Wednesday, March 06, 2013

The Scarcest 20th Century Returned Reply Card?

 

The third issue of Grand-Duke Adolphe postal stationery included a 10c+10c message-reply card.  Despite the ridiculously low Prifix valuation for the 10c reply card, I’ve only seen one used example (shown below) in 50 years of collecting Luxembourg postal stationery. 

Prifix 62 is my candidate for the scarcest 20th century Luxembourg reply card.  Do you agree?

What other 20th century Luxembourg reply cards are scarce commercially used in period?

001

     

Longwy-Bas, Meurthe et Mlle, France,
19 July 1908 [4:00 a.m.]

Luxembourg-Ville V,
19 July 1908 [7:00-8:00 a.m.]

002

The third Adolphe stationery issue is something of a mystery.  We don’t know the exact date of issue (August 1906 is given in the FSPL Handbook) nor the quantities printed.  Grand Duke Adolphe had already died in November 1905; and the modern Coat-of-Arms stationery had already appeared in July 1907.  Moreover, the Adolphe adhesives and stationery were demonitized at the end of 1908, leaving a short, 29-month life span for the third issue, including the 17 months during which the Arms stationery also was available. 

The earliest use I have is the 10c card used to England on November 27, 1906.  Occasionally a card is seen used after the demonetization date.

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