Registered Envelopes

Five different sized of Registered Envelopes were produced with the China overprint.  Three separate types of envelopes were produced which can be identified by the insurance schedules printed on the backs of the envelopes.  The types were as follows:

Type C1 Schedule consisting of two columns ranging from 300F to 3000F and 25c to $2.50
Type C2 Schedule consisting of three columns ranging from $120 to $1200, 300F to 3000F and 25c to $2.50
Type C3 Schedule consisting of three columns ranging from $120 to $1200, 300F to 3000F and 20c to $2.00

Actual quantities and requisitions of the numbers of envelopes have previously only been speculated but examination of the Postal Museum Archives and the Foreign Commonwealth Offices Collection at the British Library has proven the following:

The new discovery of Requisition D.
Proof that Requisition F was printed in conjunction with Hong Kong Requisition 105/21.
Proof that Requisition H was pulled from Hong Kong Requisition W on Order 4127 and is the only size and quantity of the Type C2.
Examination of the Crown Agents records shows that 1,000 of the Size G and 1,000 of the Size H were pulled from Hong Kong Requisition 4673 for inclusion with the J Requisition (number 4690) on 14 Feb 1929.  This proves, for the first time, the non existence of the K C3 and the quantities and existence of the C3 on the G and H Sizes.

What makes this interesting is the following:

• The quantities thought to be printed have been pulled from a number of sources.  Checking the British Library archives shows that the quantities listed previously by Webb, Perrin, Higgins and Gage etc are incorrect and grossly overstated the number of Size H and K.  (FC1 was 6630, Size G was 23101, Size H was 18554, H2 was 18555 and K was 19072).
• No Specimen overprints of any of the postal stationary have been reported. The British Library and internal notes show that Specimen overprints of the Postal Stationary were provided to the Crown Agents.  That said, examination of the Bechuanaland Archive at the British Library shows that the examples provided to them do not have the Specimen overprint.  This leads us to believe that those Specimens created were for internal use and that the examples provided to the UPU had no overprint, which would explain why no examples have ever been seen on the market (or, indeed, seen at all outside of the British Library archive)

Type	Dec 1916 Req. Nil	Nov 1917 Req. A	Jun 1919 Req. B	Jul 1920 Req. D?	Feb 1922 Req. F	Apr 1927 Req. H	Apr 1929 Req. J	Total Issued
F C1	2500 Ordered 2525 Printed 2130 Sent	2000 Ordered 2030 Printed 2000 Sent		1000	2500 DLR Daybook			7,630
G C1	4500 Ordered 4500 Printed 4101 Sent	6000 Ordered 6038 Printed 6000 Sent	4000	7000	9000			30,101
G C2						1000		1,000
G C3							1000	1,000
H	1450 Ordered 1450 Printed 1054 Sent	1500 Ordered 1500 Printed 1500 Sent	1000	2500	5000			11,054
H C3							1000	1,000
H2	1450 Ordered 1450 Printed 1055 Sent	1500 Ordered 1507 Printed 1500 Sent	1000	1000	5000			9,555
K	1450 Ordered 1470 Printed 1072 Sent	2000 Ordered 2017 Printed 2000 Sent	1000	2500	5000			11,572

After the closure of the Treaty Ports in 1922, surviving stocks of the stationary were returned to Hong Kong and shipped back to London on the S.S. Morea on 18 October 1924.  After the closure of Wei Hai Wei in 1930, the surviving stocks remaining there were also returned to Hong Kong and then returned to London on 16 September 1932.  All returned stocks were destroyed.

Consequently, the totals sold are presumed to be as follows:

Type	Total Issued	Total Destroyed	Total Sold
F C1	7,630	2,718	4,912
G C1	30,101	2500	27,601
G C2	1,000	880 Size G were returned from Wei Hai Wei but there is no way of knowing which printing
G C3	1,000
H	11,054	2,500	8,554
H C3	1,000	366	634
H2	9,555	4,524	5,031
K	11,572	2,969	8,603

 

CENSUS

Type	Quantity	EKU	LKU	# Unused	Census Used
F C1 3 ¼” x 5 ¼” Back	7630				Unknown WHW I A Dec 12 1918 4 Mar 1920 May 1920 Sep 6 1920 7 Apr 1921 12 Sep 1921 18 Sep 1921 2 Feb 1925 May 1926
G C1 3 ¾” x 6” Back	30101	Jan 8 1917	2 Feb 1925		Jan 8 1917 3 Mar 1917 14 May 1917 5 Aug 1917 6 Aug 1917 Cav2004 13 Sep 1917 21 Sep 1917 Dec 8 1917 11 Apr 1918 15 May 1918 Jul 10 1918 7 Oct 1918 Nov 24 1918 11 Feb 1919 Jun 14 1919 Sep 24 1919 Oct 22 1919 Dec 17 1919 Mar 12 1920 2 Jun 1920 3 Feb 1921 11 Mar 1921 Mar 24 1921 Sep 20 1921 19 Nov 1921 1922 Unknown 14 Jan 1922 1922 1 Sep 1922 8 Sep 1922 HKSC J259.6 Nov 4 1922 Nov 30 1922 Oct 9 1924 1 Feb 1926 7 Mar 1947 (Illegal)
G C2 3 ¾” x 6”	1000			None	27 Jun 1928 Cav2004
G C3 3 ¾” x 6” Back	1000			Three	19 Aug 1929 Apr 4 1930
H C1 5” x 8” Back	11054				5 Dec 1917 JB308 11 Jan 1918 Bk 12 May 1918 4 May 1918 Jun 4 1918 Aug 23 1918 Sep 19 1918 Aug 13 1919 21 Aug 1919 Swatow 1 Oct 1919 16 Feb 1921 9 Mar 1921 27 Apr 1921 ZAHK011 10 Oct 1921 Jan ?? 1922 17 Mar 1922 Oct 6 1922 Oct 30 1922 23 Nov 1922 27 Nov 1922 Mar 2 1927 13 Jun 1927
H C3 5” x 8” Back	1000			Four (?)	27 Jun 1930
H2 C1 4” x 9” Back	9555				3 Nov 1917 19 Aug 1919 1 Apr 1920 AE2004 14 Jul 1922 15 Jul 1922 Cav2004 Jul 30 1927
K C1 6” x 11 ½” Back	11572				11 Apr 1917 Cav2004 24 Jul 1917 Nov 19 1918 26 Nov 1918 25 Mar 1919 SP3019 17 Sep 1921 20 Sep 1921 15 May 1922 22 Oct 1922 Cav2004 25 Oct 1922 Nov 1922 26 Oct 1928 24 Apr 1929

Notes:

The current EKU of any of the Registration Envelopes is reported by Lee Scamp with the date of Feb 21 1917.

The Size H envelope dated 13 Jun 1927 has an interesting scrap of paper adhering to the back which seems to be some form of registration tracking form. Any information regarding this would be appreciated.