Page 19 - Johnson_CapeOfGoodHope

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE

Four Pence in red on Six-Pence Dull lilac
November 1868

Troe Troe to Clan William to Cape Town to the United Kingdom
August 1870

Main feature

The manuscript cancellation of Troe Troe. A postmistress was not
appointed until the 1st September 1873 and the letter would have been ·
taken in by a receiving letter agent for transmission to Clan William
where the stamps were obliterated with the 10 in bars and the oval Clan
William ds applied.

This was the first surcharge [in preference to printing from the woodblock plates] and was done to meet
the exhaustion offourpenny stamps in October 1869.
The reason for the excess of sixpenny stamps was the increase in the postage to the UK from 6d to 1 s Od
on the l"t April1863 and the reduction in the ship letter rate from 6d to 4d on the same date. There were
two printings of the surcharge and in all about 1,120,000 stamps were overprinted.
The internal4d Y:z oz rate lasted until the l"t November 1879 when it became 3d for Y:z oz. Double rate
paid in this case