Today in Postal History

   

Peru to Holland forwarded to Germany
April 15, 1895

This registered cover was sent from Lima.
The sender made use of the Aviso de Recepćion
(advice or acknowledgment of receipt) service supported by the UPU.
This service provides for the return of a delivery receipt for registered mail.
In the United States the service is called Return Receipt Requested.

The sender designated registration by writing Certificado at the top of the front.
The post office added a boxed registration stamp for Lima and entered a serial number.
The bold circled AR was used to indicate the Aviso de Recepćion service.

The cover bears eleven Lima CDS.

The sender requested service Via Panama.
This led to use of the British West Indies packet
that provided mail service between the Caribbean and Europe.
The blue cross and one of the pencilled blue numbers was applied in Panama
where mail was transferred to the British Packet.

Arrival in London was marked by an oval REGISTERED LONDON
mark with what appears to be a May 15 date.

The cover proceeded to its original destination in Amsterdam.
The cover was processed there on May 17 as shown by the CDS on the rear.
The cover was then forwarded to Berlin.

There is a German receiver dated May 18 for its arrival in Germany.
I believe that two of the three blue pencilled serial numbers
were added in the Netherlands and in Germany.

The cover is franked with 15 stamps with wide variety.
All but one is from the 1894 Pres. Remigio Morales Bermudez overprints.
There are four 2c vermilion with horseshoe overprint, two 2c rose,
three 1c orange, one 1c green, three 2c violet, and one 50c green
(Scott 125, 121, 118, 119, 120, and 124, respectively).
There is also one 20c 1895 deep ultramarine without an overprint (Scott 113).

Editor's Note:  The colors which Scott applies to these
issues don't always seem to accurately match the actual stamps.
That may be due to either the scan, color variations
in the stamps/printings, or careless color assignment by Scott.

It was undoubtedly a souvenir or philatelic.
Nevertheless, it is an attractive century-old cover with multi-colored stamps.

Today in Postal History
January February March April May June
July August September October November December

Pastnotes Index - The First 300 and the Next 208
provides more tidbits about stamps and collectors.

Comments? Send me an e-mail
Please include a reference to this item.