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duplicate registered post

Posted: Tue May 23, 2017 1:57 pm
by jimusedcontrols
During WWI due to the danger of ships being sunk and post lost it was possible to send duplicate post marked accordingly on the envelope. I have been looking for the references to this and cannot find it at present so would be pleased if anyone could point me in the right direction! I think there was a display somewhere too? I have this pretty cover as an example sent September 1918 from Torquay to New York cancelled in Liverpool and the special registration label applied there, paid 9 1/2d. I think this was 1 1/2d empire rate, 2d registration and an extra 6d for the special service as duplicate mail (I think). I cannot decipher the purple stamp over the registered label E...SIE...D, for me as a collector of control stamps the 7d on cover is wonderful to have anyway but especially the extremely rare L18 with perforated margin. The letter originated in Torquay but does not have any postmarks from there. Again I think both were forwarded under plain cover to Liverpool and there sorted and processed onto different ships. It would be nice to get the twin letter too!

Re: duplicate registered post

Posted: Tue May 23, 2017 2:29 pm
by mozzerb
Nice item -- the expert on these is Graham Mark. He wrote an article in the GBJ vol 52 no 3 (May/June 2014) which described the service and listed all the duplicate letters he knew of at the time -- this is I think a new latest recorded date.

Your reading of the rate sounds right to me. The purple mark looks like a standard US straight line REGISTERED of the time, a bit poorly struck?

Re: duplicate registered post

Posted: Tue May 23, 2017 4:47 pm
by jimusedcontrols
Thanks! I knew I had read about the scheme recently and scoured any literature I had but to no avail. Also tried the index to GBJ.Just checked Arthur Blackburn (the sender) who presumably was the highly decorated Australian military man writing to his brother or some relation in New York.That 12 of the 17 covers Graham records are from him to the same addressee is a bit of a worry, looks a bit like Captain Smye or one of the other prolific names.
This was posted August 15th 1918, reached New York September 11th with further markings from September 12th and 13th. In pencil on the cover "Recd. 13 Sept. Thanks for numbers.
Interesting that there is no opened by censor sticky on it.
Is anything known about the 2 Blackburns, whether they were philatelists of any kind? The 2 covers Graham shows are without controls but very attractive covers - I have been looking for a single use of 9d agate for years and never seen one yet; he lists 10 of them. Graham, any chance of you wanting to get rid of one???

Re: duplicate registered post

Posted: Tue May 23, 2017 7:11 pm
by mozzerb
I don't think this is Arthur Blackburn VC -- according to Wikipedia he would have been either in France or Australia during this time -- and there is an Arthur Blackburn listed as a resident of Torquay in 1911-12:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/terryleaman/ ... 0A-Z.htm#B

I've always wondered who he was and why he sent so many duplicate letters! I have one earlier ordinary registered letter from this correspondence (1915 or 1916 IIRC), so I don't think it was done purely for philatelic reasons -- in fact yours is the first cover with a "philatelic" franking I've seen.

Graham does have several duplicate covers (he's displayed them at meetings) but not all of them in the article are his. I have three picked up as "normals", two from this correspondence and one not, but ironically all of them are the (usually scarcer) non-duplicate copies!