A few Universal Postal Union (UPU) countries imposed a charge on inland Poste Restante (General Delivery) mail. These countries were also allowed by the UPU's " Universal Postal Rules" to charge the same fee for international mail sent to a Poste Restante address. This could only be done by those countries having an inland Poste Restante charge. This article considers two examples of charged Poste Restante mail.
1. Yugoslavia, 1967
This air mail "Poste Restante" letter was sent from Toronto to Split, Yugoslavia on August 26, 1967. Since Yugoslavia charged for inland poste restante mail, this international letter could therefore be charged. The poste restante charge was 1.0 dinaro. Split labels were attached to the back of the envelope and cancelled on September 7, 1967.
Split labels (2 x 0.50 dinars) attached to back of envelope
Split labels
2. Argentina, 1973
This air mail "Poste Restante" letter sent from Calgary to Buenos Aires , April 13, 1973, was charged the 17c poste restante fee. The Argentine stamps were cancelled on April 18, 1973
Argentine Poste Restante Marking
Poste restante mail was returned to sender if not collected within a specified period of time. To keep track of when mail was received and when it should be returned, the Argentine post office applied handstamps indicating the month the item was received.
"IIII"
Mail received in April