This cover was sent from Freetown on
the southwestern
coast of the western bulge of Africa.
(I'll leave it to the geographers to come up with the proper name of
this area.)
The cover was bound for Bern.
It is franked with 1984 Victorias - ½d. dull green and 2d. gray
(SG 27 and 30).
There is a clear strike of a Freetown CDS.
There are also two numeral B31 (Freetown) obliterator strikes
on the stamps.*
The cover was routed through Liverpool where a red
PAID | LIVERPOOL | BR PACKET | 21 FE 96 | 7 - A
circular receiver was applied.
A bridge backstamp was applied on arrival in Bern on February 22.
I'll bet mail doesn't get from Liverpool to Bern
one bit faster today than it did over 100 years ago.
At sometime someone put a 200.- price on the reverse.
I don't know whether that was in $US, Swiss Francs, or ?
There is also a 2 in a circle.
Does this mean it was the second of 2 items?
*Thanks to David Benson for identifying the Freetown obliterator
numerals.
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