Collecting Postage Due Stamps
The
first Postage Due Stamp was issued by France in 1859. Many other nations
followed, including the United States Post Office in 1879. Postal regulations called for the postal
clerk to affix a postage due stamp to an envelope in order to indicate insufficient
postage and how much money the addressee had to pay to receive the mail. Thus came into being the first series of
Postage Due Stamps with denominations from 1-cent to 50-cents in 7
denominations.
Since
postage due stamps are almost always used only within a single country, they
are usually quite simple in design, mostly consisting of a large numeral, and
an inscription saying "postage due", "porto", etc.; often
there is no country name. As is the case with regular issue stamps, a variety
of values may be needed to make up specific amounts.
The
Universal Postal Union (UPU) addressed the problem of underpaid foreign mail. The
UPU decided that unpaid or insufficiently paid international letters should be
marked with a "T" standing for the French word “Taxe,” and from April
1, 1879 the amount missing in centimes should also be indicated in black.
Some
argue that postage due stamps are actually a label, as they have no value of
their own. Labels have often been used to collect money for other purposes,
such as magazine subscriptions. However, in the case of Postage Due Stamps,
they are a Post Office issue and are related to the cost of sending letters and
parcels through the mails. This certainly qualifies them as an item of interest
to stamp collectors.
Printed
by the American Bank Note Company, today the stamps have a catalog value of
over $3000 in mint condition. Collected used the stamps value $340.00
Actually there is no reason for mint postage dues to reach
private hands as they have no use beyond the postal clerks assessing postage
for mail received, and are of no value to postal patrons in paying the
appropriate postage, but sold to collectors they were. In the case of a special
printing of U.S. Postage Dues on soft porous paper, the combined catalog value
for these 7 stamps is $86,000, and there are no catalog notes to indicate that
they were ever used.
The number of special printing postage dues actually sold
into the philatelic inventory is shrouded in mystery. In an article by William
E. Mooz, on the 1c appearing in the Philatelic Chronicle No. 170, May 1996, Mr.
Mooz offers evidence to support his theory that the actual number of true
Special Printings sold was significantly lower than the reported figures. For
example, the 1c (J9), Mr. Mooz estimates 500 sold, but suggest that as many as
400 purchased by G. B. Calman were destroyed to reduce the supply and increase
the value of his remaining stock. Confusing the matter, it is widely accepted
that nearly 9,000 1c stamps sold by the post office as Special Printings were
actually regular issues (J1-J7).
The postage due stamp is not always affixed to individual
letters. In instances of business mail, the total due might be summed, and the
appropriate stamps added to the top letter in a bundle, or to a bundle's
wrapper. But most were affixed to individual letters and yet postal covers
bearing valid postal-used postage due stamps tied together by a dated
cancellation or other postal markings with a postage stamp on cover are
somewhat rare and very few have survived on a wrapper.
Postage due stamps were used for just over 100 years. The
last postage due stamps went to press in November 1985. Two changes brought
about the demise of postage due stamps. The USPS required prepayment of postage
in full. Thus, most mail was returned to sender for proper postage. And when
mail was forwarded to the recipient, they moved to using rubber stamps and
other auxiliary markings to track the postage due.
A second section of U.S. Postage Due Issues is the Parcel
Post Postage Due Stamps of 1912. The parcel-post law authorized the Postmaster
General, with the consent of the Interstate Commerce Commission, to issue
special stamps for postage on Parcel Post Mail. Accompanying Parcel Post
Postage Due Stamps were a logical accompaniment. What seemed like a good idea
was not and in 1913 an ICC order allowed for regular postage to be used for
parcels and the Parcel Post stamps were discontinued after the existing stock
of stamps was exhausted.
For further exploration of the subject, following is an
interesting reference:
A PDF article that includes a section of the Parcel Post
Postage Dues
The problem of insufficient postage on letters not paying
the correct fee had existed since the creation of regular postal systems, it
was greatly heightened by the advent of postage stamps, that allowed customers to
make their own decisions about the correct amount to pay, without the
assistance of a knowledgeable postal clerk.
How postage due stamps can spice up a worldwide collection:
Stamp Collecting Basics
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