Overseas Registration Rates 1876-1993

Introduction

Registration in the overseas mails operated, to an extent, under different rules to the inland service. The most obvious of these was that it offered only minimal compensation for losses (up to £2 from 1st February 1878, a limit not greatly increased over the following century), and there was a separate UPU insurance service for international mail.

Early international registration services developed in a rather ad hoc manner and there were a wide range of fees depending on route and destination. There was a 4d fee to most places from 1st February 1866, except to/via France where the registration fee was equal to the postage. However, between 1876 (when France joined the UPU) and 1993 the registration fee on overseas letters was generally the same as the basic inland fee, with the exception of the occasional obscure destination in the early days and a few short periods during the twentieth century (noted below for convenience).

As with the inland services, the overseas registration and insurance services were rebranded in 1993. The last day of the overseas registration service in this classical form was 27th June 1993.

Rates