Top 3 Items of the Month
This insured registered cover fetched a handsome £216.03! Sent from West Kensington in London to Berlin in Germany, the cover has a very unusual franking paying 2s 8 1/2d, with the manuscript “insured for twenty pounds” at the top. For letters going abroad, the insurance fee was 5d for the first 12 pounds. This included the registration fee of 2d. Each further insured amount of 12 pounds cost 2 1/2d extra. Therefore paying 7 1/2d in insurance and registration (manuscript as such at lower left), and 25d in postage (10 times the UPU letter rate). Despite the slightly soiled appearance, it is a wonderful franking.
Officials are, not only in my opinion, very underrated. The Inland Revenue overprints are certainly the most common, however it is hard to find a pair of halfpennys paying the 1d letter rate. This pair on an attractive printed OHMS envelope fetched £41.30.
Complete Telegrams like this are rare, and I’m still kicking myself for letting this one go for only £41.00. They are rare because they were supposed to have been destroyed after use. This was the more attractive of two examples that came up on eBay this month, and is franked with a 6d, 4d and a 1 1/2d.
The 1887 Jubilee Issue 