Introduction:
Generally speaking it is very interesting to collect all kind of postal labels and/or auxiliary markings as they give a nice view of the kind of services and the various kinds of efforts the postal authorities did utilize to forward the mail. Look into your collection of covers and you will certainly find some nice examples.
In this study we give a World-wide inventory of all “Remboursement” labels from our own collection and what has been brought to our attention. We do not pretend that this is a complete inventory of all existing labels, but is a good start.
REMBOURSEMENT:
This is a service by which the local postman cashes the amount indicated on the cover or on the parcel card and this amount could be cashed later by the sender (after discount of a fee) at his local postoffice. This system was very popular in Europe and we have not found any good reason why in other parts of the World it was less in use. Exception here are the former colonies of European countries.
An explanation can be that in Europe untill the 1950-ies private people hardly had a bankaccount, so cash-on-delivery was a way to pay for your purchases. In the U.S.A. payment by cheque was and still is an important way to pay, so C.O.D. was far less popular.
GERMANY:
Auslagen: In the 1870-ies the German postal authorities faciliated a “cash in advance” system. In this case the sender received already the amount to be cashed at the office of dispatch. In the official announcement is was stated that this service could only be rendered to “People or Organisations who have a good reputation.
After W.W.II there was a lack of almost everything in Russian occupied Germany and in different towns a lot of emergency stamps were issued. Also various kind of labels were used as stamps, so also the “Nachnahme/Remboursement”labels. Rather famous and rare are the ones (perforated or imperforated) issued in Grossräschen in 1946. They have a value of 15 Pfg. (handwritten) and every label has a handstamped autogram.
Bas Kee and Jan C. ter Welle
Autumn 2020
Covers with Labels
Labels
Link to Sample pages of the Catalog