MANUALLY WRITTEN REMARKS ON FOLDED LETTERS 1)The name of the postal station where the letter was handed over to the postmaster. Due to a postal regulation issued on the 1st July 1750, the postal station from where the letter was mailed had to be stated in the upper right corner, above the address. If the sender had forgotten to do this, the postmaster was supposed to take care of it. Many times however this was forgotten. This letter has been forwarded by the regular mail coach service , which started in 1786 between Unghvar and Kassa (Košice). In the left bottom corner the route mark p(er)Kaschau (the German name for Kassa) is noted and the right hand upper corner shows the station of dispatch (v.Unghvar) . The “v” is an abbreviation from the German “von”, which means from. The letter was sent to Leutschovia (Levoča in Slovakia). There is no date on the unfolded letter. The weight is less than ½ a Loth. It is an unpaid letter, which travelled the mails most probably between 111-1789 and 31-7-1798. During this period only half paid letters were allowed. The share of the postage to be paid by the addressee was 4 Kreuzer, which amount was marked on the front by the postmaster at the station of dispatch, by using a red pencil (Rötel).
A letter mailed in 1840 from Pest (1) to Pozsony (Bratislava) (2). The postmaster charged half postage because of repeated forwarding (3). The addressee was found ultimately in Nagy Szöllös (4). On the front and on the rear side different transit (5) and arrival (6), (7) cancels have been applied. The “V.CASCHAU” (9) mark is also a transit mark. The figure “21” indicates the new postage to be paid on receipt (9).
Forerunner of a postmaster postmark Folded letter sent in the year 1828, from Szerednye to Unghvár. The postmaster has drawn a postmark manually, probably inspired by other postmasters, who already used a postmark. In Szerednye the postmaster postmark was introduced in 1830.
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