1966 Postage Due Cover from British Guiana to Valhalla, NY, USA

Description

1966 cover sent
from British Guiana to Valhalla, NY, USA
.  The letter was sent with insufficient postage, thereby explaining its many interesting markings (explained subsequently).  It is postmarked with only one legible arrival cancellation reading May 5, 1966 (Bronx, NY)
.  There is no return address or legible cancellation from British Guiana, so it is not possible to identify the sender's location more precisely.  It is
franked with
two
3c British Guiana stamps, as well as one 1c and one 5c U.S. regular issue stamps.  The cover also has additional handstamps and markings: a "T" in a circle, with a handwritten "36 centimes," and a "Postage Due 6 cents  Foreign Sect. G.P.O. NY."  There is also a handwritten blue "X" at top left.  The cover is in excellent, clean condition.  It is a very interesting item ready to enhance any collection of British Guiana or British colonial postal history or postage due letters.
By way of background, the accompanying description sheet provides the following additional information:  "Six cents of 10 was prepaid which according to the figures written in the 'T' circle left 36 centimes yet to pay.  That figure included a surtax which was satisfied by the six cents in U.S. stamps added to the mix.  Using
regular stamps to pay the amount due was proscribed by the U.S. postal manual, but it occurred often when a facility was out of dues.  The original reason that only due stamps be used to collect due amounts was because it was thought it possible that recipients could argue that if regular stamps were used, they could have been put there by the sender.  If dedicated due stamps were used, there was no room for such an argument.
"
An expert contacted us via email to inform that the description sheet may be in error.  He characterized the cover as follows: "From Jan. 1, 1966, international postage due amounts were supposed to be shown as a fraction.  The due amount was in the numerator, and the sending country's
foreign letter rate was the denominator.  Some countries, like Canada, the USA, Great Britain, Australia, Italy, and apparently British Guiana as well, were slow to catch on.  It looks like your cover weighed over 1 oz., so postage could have been 8c + 5c = 13c (using the rates given in Wawrukiewicz and Beecher's US rate books).  It was short 7c, so due double (i.e., 14c in British Guiana currency).  This should have been marked as 14/8.  In the USA, incoming due amounts were calculated by multiplying the fraction by the US foreign letter rate.  In May 1966, this was 13 cents, so the correct amount of postage due was 23 cents -- not 6 cents.  Had the USPO converted the centimes amount (the prior method), the due amount would have been just 12 cents."  We appreciate the correction.
Another Extremely Fine Piece of Postal History!
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Item #ES-D107