| Message: |
My question is: how did the term Gebuehrenzettel come to be used to mean labels used as substitutes for postage stamps? I assume this misusage began in the wake of the inflation era. Readers of the German Postal Specialist know that I have written about the Gebuehrenzettel twice in recent years. Briefly, a Gebuehrenzettel is a postal form showing that the sender of a piece of mail to another country guarantees payment of all additional postal and customs fees, if they are imposed, thereby ensuring delivery or release of the item to the addressee. There is or was a label associated with the service, which is not a Gebuehrenzettel.
Benjamin R. Beede |
