‘Precursor’ to the Five-centime Third Allegory Postal Stationery Issue

 

San serif ‘A’ Second Allegory Issue & Third Issue—1st Delivery	Serifed ‘A’ Third Allegory Issue— 2nd through 38th Deliveries

 

The second of two five-centime green Second Allegory issue postal cards appeared on September 12, 1887.  It featured the caption “CARTE POSTALE/Postkarte” with a straight bar in the letter A of CARTE and letter A of POSTALE.  Enschedé’s last delivery, which consisted of 28,000 cards, occurred on 
February 29, 1888.  Like Enschedé’s six prior deliveries, the card’s first address line was preceded by a sans serif ‘A.’

The Third Allegory issue appeared in July 1888 with “CARTE POSTALE.—POSTKARTE” replacing “CARTE POSTALE./Postkarte.” Curiously, the first delivery, comprising only 41,000 cards, also precedes the first address line with a sans serif ‘A.’  However, the subsequent 38 deliveries between August 14, 188 and December 24, 1894, comprising 2,647,990 cards, precede the first address line with a serifed ‘A.’  What prompted the design change?  What’s the earliest known use of the sans serif ‘A’?

Thus, only about two-tenths of one percent of the five-centime Third Allegory cards were issued with a sans serif ‘A.’  They are well worth looking for when you search through a batch of otherwise common five-centime Third Allegory postal cards.  Over many years of collecting, I’ve only acquired a few examples.  Here are some of them:

San serif ‘A’

Ulflingen-Luxemburg TPO, transit Mersch, to Postes Relais No. 2 [Bissen], all on 11 Oct 1888

Echternach, transit Luxembourg-Gare, 1 Sep 1888, received Paris [blue incoming cds], 2 Sep 1888, Paris 66 [Rue Meissonier black cds], 2 Sep 1888, uprated with a 4c 1875 Arms definitive (!) and a 1c Allegory definitive.

Serifed ‘A’