|
RAILWAY LETTER AND PARCEL STAMPS RAILWAY LETTER STAMPS |
|||||
|
In 1891 the Railway Letter Act became law and new adhesive stamps,
railway letter stamps, were issued by those Railway Companies who were
signatories to the Act. The Act laid down the colour and design of the
railway letter stamps and regulations for the conveyance of railway letters.
The colour of the railway letter stamp was to be green and the design as
shown by the Cambrian Railways stamp shown here. The railway letter fee was
fixed at twice the postage and a postage stamp had to be affixed as well to
comply with the Post Office’s monopoly for the carriage of letters. When,
following the Great War, the postage rate rose to 1˝ d and then to 2d the
railway letter fee rose to 3d and then 4d to comply with the Act. |
|
||||
|
|
Railway Letters Overseas
A small number of other countries, notably Iraq, the Netherlands
and South Africa, had railway systems which operated a railway letter
service, although South African Railways never issued special stamps for the
purpose. Shown here is an Iraqi railway letter dispatched by train from
Khanaqin City on 19th September, 1928 and posted on arrival in
Baghdad. Little is known about the adhesives, which are invariably
imperforate on two sides and rouletted on the other two sides. |
||||
|
|
|
|
|||
|
RAILWAY PARCEL AND NEWSPAPER STAMPS The conveyance of goods other than letters was not the subject of a post
office monopoly and therefore not subject to the same restrictions. No Act of
Parliament governed the design of stamps and labels for the carriage of
parcels and newspapers, etc. Consequently railway parcel and newspaper stamps
on the one hand exhibit a much greater diversity of design, and on the other
hand are much less well documented. The Mersey Railway parcel stamp shown
here, depicting one of the then new Westinghouse electric trains, was issued
in about 1905.
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
||||
|
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|||
