Today in Postal History

  
     
Palestine to Venezuela
April 4, 1923

This registered card was sent from Jerusalem in Palestine to Caracas, Venezuela.
There are eight strikes of an oval REGISTERED JERUSALEM handstamp.
The franking includes the 1m. sepia, the 2m. yellow, the 3m.
greenish blue, the 4m. carmine pink, the 5m. orange, and the
1p. gray of the 1922 stamps overprinted in English, Arabic, and Hebrew (SG 71-74, 79).

These stamps were issued during the civil administration of
the British High Commissioner between July 1, 1920 and September 29, 1923.

There is a nice lavender Jerusalem registry label and
the pencilled blue cross marks of a registered item.
There is also a pencilled number we see frequently on registered items.

However, there appears to be another stamp under the registry label.
According to Proud, the foreign rate at that time was 13 milliemes
and registration was also 13 milliemes, a total of 26 milliemes.
However, the franking is only 25 milliemes, one millieme short.
So that should be the missing stamp.
However, the design details that can be seen do not correspond
to the other stamps or to any stamps issued by Palestine up to that date.
As the stamp is underneath the registration label, it had to have
been placed there before it left the post ofice in Palestine.*
Can anyone identify it?

*Thanks to Paul for his fine explanation of the rates and the missing stamp.

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