Description:

SIX PENCE: 6d maroon rare solo franking on an apparently commercial double-rate cover to Kentucky per "SS Maitai"with superb 'MELBOURNE/ 9 /29JA15/VICTORIA' cds & an unusually large red/white 'OPENED BY/CENSOR' label of Melbourne (?), faults but quite attractive, the stamp with toned perfs but undamaged, Cat $2500 on cover. The foreign letter rate was 2½d per half-ounce x2 so the cover was apparently overpaid 1d. At the time, the late fee was equal to the letter rate so 2½d should have been paid. However, it's quite possible that the sender mistakenly thought the 1d late fee that applied to Empire letters was all he needed to add. Still, one would have expected a counter clerk at the GPO to have noticed any such deficiency.