of 5c.

Below: Swiss reply card insufficiently prepaid with a 10c «official» stamp instead of 25c. The taxation was
correctly set at 50c, equalling the double value of the missing franking at 2x25c.

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