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Dear Mr Beede,
Many thanks for your interesting reply. It makes sense of your covers and of mine, but utter nonsense of the rates given in the Michel Österreich-Spezial 1995 (maybe they’ve been rectified since?) C:\Documents and Settings\Philip Townshend\My Documents\My Pictures\doc0002.JPG. There, for basic and ancillary rates, the date of 4.4.38 is given for the change-over from Austrian to German rates, with the option of Groschen or Pfennig payment until 31.7.38.
For Einschreiben and Express mail a further date of 8.7.38 is given when, they say, the German rates of 30Pf/45Gr for registration and 40Pf/60Gr for express [Land delivery: 80Pf/120Gr] were interrupted until 31.7.38 by a return to the old pre-Anschluß Austrian rates of respectively 27Pf/40Gr and 20Pf/30Gr, the latter applying to both urban and rural delivery. Have you any idea where they might have gotten these strange short-lived rates from?
Since posting my query I have acquired another cover, this time Nachnahme [Cash on Delivery], dated 30.7.38. The postage paid was 29Pf [12Pf for postage, 17Pf for NN fee]. As 17Pf equalled 25Gr I am tempted to believe that 25Gr was the then-current NN fee; however, Michel gives 20Pf/30Gr as the NN fee from 4.4.38 until 31.7.38, while failing to mention NN at all prior to that as if it hadn’t existed. No surprise there, I suppose, their Postgebühren-Handbuch omits so much that is mainstream, including all Austrian ancillary rates from 4.4.38 to 31.7.38 and all Reich airmail rates from 1933-45!!! Are you able to confirm or refute my surmise as to the NN rate?
Best wishes, Philip Townshend
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