Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Post-1976 British Postage Due Calculations on Underpaid Mail From Canada



An earlier post has described the Lausanne Handling Charge System of dealing with international unpaid and underpaid mail in effect on January 1, 1976 : International Taxation of Unpaid and Underpaid Mail: 1976 Lausanne Handling Charge System

This post shows how the British Post Office applied the Lausanne system in the late 1970s and 1980s.


The Lausanne System

The Lausanne system required the county of origin to mark the letter with a T stamp along with a fraction in which the numerator was single the amount of the underpayment and the denominator was the country of origin's international letter rate.

The country of delivery would then multiply the tax fraction by its international letter rate to calculate the charge and add a handling fee.


11p Handling Fee

Bridgewater to Birmingham, February 24, 1976
20 cent international letter rate
Short paid 4 cents : Canadian Taxe fraction 4/20
British handstamp "13P TO PAY"

Canadian T fraction

Numerator 4 ( 4 cents deficiency)
Denominator 20 ( 20 cent international letter rate

British Calculation

The British international letter rate was 10p.

Postage Due = (4/20 x  10p)  + 11p= 13p




15p Handling Fee

Edmonton to Tovil, Maidstone, April 2?, 1979
35 cents international letter rate
Shortpaid 18 cents : Canadian Taxe fraction 18/35
British handstamp "20p TO PAY'

Canadian T fraction

Numerator 18 (18 cents deficiency)
Denominator 35 ( 35 cents international letter rate


British Calculation

The British international letter rate was 10 1/2p.

Postage Due = (18/35 x  101/2p)  + 15p = 20p




 20p Handling Fee

Calgary to Bury St. Edmunds, England, January 24, 1983 
64 cents international letter rate
Shortpaid 4 cents : Canadian Taxe fraction 4/64
British handstamp : "21p TO PAY"

Canadian T fraction

Numerator 18 (18 cents deficiency)
Denominator 35 ( 35 cents international letter rate


British Calculation

The British international letter rate was 19 1/2 p.

Postage Due = (4/64 x 19 1/2  p)  + 20p = 21p





Reference

Furfie, Michael, British Civilian Postage Rates of the 20th Century, Published by Michael Furfie, Ashford, England, 2000