Lot# 9021

registered airmail cover sent from Tientsin to Philadelphia, franked with three R series and four North China Liberation Area stamps, totaling 20,900 yuan (RMB), tied by “Tientsin 1950.3.9” cds, bearing red registration label “No. 1222”. The cover was routed via Canton (13 March) and forwarded through Hong Kong for carriage by Pan American Airways (PAA) on its FAM 14 Trans-Pacific route to San Francisco, then onward to Philadelphia. This cover was posted during the Third Postal Tariff Period under the RMB postal system (5 March to 14 July 1950), correctly paying the full rate of 20,900 yuan, composed as follows: International surface letter, first 20 grams for 3,100 yuan, airmail surcharge to “Other Countries” (non-Asian destinations), per 10 grams for 12,700 yuan and international registration fee for5,100 yuan, totaling 20,900 yuan. During this period, the postal administration revised the international registration fee from 3,800 yuan to 5,100 yuan, and adjusted the airmail surcharge for “Other Countries” routes to 12,700 yuan per 10 grams. Thus, the 10-gram registered airmail rate to non-Asian destinations totaled exactly 20,900 yuan. An accurately franked and well-routed example of an early RMB postal system registered airmail cover, this item demonstrates the operation of China’s newly unified postal system in the early PRC period, with mail conveyed via Hong Kong for trans-Pacific dispatch by PAA to the United States. Well-preserved and historically significant, it represents an important postal history artifact documenting the early development of China’s international airmail network after the establishment of the People’s Republic.