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Does anyone have any opinion on the following?
I have 2 express covers from the Anschluss period that make me wonder whether a mistake has not been made in the dating of express surcharge rates given by Michel (in their Österreich catalog, omitted from their Postgebühren-Handbuch). Michel dates a short-lived rate of 20Pf / 30Gr – even for Land delivery! -- from 8.7.38 to 31.7.38, whereas the normal German equivalent at the time was 40Pf urban and 80Pf for Land delivery. I suspect that the starting date may be incorrect, that this rate was introduced earlier. An alternative explanation is that the 20Pf / 30Gr surcharge was a hark-back to the old Austrian rate in force until 3.4.38 in ignorance of the introduction of the Reich rates from 4.4.38, though I find this a little difficult to believe, given the dates – 2 and 3 months after the change -- and the fact that express letters would have been posted over a PO counter.
My first cover is an SS letter from Kirchschlag to Wien dated 12.6.38, arrival postmarks dated later the same day, franking 12Pf + 12,20Gr. If we round-down the Groschen rate from 32 to 30 (unavailability of 10Gr stamps?) this corresponds with the above reduced rate. The blue ‘64’ is not a postage-due mark but the area number of Wien, where express items were sent by Rohrpost (the transit pmk on the back is a minute one of ‘T.A. 10 Wien 76’ with code letters ‘R/b’; the arrival pmk is ‘8 Wien 64’).
My second cover is franked 12,20Pf, postmarked Linz 7.VII.38 (i.e. the day before Michel’s date for the reduced rate) and was addressed to a country estate near Lindenburg, itself near Berlin. The total absence of other markings leads me to think that the German post office ignored the express label, probably because the Austrians did not crayon-in a red diagonal cross as the Germans required and in disbelief at the low surcharge paid.
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