"POSTAGE PAID" Cover


During the inauguration of Imperial Post Office, due to newly adopted silver dollar currency system and printing / overprinting of postage stamps with silver dollar denomination could not be in time for use, the bilingual POSTAGE PAID marks were used to strike on mails as a receipt of postage. When this mark was struck on mails, there was no need to frank Chinese stamps. This mark was ceased to use from January 1, 1898 by the order of I.P.O. authority. Most post offices stopped to use the PAID mark even earlier when they received silver dollar postage stamps.


"CUSTOMS MAIL MATTER" Cover


The Customs Mail Matter seals were marks to be struck on customs mails not only for official but also for private correspondence to replace the use of postage stamps. This practice was started from 1883, the Customs Postal Service period. Mail bearing this seal was exempt from paying domestic postage, but for leaving China, regular foreign rate was required to pay by franking stamps of U.P.U. members. This seal was ceased to use from January 1, 1898 by the order of I.P.O. authority.


"Cash Cover"


Cash was paid at post office windows for the full postage, the postal worker then struck a postal dater to denote that postage was paid without franking Chinese stamps. The cover was then transferred to Shanghai Chinese office where foreign stamps were franked for international rate and passed to an alien post office for the overseas journey. This kind of cover was relatively rare but existed until early 1900.