Transatlantic cover to Washington, D.C.

September 29, 1858

September 29, 1858, Liége, Belgium, to Washington, D.C., unpaid envelope sent in the French mail at the single treaty rate for a letter weighing up to 7.5 grams. The letter entered France on September 29 on the night train from Quiévrain to Paris. Backstamps show that the letter arrived at Paris on September 30, and was handled later that day on the second train from Paris to Calais, the traveling exchange office. On this train, the letter was marked in black ink, upper left corner, for a debit to the US of 18 cents, and it was then placed in a closed mailbag to pass through the UK. Since the letter was to cross the Atlantic on a British steamship for which the French had to pay the transit expense, the US was entitled only to 3 cents of the postage due, and the French were entitled to 18 cents. Letter carried by Cunard steamship “Africa” from Liverpool (October 2) to New York (October 14). A New York exchange office clerk marked the red orange boxed handstamp “Br. Service” to show that the letter arrived by way of the UK at French expense. The New York datestamp showed that postage of 21 cents was due at destination.