Lot# 9068

bearing a Gold Yuan 1,600,00 postage meter label produced by the “Yung (1)” franking machine, cancelled by Foochow cds. At the contemporary conversion rate of approximately 40,000:1, this equates to 40 fen Silver Yuan, correctly paying the foreign airmail rate for the period Apr 27 to Jul 4, 1949. This cover was produced under exceptional circumstances at the beginning of the Silver Yuan postal system, when both postage meter paper and definitive stamps failed to reach Foochow in time. During the brief emergency period of May 6 - 7, 1949, postage was paid by directly imprinting Gold Yuan values on the cover, representing a temporary expedient measure during the currency transition. Such usage occurred only over an extremely short interval and constitutes a distinctive feature of this transitional postal phase. According to records, only three such commercial covers are known, making this a rare and important item for the study of the 1949 postal rate reforms, currency conversion practices, and local emergency postal operations.