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a) The highest-value meter-mark was 64Md Mk, and, yes, all the zeros are there, all 9 of them!: 64000000000 -- see the Infla-Buecherei booklet no. 14 'Die Deutschen Maschinen-Postfreistempel 1903-1923' published by the Poststempelgilde Rhein-Donau.
b) All meter-marks anyone is likely ever to see dated pre-1925 are PO marks, not private commercial. No regular company meter-marks appeared until 1925 and these had the slogan below the cds. They are not common. A very few experimental company marks are known from mid-1923 but are great rarities: they bore no date of posting and so a postmark was added by the PO -- see website http://www.postautomation.de/41.html
which has illusrations.
c) Postage due could be collected from the addressee @ 150%, in which case there would always be some mark. The item could also be returned to sender for the deficit @ 100% only (as with Alec's card), in which case no mark was applied but maybe you can still see the remains of an advisory sticker which should have been removed and the added stamps will be postmarked later than the original ones.
Hope this helps.
There are a lot of misconceptions about meter-marks. In particular, many collectors fail to differentiate PO-marks from private ones: they actually differ in type and ne'er the two shall mix. |
