Vleeschfontein
Dear collect friends, enclosed a letter, and I ask is my description is correct.
Registered letter, sent from Vleeschfontein 27 DEC 1908, via Main post office Zeerust 2-JAN 1908 till Rome Italy, arrival 28-2-1909. Postoffice Vleeschfontein, open 1908, closed 1939, and renamed Tommiesrus, and in 1955 renamed Laubsersrus. Franked with a total of 16.5 d. Is the postage correct? Perhaps there are some of you who have more information about this letter.
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The postal rate to Italy at that date was 2½d per ½oz, so a registered letter between 2oz and 2½oz would have cost 1s½d postage and 4d registration fee. Seems a bit heavy, but not impossible ....
Where do you find these covers? You always show nice items. Keep the covers coming. Your collecting friends appreciate your contribution. Thanks.
I am fond of Vleeschfontein (1991- -1997. HO Zeerust). But you knew that already! I believe it was a fountain / spring in the nothern Transvaal popular with hunters. It teemed with game that were easy to shoot - "the fountain of flesh". Many years ago I bought a small tin of stamps at a local carboot sale and the only good one was a relatively complete Vleeschfontein. I was excited about it at the time. As I say, it was many years ago! :>) I wouldn't buy them now!
Yes, Bas is right, the rate is correct - 4d registration, then 2½d for more than four but under five ounces. Like Bas, I wonder what was in the letter that was so heavy. Five ounces = 141 grams.
I hope your collecting friends have helped you.
Not quite as much as 5 ozs! - the 2½d rate was per half ounce, not per ounce. So the contents would have been around 60g. Perhaps several sheets of heavy paper - for comparison, a two-page deed of transfer dating from that period weighs about 12g .... or a couple of mounted portrait photos ...
Ooops. Schoolboy error. "Could do better if tried harder!"
My apologies. I do not know how that crept in. Bas, the master, is 100% correct!
Is it correct that at that time these letters were sent by ship to Europe? Probably arrival in Marseille, and then by train to Rome. My question, from where were these letters shipped: Johannesburg ??
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Yes - at that date the letter would certainly have gone by ship - there was no viable alternative. Presumably it would have gone by rail to Cape Town, then by mail boat to Europe, and then by rail to Rome. The squared circle date-stamp may tell us a bit more - it's presumably an Italian railways date-stamp.