Today in Postal History

This commercial cover is a forerunner to paquebot covers.

The paquebot procedure was proposed to the U.P.U. by Great Britain in 1891 and adopted in 1894.
The provision permitted mail posted aboard a ship to enter the mails at a port
without further postage provided it had the proper postage applied in stamps of the country of
1) registry of the ship, 2) the last port of call, or
3) the posting port, and was stamped 'Pacquebot.'
This cover received a similar treatment.

This letter was probably posted on a ship of French registry or one
which just arrived from a French port, perhaps Marseilles,
and was franked with 25c. of French stamps.

The stamps are of the Peace and Commerce (Sage) series with two 5c. green
on greenish paper from 1876 and one 15c blue issued in 1878 (Scott 78 and 92).

The cover went into the mail in Malta.
There it was cancelled with two strikes of a duplex CDS and numeral A25 killer handstamp.

The cover arrived at its London destination on June 21 (possibly 24)
as indicated by the red London E. C. handstamp on the reverse.