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hello Fernando
I think this is a philatelic overfranking.
The rate for an inland letter weighing up to a hefty 500g, (which I doubt the letter weighed as that would surely have been noted by the PO clerk on the envelope particularly for calculation of the airmail fee) would only have been 40Pf. The registration fee was 30Pf, the local express delivery in Berlin 40Pf (80Pf for non-local delivery). The Michel Postgebühren-Handbuch does not give the airmail fees from 1.5.1933 but my guess is that by 1937 the basic inland airmail fee may not have exceeded the 1933 fee of 10Pf rising to 1.25RM for a letter weighing up to 500g. Even factoring in a Rohrpost fee in Berlin (see Rohrpost destination station no. 9 endorsed in red) would not have brought the total postage up to anything approaching the 6RM as franked.
Incidentally I note that the 1934 airmail stamp set came with both vertical and horizontal gum ribbing and that examples of the two top values with horizontal ribbing are very highly priced in Michel. I don't know whether a BPP expertiser can determine with available equipment which ribbing a used stamp on cover originally had, but if it were expertised as such the cover would surely be immensely valuable. Now that might just have been the very reason why it was sent by registered, express airmail !!
Best wishes
Giles |
