Overlooked Rates—Post-WW2 Treaty Rates to Italy and the Netherlands

 

Beginning in the late 1940s, postal treaties provided for substantially reduced postal rates from Luxembourg to Italy and the Netherlands.  Although commercial covers from this period are plentiful, I’ve had a hard time finding treaty-rate covers to these two countries.  How many do you have in your collection?  Take a look!

For example, here are some of the post-WW2 rates for a 20g letter:

To Italy: 

               1966-1976 = 3.00 F
               1976-1983 = 6.00 F
               1983-1986 = 10.00 F
               Thereafter, CEPT and Europa rates applied

To the Netherlands:

                1 Apr 1947-1949 = 1.50 F
                1949-15 Jul 1958 = 2.00 F
                15 Jul 1958-1 Oct 1973 = 3.00 F
                1 Oct 1973-1976 = 4.00 F
                1976-1 Jul 1980 = 6.00 F
                1 Jul 1980-1 Jul 1983 = 8.00 F
                1 Jul 1983-1986 = 10.00 F
                1986-1 Jul 1988 = 12.00 F
                 Special rates continued until 1 Jul 1997!

UPU rates:

                   1 Oct 1945-1949 = 3.50 F
                   1949-15 Jul 1958 = 4.00 F
                   15 Jul 1958-16 Sep 1963 = 5.00 F
                   16 Sep 1963-1 Jul 1971 = 6.00 F
                   1 Jul 1971-1976 = 8.00 F
                   1976-1 Jul 1981 = 12.00 F
                   1 Jul 1981-1986 =16.00 F
                   1986-1991 = 20.00 F

To the Netherlands in 1954
at the 2.00 Fr Letter Rate

         Luxembourg-Ville to Scheveningen, Netherlands
27 Jul 1954  

To Italy in 1969 at the 3.00 Fr Letter Rate

(+ 12.00 Fr special delivery fee)

Luxembourg-Ville ab,
20 May 1969,
Special delivery to
Rome, Italy,
22 May 1969

To Italy in 1979 at the 6.00 Fr Letter Rate
(+ 20 Fr registry fee)

                

Luxembourg 2h, 
21 Aug 1979,
registered to Montebelluna, Italy,
25 Aug 1979

      
         

                 
    

               

               

 

5c Adolphe (3rd issue) Domestic Reply Card–Used from Arsdorf to Diekirch During the 1918 Paper Shortage

Emergency Use of Obsolete Luxembourg Postal Stationery

During the World War 1 Paper Shortage

In early 1918, World War 1 was winding down. Due to wartime demands, paper shortages were widespread. Here’s how the government responded when Enschedé in Holland temporarily lacked the paper needed to print government orders for the then-current Coat of Arms postal cards.

The Allegory postal stationery had been demonetized as of January 1, 1906, and the Adolphe stationery as of January 1, 1909, but approximately 5,000 to 7,000 unused Allegory and Grand Duke Adolphe postal cards remained in government storage. By directives dated April 18 and April 23, 1918, the government ordered that these obsolete postal cards be distributed to post offices whose supplies of postal cards had been depleted.

Before distributing the obsolete cards, the government invalidated the stamp imprint with a three-concentric-ring obliterator and instructed postal clerks to add adhesive stamps.

5c Adolphe
(3rd issue)
Reply Card

Arsdorf,
15 June 1918,
to
Diekirch

This emergency use of the 5c Adolphe Reply card (3rd issue) is notable for three reasons:

First, the third issue of Grand Duke Adolphe postal stationery appeared during the latter half of 1906 (August 1906 is the frühdatum listed in the FSPL handbook), well after Adolphe’s death in November 1905.  It was superseded about a year later, in July 1907, by the Coat of Arms postal stationery.  As a consequence, even the 5c and 10c third issue cards are uncommon, and commercial uses of the third issue 5c+5c domestic and 10c+10c UPU cards are seldom seen.  Here the 5c reply card has been recalled from storage and invalidated with the three-concentric-ring obliterator, with a 5c Coat of Arms stamp added to pay the domestic-rate postage.

Second, unlike many emergency uses of the obsolete stationery, the 5c stamp was applied next to rather than over the invalid 5c stamp imprint.  And just to be safe, the Arsdorf postal clerk canceled both the stamp and the stamp imprint!

And third, obsolete cards were only distributed to post offices whose supply of postal cards had been depleted. This is the first example recorded as written and postmarked at Arsdorf.

A remarkable postal history and postal stationery card, indeed!

Uncommon use -- A Postal Card Sent Registered, Special Delivery in 1932!

40c Charlotte Profile
(Luxembourg view)

Luxembourg-Gare to Luxembourg-Ville
14 Nov 1932

Domestic postal card = 40c

Registry fee = 1.75F

Special Delivery fee = 1.50F

We occasionally see postal cards sent by registered mail or special delivery.  However, use of these two special services for the same card is uncommon.  I like this example!

 

Hanky-Panky — the 20c ‘Brown’ Adolphe S.P. Official Overprint!

han·ky-pan·ky

(hăng′kē-păng′kē)

n. Slang

1. Devious or mischievous activity.

20c Orange	20 Brown P. 11½	Hanky-Panky P. 11½x11

The 20c orange GD Adolphe definitive (Yvert 61; Michel 59) appeared in sheets of 100 in 1893.  It is occasionally seen chemically altered, so as to appear to be the unissued 20c brown (Yvert 61a).  And that is also what has been done to the 20c GD Adolphe S.P. official seen on the cover shown below.

The unissued 20c brown was produced in 1891, along with the first two GD Adolphe values (the 10c and 25c) in small sheets of 25 stamps perforate 11½.  As the brown color of the 20c differed from the orange color that had been announced in the government journal Le Mémorial, only the 10c and 25c were initially issued. 

Luxembourg-Ville VI, 5 April 1894
to Frankfurt (Main)

15g Letter to Germany = 25c
Add'l 15g = 25c
Registry fee = 25c

The 20c ‘brown’ overprinted S.P. for official use seen on this cover, however, is perforate 12½, so it cannot be from the 1891 printing.  Also, from chemical treatment the paper shows a slight yellowish tinge, unlike the white paper of the 12½c and 25c stamps seen on the cover.  And under natural light, a little bit of film remains on the 20c stamp from the chemical used to alter the stamp’s color.

*   *   *

Below, you can see the genuine 20c brown (perforate 11½!) used as part of the franking on a registered letter from Grevenmacher to Leipzig in 1905.  It presumably was posted by the mischievous Mr. Wagner, who at one time had acquired all of the unissued 20c brown stamps, and who in the spirit of hanky-panky succeeded in posting a number of registered letters with the unissued 20c brown and other franking.  This cover is one of only a couple 20c brown covers that Wagner posted from Grevenmacher.

Grevenmacher, 29 May 1905
to Oetzsch-Gautsch by Leipzig

20g Letter to Germany =  12½c
Registry fee = 25c

So, call it hanky-panky, hokus-pokus, or skullduggery, whatever you will; as philatelists, we have more to fear than ISIS or the boogeyman!

Official Mail to Egypt's Delegate to the 1897 UPU Congress in Washington, D.C.

The 5th UPU Congress met in Washington, D.C. from 5 May to 15 June 1897.  The cover shown below, franked with the 25c G.D. Adolphe S.P. official, was posted from Luxembourg-Ville on 22 May 1897, to Youssef Saba, Egypt’s delegate and plenipotentiary to the Congress, and is backstamped 3 Jun 1897 at Washington, D.C.

On the reverse is the Grand Ducal Coat-of-arms with a special wax seal created for the Congress,  inscribed:

Govt G-D de Luxembourg – UPU Congress.

Post-WW2 Official Mail from the Palace in 1950 to the Grand Ducal Residence in Lenggries

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grand-Ducal Property Management
Luxembourg-Ville,
21 Apr 1950
to
Revierförsterei Hohenburg,
Lenggries, Bavaria

20g letter to Germany = 4.00 F
2.50F/add’l 20g x 2 = 5.00 F

60c Charlotte Official Franks an Official Printed Matter Wrapper in 1929 from Redange to Belgium

 

 

 

Grand-Duché de Luxembourg – Grossherzogtum Luxemburg.
Administration de l’Enregistrement et des Domaines
Enregistrements- und Domänenverwaltung

Oval Cachet:

Bureau de l’Enregistrement
et des Domaines
Redange-sur-Attert

· Redange s.A. I, 9 Oct 1929, with instructions in manuscript
to the Luxembourg-Ville post to apply official stamps

· Luxembourg-Ville, 10 Oct 1929

· To Strainchamps, Belgium

50g-100g Printed matter to Belgium = 60c

When Schengen was just a Customs Bureau (rather than a hotly debated travel agreement)

 

 

 

The little village of Schengen in Luxembourg is where the borders of Germany, France, and Luxembourg come together. The so-called Schengen Agreement, which allows visa-free travel, as well as free flow of workers and goods, within the European Union (and a few other countries), takes its name from this Luxembourgish village.

The Schengen Agreement recently has come under attack as refugees continue to flow into Europe at a rate unprecedented since the end of World War 2. But the EU Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg, has warned that the euro as a common currency is pointless if people can't move around freely to use it. Earlier this year, Juncker called for creation of a European standing army to protect European values. Those of us who favor popular sovereignty over centralized authority will eagerly but apprehensively watch how the political struggle over the policies associated with Schengen plays out.

 

 

But long before the Schengen Agreement took effect, a customs office (a Bureau des Douanes) was situated in the village. The cover shown below was posted from the Schengen Customs Bureau at nearby Remerschen (as Schengen has never had its own post office) on
8 March 1940 11:00-12:00 noon. The manuscript notation at the top asks that the post in Luxembourg-Ville apply official stamps to the letter, which is addressed to the President of the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium. This was done the same day, with a 70c Charlotte (2^nd) horizontal official postmarked 8 March 1940 7:00-8:00 p.m. paying the 20g letter rate to Belgium.

 

 

New Issue Announcements by the PTT–from mimeograph in 1940 to YouTube video in 2015!

 

PTT announcing the Mondorf-les-Bains semi-postal in January 1940

 

PTT announcing the entire 2016 stamp program on 19 November 2015 via a  beautifully executed, 17-minute YouTube Video

(just click on the link below to watch the video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5scnrcRn64I

 

The speakers tell us about the background of the new issues (in German, of course), but the song is in English!  Definitely worth watching, and quite a contrast to those old mimeographed announcements I used to receive.  Homely as they were, they did have one advantage: up until the WW2 occupation, they were sent in covers nicely franked with the official stamps!

Unlisted Displaced Overprint on the 5-Franc p. 12½ Adolphe Bridge Official

 

Normal Overprint	Displaced Overprint
P. 12.5	P. 12.5

 

 

Luxembourg-Ville
8 Sep 1937
Transit New York, 20 Sep 1937
to
Washington, D.C., Library of Congress,
21 Sep 1937

20g UPU letter = 1.75F
1F/add’l 20g x 2 = 2.00F
UPU registry fee = 1.75F

 

 

If you collect the officials, you know that the 5-franc p. 12½ Adolphe Bridge pictorial with the Officiel overprint in red did not appear until 1934, and that it is much scarcer than the p. 11½x11 version, which appeared 12 years earlier, in 1922. 

The cover shown here was posted in September 1937 from the Office des Timbres Officiels (violet cachet), so unsurprisingly it bears the scarce p. 12½ Adolphe Bridge official.

But what is more remarkable is that the Officiel overprint is displaced to the very top right of the stamp.  This variety is unlisted in Prifix and not mentioned in other references.  Do you have an example in your collection?