Straits Settlements Postal Stationery and Reply Card with 3 cents Postal Prepaid

Postal Stationery

A piece of postal stationery is a stationery item, such as a stamped envelope, letter sheet, postal card, lettercard, aerogram or wrapper, with an imprinted stamp or inscription indicating that a specific rate of postage or related service has been prepaid. It does not, however, include any postcard without a pre-printed stamp.

Postal cards are postal stationery and have a printed or embossed indicium and are sold by governmental postal authorities. Some of the forms taken by postal cards include the regular single card, the attached message-reply cards, airmail postal cards, and official postal cards used for official government business with a "penalty for private use". Postcards, on the other hand, is a term used to designate cards prepared by private companies that do not have prepaid franking and readily available at commercial outlets. They are frequently illustrated with pictures or printed advertisements. They are generally not considered postal stationery.

Front Side

The image of the stamp appears to be Portrait of Queen Victoria.

The text and indicium¹ are in carmine.

The indicium¹ shows the value of 3 cents, each for Post Card and Reply Card.

Text that appears on the card:

UNION POSTALE UNIVERSELLE
STRAITS SETTLEMENTS
POST CARD
THE ADDRESS ONLY TO BE WRITTEN ON THIS SIDE.

Print at the bottom-left:

THE ANNEXED CARD IS INTENDED
FOR THE ANSWER.
(LA CARTE OI-JOINTE EST DESTINÉE
À LA RESPONSE.)

On the reply card

STRAITS SETTLEMENTS
POST CARD
THE ADDRESS ONLY TO BE WRITTEN ON THIS SIDE.
REPLY.


Whilst on the image of the stamp:

STRAITS SETTLEMENTS
POSTAGE
3 CENTS

The size of the postcard is: 139 x 89 mm
The size of the postcard, attached: 139 x 89 mm
The size of the indicium is: 19 x 23 mm

Back Side

The backside of each card appears to be blank.

Currency & State

During this time, Straits Settlements are based on Spanish American Dollar, where $1 = 100 cents.

Interchangably in contemporary Malay Language, Dollar was known as Ringgit whilst cent was known as sen.

During this time, Straits Settlements was British Crown Colony and consisted of Penang Island (and Province Wellesley), Malacca and Singapore.

Information / Discussion

The card's sign of age is evident but still not that bad. Probably from tropical climate.

Crease in the middle.

More information needed about the printer, method of printing.

Catalog

1893. Type PC11 Portrait of Queen Victoria
P19 3c 3c carmine, with reply card (c)
Standard Catalog of Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei - Revenue Stamps & Postal Stationery.



1. indicium - An indication, sign, or token - specifically, the stamp on mail indicating paid postage.