PALESTINE #76 & 77 STAMPS TO ENGLAND BRITISH TYPE 10 TAPE REGISTERED COVER 1946

PALESTINE Scott #76 & 77 stamps tied by December 23, 1946 Jerusalem registry handstamp 'On His Majesty's Service' cover sent to Warrington, Lancashire, England. The cover was opened in error and redirected to a London address and then redirected to a second London address. Repaired with two type 10 tapes tied by January 16, 1947 North Finchley cds. Only one cover reported with type 10 tape. (King George VI Type 10, Crown 3, (Thin font & no serif on 'G') Found Open or Damaged and Officially Secured.', Size 25.4mm high Form '51-8874' & 'P144B' (EKU 1/16/1947)

In summary form, given by Kotanchik in his exhibit: Great Britain was the first country to use repair tapes starting in 1928. Issues through about 1983 were printed on brown (Kraft-style) gummed paper 1 or 2 inches in height. Later issues were printed on white or transparent tape with red printing. Forty-three different basic designs have been reported. A peculiarity of the brown paper tapes is the use of a number in the format "51-nnnn" or "56-nnnn" where "nnnn" is a four digit number. This sequence is found in different locations depending on the issue. For many designs three or four different numbers are typical, but for some there may be as many as ten. The interpretation of these numbers is unknown. All of the tapes are imperforate and supplied to post offices in rolls of 1,000 impressions. Segments of tape were torn off the rolls without regard to the design. All but one of the crown designs is the same as used for seals. other than types 1, 1A, 2 and 21 all tapes are bilingual in French and English.

Sent 1946, beautiful as is condition. (Seals / Tapes by definition were used to repair damaged mail caused by a wide variety of conditions and found in a wide range of condition.)

This cover appeared in the exhibit of the late Jim Kotanchik's Gold Medal award winning exhibit, "Official Seals of Great Britain" The exhibit was probably last shown at Westpex in 2009. It is possible that some of the information contained therein is no longer current. Jim Kotanchik was a highly regarded expert in worldwide seals.