Lot# 5087

franked with a combination of a 3k stamp overprinted “3 cents” in Chinese currency and a 7k “Kitai” issue, cancelled by Cyrillic TIENTSIN RUSSIAN POST (Type 6) datestamp dated 20 Jan 1918. The cover was opened and resealed in transit by military censors at Petrograd and London. The 7k “Kitai” stamp, denominated in Russian currency, was not accepted and an oval tax marking reading “DOPLATIT / TYAN’-TSZIN’” (To Pay / Tientsin) was applied, with “14” (representing 2 × 7 kopecks) added in manuscript. Fourteen kopecks equated to 50 Chinese cents, and upon arrival in New York the cover was charged 10 cents postage due, with 10c U.S. postage-due stamps affixed at Newtonville. Following the rapid depreciation of the Russian rouble after the March 1917 Revolution, the Russian postal administration in China required payment exclusively in Chinese currency, rendering the “Kitai” issue obsolete by January 1918; this cover clearly illustrates the transitional postal and monetary conditions of the period and represents a particularly interesting example of underpaid mail from the Russian Post Offices in China.