| 1924 UPU And UPU Congress Covers |  Top |
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US$ | ||
401423 "View EXACT ACTUAL Image"){kind=small} |
Scott #205 [1924 45 öre brown UPU Congress] (F-VF+) on a (28) August 1924 solo use cover from Stockholm to Berne, Switzerland, with a "STOCKHOLM / CONGRES POSTAL UNIVERSEL" cancellation in Type 2 (slightly smaller lettering; information on the postmarks is also included with the item). The cancellation date is clearly August 1924, though the days-date is not clear. However, the cover contains a short handwritten personal letter, in French, dated 28 August 1924, the closing day of the Congress. The letter is on official Congress stationery! The envelope itself measures 210 x 145 mm and is an official Congress envelope, with text "Congres Postal Universel Stockholm 1924". The envelope is larger than was needed for just the small letter and also the postage is more than needed for just the letter. I suspect that the envelope originally contained an additional item(s), perhaps the program for the closing ceremony. The 45 öre franking was correct for a double-weight (20-40 grams) letter, from 1 October 1922 thru 30 September 1925. The weight of the envelope and letter is only about 19.6 grams and the envelope has slight wear lines caused by thicker content, thus there must have been additional contents. The Facit 2024 value for this stamp on an ordinary cover -- not including the important UPU use or cancel -- is SEK 800! Personal or official Congress correspondence, using Congress stationery, is "extremely scarce", and especially for more than the basic 15 öre (domestic 20 gram letter rate) or 30 öre (foreign 20 gram letter rate) postage amounts. Slightly larger envelopes, such as this one, were seldom saved and are thus even scarcer than one might expect. As of May 2026, with 53 years, in business, this is: a) the only 45 öre Congress solo franking cover I can recall having; b) the only use of this particular official Congress envelope I can recall having; and c) the only example of any type of official Congress letter-stationery paper that I can recall having. This would be an important and remarkable item for any specialized collection of the 1924 Stockholm UPU Congress, or more generally for a UPU collection, or for a Swedish postal history collection. ACTUAL item. |
SOLD |