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Season’s Greetings
Sam Pezzillo
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Do you get animated greeting cards by e-mail? I do and they mostly go unread, especially in an era when attachments often mean a virus infection for the computer. Some gift! But it may also be because I remember a Dancing and Singing reindeer card a few years back and want to avoid anything like that again.
I’m growing nostalgic for the days when we hung colorful and beautiful Christmas cards up on stringers around the house. The first cards usually showed up just after Thanksgiving. I suppose there was some protocol in that, but it escaped me at the time. The growing number of cards was always to me a surer countdown to Christmas than any other custom. The postal historian in me makes me remember my mother’s admonition not to seal the cards we sent so we could use the reduced 2 cent rate.
In years past some postal administrations promoted holiday writing by offering reduced rates for the holiday season. In my area of collecting interests, Europe and South America, Air France, DLH, and LATI provided for reduced holiday rates. I have post card examples from Air France and LATI1 between Europe and South America during the early war years. I had always thought that the rate applied only to cards, but an April 2002 article2 in Chile News reproduces a circular (Circular C. 2. No. 39. Santiago, 24 de Noviembre de 1941) publishing reduced rates for the holiday season from November 29 to January 10. The airmail surcharge rate is given for each five grams or fraction thereof (por cada cinco gramos o fraccion de cinco grammos de peso). That suggests that something more than cards could be sent by the reduced rate; but the article only illustrates cards and I have never seen examples of other types of mailing.
As you will see from the illustrated examples, the period of the reduced rate service seems to have varied from country to country. The rate on my 1939 Air France card from Argentina terminated on January 6, Epiphany (Reyes, or Feast of the Kings). The rate on the card from Brazil was valid until January 7. The two cultures may use a different system of inclusive counting, making the difference only illusory. The period for service from Chile in 1941 was from November 29 to January 10, as noted above.
The cards make an interesting addition to a Europe - South America airmail collection, but are frequently overlooked. They are not abundant, but they do show up on the market from time to time. Look for them.
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LATI Examples:
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Air France Examples:
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Click to enlarge
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Figure 6 - (reverse) Argentina to Italy (but written in French). 29 DIC 39, peso 0.40, added inscription noting validity of the rate until January 6.
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Click to enlarge
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Figure 8 - (reverse) Brazil to Portugal, 28. 12. 39, R 2,500, variation of the inscription on the Argentine card
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Back
Click to enlarge
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(back) Chile to Belgium, date faint but appears to be 28. 12. 39; rate 3.70 pesos. Date of validity until January 6, 1940, like the Argentine card of Christmas 1939. The circular from Chile for the 1941 season and LATI service was for validity to January 10, 1942 (of course, LATI had already ceased service before Christmas, 1941).
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1 Beith, The Italian South Atlantic Air Mail Service 1939-1941, p. 45 illustrates some of the special cards prepared by LATI; rates are listed on pp. 39, 41 for Italy, Argentina (peso 0.45), and Brazil (R 2,500). Beith notes that cards are also known from Chile.
2 Cusworth, Towle, West, Chile News, “Chile and Condor – Lati Services,” April 2002, pp. 700-705
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