Frugality—as Seen on the 5c First Allegory Postal Card

 

Here are a couple more examples of unusual uses of the 5c gray First Allegory Issue postal card.

I.  Frugal use of out-of-period stamps and stationery

 

Luxembourg-Ville, August 23,  1886, to Soden-am- Taunus, Germany

The 5c gray Allegory card appeared on December 1, 1882, along with the Allegory definitives.  Enschedé supplied the sixth and last printing on October 27, 1884.  Thereafter, on April 1, 1885, the first printing of the 5c green Allegory card was placed on sale.

Thus, this 5c gray card, used on August 23, 1886, to Soden am Taunus, Germany, is already a slightly out-of-period use.  But what distinguishes this card from other uprated 5c grays in my collection is the franking.  The 1c Arms definitive is from the 1880 Haarlem printing and the 4c Arms definitive is from the 1875 Luxembourg printing!  That’s certainly frugality!

 

 

II.  Frugality failure

Sometimes, however, an effort to be frugal fails, as in the example below:

 

 

Redange, May 10, 1885, transit Luxembourg-Gare, to Farciennes, Belgium, the next day

 

Here the sender has attempted to uprate this 5c gray Allegory card to pay the ten-centime postal card rate to Belgium using a 5c gray cutout!  The card was posted at Redange, May 10, 1885, transited Luxembourg-Gare, reaching Farciennes, Belgium, on May 11, 1885.

The attempted uprating apparently did not sit well with the postal clerk in Luxembourg-Gare who cancelled the cutout (since the Redange clerk had not) and probably struck the ‘T’ indicating taxation of the card ending the sender’s effort to be frugal!

I occasionally see postal stationery cutouts used to uprate letters that also bear adhesive stamps.  However, this is the first time I’ve seen a postal card uprated with a postal stationery cutout!