Lot# 9060

bearing a single Shanghai postage meter label (Hu Type 4) with the value of Gold Yuan 3,600,000, tied by Shanghai cds, routed via San Francisco (May 26, 1949) and arriving Ann Arbor on May 27, 1949. The postage, equivalent to 60 Silver Yuan fen, correctly pays the 10g international registered airmail rate for the period Apr 29 to May 27, 1949. Mailed during the Battle of Shanghai (PLA general offensive commenced on May 15, 1949), when despite intense warfare and social disruption, postal services remarkably continued to handle outbound registered airmail. Amid severe Gold Yuan hyperinflation, rapidly changing postal rates, and acute stamp shortages, postage meter labels were employed to meet high franking requirements. A fine single-franking usage of a Gold Yuan postage meter label on foreign registered airmail, showing a clear Shanghai - San Francisco - Ann Arbor route with complete arrival markings. An important postal history item illustrating wartime postal operations in Shanghai, extreme inflation, and the rapid transformation of postal rate systems in 1949, of significant exhibition and research value.