A 70c Domestic Registry Fee in 1926? Yes! Updated below.

Rate Turbulence in the 1920s

In the mid-1920s, postal rates worldwide were changing frequently as world economies moved closer to the Great Depression that hit in 1929. Consequently for the postal historian, this is a fascinating period in which to study the interaction of politics, economics, and postal charges.

A 70c Registry Fee in 1926?

The Luxembourg Postman’s Calendar for 1926 (excerpted above) indicates that the 1926 domestic registry fee was 70 centimes, an increase of 20 centimes from the prior 50-centime rate. When was this 70-centime registry fee in effect? From the Basien-Hoffkamp rate book, we know that an 80-centime registry fee took effect on August 1, 1926. Was the 80-centime fee preceded by a 70-centime fee? If so, when did the 50c rate end and the 70c rate begin?

Here is an example:

Domestic COD Postcard

 1F Blue Vianden + 30c Charlotte

Luxembourg-Gare, 31 May 1926
Bigonville [post: Perlé], 31 May 1926

Domestic postcard rate = 20c
Domestic registry fee = 70c
COD fee to collect 319.40 F = 40c

 

Update: 
  Dieter Basien confirms the 70-centime registry fee, thus:

01.10.1925 0,50 F.

01.01.1926 0,70 F.

01.08.1926 0,80 F.

Here is the announcement from L’Memorial of 26 December 1925:

Danke, Dieter!

Postal History as Political History: When War Beckoned

 

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1-Fr. Prince Henry 1839-1939 Centenary of Independence Issue Grundhof, 23 August 1939 to South Portland, Maine USA 1-Fr. UPU Post Card Rate

Dear Friends, We are still in Luxembourg, but it is getting too dangerous. All your countrymen and Englishmen are going home, and tomorrow we go to Holland. It is a great pity, but we must go, for when war begins it is impossible. Sincerely, Jack

There is irony in the franking—a stamp from the issue celebrating Luxembourg’s century of independence. 

In more recent times, I suspect similar sentiments were expressed by those leaving Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, as conflict beckoned, not to forget the Ukraine even today.

From A to Z

Collecting incoming mail adds color and richness to a Luxembourg postal history collection.  And with searchable websites and auction catalogs, it’s possible to find many unusual examples.  Here are a couple of my favorites—Aden and Zanzibar:

Aden to Luxembourg-Grund in 1894 10 Pf. German Eagle Postal Card

Deutsche Seepost, Ost-Asiatische Haupt Linie 23 Feb 1894 Aden, 23 Feb 1894   Transit Ligne N Paq. FR. No. 8 25 Feb 1894   To Luxembourg-Grund

Written at Aden, 21 Feb 1894 (in French!)

Aden's location made it a popular exchange port for mail passing between places around the Indian Ocean and Europe during the late 19th and early 20th century (the Zanzibar card below is an example).  The 1910 Encyclopaedia Britannica [11th ed.] mentions that the port back then was visited yearly by 1300 steamers.   The Wharf at Aden

Zanzibar to Luxembourg-Ville in 1898 1 Anna Zanzibar Postal Card

Zanzibar [Squared Circle] 15 Jun 1898 Transit Aden, 27 Jun 1898 Luxembourg-Ville, 11 Jul 1898 Forwarded to: Luneville, France, 12 Jul 1898

Sent to J. G. Paquelet, whose stamp dealer correspondence spanned the globe.

World War II: 50 Rpf. Special Delivery Fee to Belgium

Luxemburg, 3 Oct 1941    Censored:  C22 [Cologne]   To Brussels, Belgium With Mixed franking: 6 Rpf. Hitler-head 50 Rpf. Hindenburg

During the World War II occupation, letters and postcards from Luxembourg to Belgium were treated preferentially, with the Reich domestic 12 Rpf. letter rate and 6 Rpf. postcard rate applying. (In contrast, mail to neighboring France was charged the 25 Rpf. foreign letter and 15 Rpf. postcard rate.)

However, the special delivery fee to Belgium was 50 Rpf.—the fee charged for foreign mail, not the 40 Rpf. Reich domestic special delivery fee.

The commercial postcard shown above shows the Belgian preferential 6 Rpf. postcard rate and the non-preferential 50 Rpf. special delivery fee.

I also like the corner card: 

Antony Steinbach

Luxemburg-Bahnhof
Hochfeine glanzlacke
[fine gloss paint]

 

Modern Luxembourg Postal History – Collectible and Affordable

I often wonder why so much modern Luxembourg postal history goes wanting. Enjoyment of philately and postal history should not be just for the rich.

In the 14th Schlegel auction in Berlin this week, there were over 300 lots of Luxembourg classics, but the starting price for the least expensive lot was about 50 euros (plus commission, plus a per lot fee, plus money transfer charges, plus shipping). On websites like Delcampe and Jim Forte’s www.postalhistory.com, however, you’ll find that equally interesting, equally challenging modern postal history abounds, and it is often offered for one-tenth of that 50-euro threshold over at auction houses like Schlegel.

Here’s an example of a recent purchase of mine of modern Luxembourg postal history from a seller in Portugal—price: just $2.99!

 

Rate:

64 gm. [50g-100g rate] letter to Germany = 36 F

Registry fee to Germany = 80 F

1 May 1996 tariff
Franking: 

1990 Dynasty Sheet (100 F) +
16 F 1999 UPU 125th Anniversary commemorative

Cancel:

Weiswampach tourist hand cancel,
16 Sep 1999

Route:

Weiswampach to Hilden, Germany
Registry labels:

Luxembourg:  RR 002464874 LU

Germany:  R04291240692DE

Reverse Corner card (on back flap):
Walter Strelow
Anlageberater [Investment Advisor]
Bonn

Scarce Luxembourg-franked mail carried on the DO-X Demonstration Flight in 1931!

Rare Luxembourg Franking

Dornier-X (DO-X) Flying Boat

Taking Off

Completed in June 1929 and first flown on 23 July 1929, the 56-ton Dornier Do-X was then the world’s largest, heaviest, and most powerful flying boat.  Powered by 12 engines (six tractor propellers and six pushers), it was designed to carry 66 passengers in luxurious accommodations on long flights (like on an ocean liner) and 100 on short flights.  The engines consumed 400 gallons of gas each hour.

The 1930-1931 Promotional Flight

To introduce the airliner to the potential United States market the Do-X took off from Friedrichshafen, Germany, on 3 November 1930, for a transatlantic test flight to New York, just three years after Lindbergh's historic trans-Atlantic flight. The convoluted route (shown in red on the map) first took the Do-X to the Netherlands, England, France, Spain, and Portugal.

Treaty mail from certain European countries was accepted for dispatch via Friedrichshafen with stamps of the country of origin exclusively.  The American Air Mail Society (AAMS) catalogue lists these countries as Austria, Danzig, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, Saar and Switzerland, with the possibility of mail “dispatched from Luxembourg (with Luxembourg and Dutch stamps)” (5th ed., vol. 5, p. 2353).

The scarcity of Luxembourg-franked treaty mail is evident from the $1000 value placed on such mail by the AAMS in the 1985 catalog ($1000. in 1985 = $2170. in today’s inflated US dollars).

Luxembourg Franking Luxembourg-Ville, 10 Jan 1931

Netherlands Franking ’sGravenhage, 12 Jan 1931

Friedrichschafen (Bodensee) Transit cancel and DO-X cachet, 15 Jan 1931

At Lisbon, the journey was interrupted on 29 November, when a tarpaulin made contact with a hot exhaust pipe and started a fire that consumed most of the portside wing. The DO-X remained in Lisbon harbor for six weeks, until the end of January, while new parts were fabricated and the damage repaired by Dornier technicians. Additional mail was taken aboard at Lisbon.

Do-X cancel – 30 Jan 1931
Just prior to departing from Lisbon on 31 Jan 1931

The DO-X resumed its demonstration flight on 31 January 1931, and after 7 hours and an average speed of 190 km/h, the flying boat reached its first stop at Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.

But the aircraft was dogged by bad luck. On 3 February shortly before take-off, the Do X collided with a swell that came rolling in. The boat suffered a heavy blow, and the wings were almost torn off. The aircraft was stuck in Las Palmas for the next three months because of the necessary improvements to her structure.

The AAMS catalogue notes that a “few [covers] are known with [the] backstamp of Puerto de la Luz.” citing only Austrian-franked mail as having such a backstamp.  (Las Palmas is also known as Puerto de la Luz.)  Here the Luxembourg-franked card shown above also bears the backstamp of Puerto de la Luz:

Puerto de la Luz (Canaries) backstamp 26 Mar 1931

The flight continued on from Las Palmas.  However, this card was returned from Las Palmas to Rotterdam, where it arrived on 31 March 1931, and from whence it was forwarded to The Hague, the addressee being G.A.G. Thoolen, whose cachet on the back reads “Air Post Specialist ‘s-Gravenhage – Holland.”

Rotterdam Receiving Cancel 31 March 1931

By 5 June 1931, the DO-X had reached the islands of Cape Verde, from which it crossed the ocean to Natal in Brazil, where the crew were greeted as heroes by the local German émigré communities.

The flight continued north to the United States, finally reaching New York on 27 August 1931, almost nine months after departing Friedrichshafen.

Quite a memorable era in aviation and aeropostal history!

Five-color, four-territory, two-issue, registered 42 Rpf. cover incoming to Mondorf-les-Bains in 1941

Sometimes a cover is so visually compelling as to be irresistible, depending of course on your sense of philatelic beauty.  For me, this stunner was such a cover:

Mixed Franking	3 Rpf.   Alsace Hindenburg (brown) 5 Rpf.   Lorraine Hindenburg (green) 6 Rpf.   Reich Hitler-head (violet) 8 Rpf.   Luxemburg Hindenburg (orange) 20 Rpf. Lorraine Hindenburg (blue)
Territories	Reich, Alsace, Lorraine, Luxemburg
Routing	Hayingen (Lothr), 29 September 1941 to Bad Mondorf, 30 September 1941
Rate	12 Rpf. 20g letter to Luxemburg 30 Rpf. Registration fee

Validity

Hindenburgs: 1 Oct 1940 – 31 Dec 1941
Hitler-heads:  1 Aug 1941 - 1944

         

Post-WWII Fiscal Use of the G.D. Charlotte 3rd Series definitives

Gouvernement grand-ducal
Office des Licences

10-Fr Charlotte (3rd Ser.) License fee for a license to import 100 tons of sugar syrup from Cuba (Contract value = US $31,500) 20 November 1946

As reconstruction began after World War II in Luxembourg, printing new revenue stamps was a low priority.  Instead, the G.D. Charlotte 3rd Series definitives, issued in 1944 and 1946, were used.  Thus, we often find these stamps with government-agency fiscal cancels, such as you see here, particularly the higher denominations.  But uses on documents are scarce.     1 1/4-Fr (4) Administration Communale Steinfort

Free Domestic Official Mail from Arsdorf in 1881

Written at Arsdorf by the Mayor,
3 March 1881

Redange, 5 Mar 1881, to

Diekirch, 6 Mar 1881

Use of Arsdorf’s Postes Relais No. 1 cancel does not appear until 1882. The FSPL Handbook lists 4 January 1882 as the earliest known use. This is consistent with this official folded letter having been posted at Redange although written at Arsdorf.

Rare, Rarer, Rarest

International Reply Cards

At an exhibits critique in Fresno in the 1970s, Samuel Ray, an esteemed philatelic judge from Chicago, once referred to international reply cards as the bête noire of postal stationery exhibits.  If a particularly scarce reply card was absent from an exhibit, Judge Sam deducted a lot of points from your score.  So ever since hearing his admonition, I’ve been mindful to step up when reply cards returned to or from Luxembourg have appeared in the marketplace.

So-called message-reply (or simply “double-reply”) cards were included when formular postal stationery began to appear in the early 1870s, as I show with the first Luxembourg example below. 

And in February 1872, Württemberg issued the first stamp- imprinted reply-paid double card.  Later the same year, the Netherlands also issued a reply-paid double card.

These first stamp-imprinted reply-paid cards were used internally or to concession-rate countries, as seen in my second Luxembourg example.  More widespread international use of the pre-paid reply cards began in 1879, when 10 countries (Argentina, Belgium, the German Empire, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, and Switzerland) agreed to return the reply halves of one another’s double cards.

And at Lisbon in 1885, the Universal Postal Union passed a resolution requiring all member countries to accept reply paid cards issued by any other member country.  The requirement remained in effect until the Tokyo Conference of 1971.

Now, in preparing a single-frame exhibit of international reply cards returned to and from Luxembourg for an upcoming show in Bandung, I need to comment on the relative scarcity of Luxembourg’s reply cards.  You can help me by sharing your opinions.

Let’s begin by identifying the three rarest Luxembourg international reply cards!  Here are my three candidates:

Rarest

Luxembourg’s
Formular Message-Reply Card

Issued 1 February 1873

Trier, Germany, 21 Mar 1873 1-2N to Luxemburg Franking: Germany - Small Shield ¼ Groschen Pair Rate effective 1 July 1872

Hansmichael Krug BDPH Certificate – 3 Jul 2013  ”Brustschildfrankaturen auf amtlichen luxemburgischen Korrespondenz-Karenformularen sind sehr selten.”

Paragraph 4 on the card expressly authorizes international use (between Luxembourg and Germany):

Correspondenzkarten mit Rückantwort sind sowohl im innern Verkehr des Grossherzogthums, als auch im Verkehre mit Deutschland zulässig.
[English:  Correspondence cards with return will be accepted both in the Grand Duchy’s domestic commerce and in its intercourse with Germany.]

This formular card is known used unfranked, endorsed in manuscript “Z.S.” for zeitungssache, and addressed to the Luxemburger Wort newspaper.  The examples I’ve seen of such use were posted after Luxembourg’s first double card with a stamp imprint appeared in August of 1874.  I understand this was official use by various post offices to order newspaper subscription shipments from the Luxemburger Wort (and, perhaps, to use up the remaining supply of these cards after the first stamp-imprinted domestic double card had been issued).  

But except for this use, I have not seen any other use—domestic or international—with adhesive stamps.  Such uses might exist, but where are they?  Certainly not in exhibits, publications, or auction catalogs!  So unless I see one or more additional franked uses, I believe this card deserves to be rated as the rarest Luxembourg international reply card.  Let me know if you agree! 

Second Rarest

1878 Sixth Arms Issue
12½c+12½c Message-Reply Card

Issued 30 April 1878

Frankfurt A/Main, Germany, 1 Feb 1879 to Luxembourg-Ville

As part of the Sixth Arms Issue, only 5000 message-reply cards were printed.  They served the short-lived 12½c foreign rate that ended a scant 11 months later, as the UPU and French and Germany treaty rates were all reduced to 10c on April 1, 1879.  The French Association du Collectionneurs des Entiers Postaux, in their catalog of Luxembourg postal stationery authored by the Belgian specialist, August Wery, consider this card, when properly used, to be the rarest of the Luxembourg cards with an imprinted stamp

. 

These double cards were printed in a four-card setting.  This card is Type 4 – long bar = 14 mm. -- and was used during the eleven-month period that the 12½c German rate remained in effect.

I once purchased a collection of 5000 worldwide postal cards just to obtain a used 12½c message card from this issue that the collection contained.  When the card arrived, much to my disappointment, I discovered that it had been used a couple months after the 12½c rate had decreased to 10c.  Of course, I didn’t toss it into the trash bin.  Any commercial use of this card – message or, especially, reply – is rare!  After fifty years of collecting, I’ve not seen another used example of this reply card.

Third Rarest

1874 Second Arms Issue
6c+6c Message-Reply Card

Issued 27 Aug and 16 Oct 1874

Schirmeck, in the then-German Alsace-Lorraine 8 Dec 1874, to Weyerskirch b/s [post: Dommeldingen], 9 Dec 1874

The Second Arms Issue contained Luxembourg’s first double cards with an imprinted stamp.  The 6c+6c card was issued for the concession rate with Germany that was in effect from 27 August 1874 to 30 April 1878.

An example of the 6c Reply Card returned from Germany during the six-centime concession rate period eluded me for many years.  Then, while walking down rue Drouot in Paris one summer afternoon in search of color roulettes, I noticed this card in a dealer’s Luxembourg stock.  Fortunately, there was an ATM nearby.  I’ve not seen any other incoming use of this card.

The card is from the first printing.  It’s Type 1.1 (pale violet) and is easily identified as the top right corner of the Coat of Arms is cut off.  

With a printing of 10,003, there must be other incoming uses somewhere, but where?