After having shown "classical"
items durning the last three months (two of them were from the 19th
century, the third one was pre WW II), this time there is a
"modern" cover from Germany. It was franked with six Volleyball
stamps issued on Feb 9th, 1989 for the 16th European Women’s Volleyball
Championships to be held in 1989 in Hamburg, Karlsruhe and Stuttgart. This
commemorative stamp was issued by the postal authorities of GERMANY -
BERLIN, which does not exist any more after the end of the former GDR. The
stamps were cancelled on June 12th, 1989 in Bad Säckingen,
Germany, roughly four months after having been issued.
Now all of that would not be so strange, but if you check closely (and if
you know a little German), you will find out that this cover was sent by
the office of the mayor of this small city. Still that would not be so
surprising, because maybe the smaller villages don't use franking machines
on their correspondence.
But if you take a look at the stamps, you will find out that there was a
surcharge of 50 Pfennings to the ordinry price of 100 Pfennings (100 +
50). The benefits from this surcharge were destinated to the German Sports
Promotion Foundation which helps top athletes. Now isn't it strange that
the mayor should pay 3 German Marks extra for the postage of this letter,
paying 9 Marks instead of only 6 ?