ABCs of Irish Philately: Aerogrammes

ABCs of Irish Philately - Aerogrammes

Aerogrammes, or Air Letter Forms, were first issued in September 1945 and there have been only seven different types or formats. Until 1986 all officially produced aerogrammes were issued without any post paid impression and postage stamps were affixed for the appropriate rate at the time, so we can see older issued aerogrammes used with stamps from a later time. Two years after 1986 an An Post, Irish Post Office, took over the administration from the Department of Posts and Telegraphs a postage imprint was included in the design.

A small number of private supplemental printed aerogramms exist from the following users: Shannon Duty Free Airport, Shanahan's Stamp Auctions, University of Dublin, David Feldman Ltd., Hospitals' Trust, Great Southern Hotel and William Kane, while seven aerogrammes have been privately printed by their users.

Type classifications used below are per Murphy, but Jung, MacDonnell Whyte and Revealer catalogue numbers have also been used to classify the Irish aerogrammes.

1946 Air Letter Form

The 6d Aerogramme Fee was in effect from the introduction of the aerogrammes until 28 February 1951 when the Uniform Foreign Airmail Rates came into effect with a new rate of 8d whereby all airmail rates to (non-inland and European) countries were the same.

The 'NO SERVICE' marking was applied because the new 'Air Letter' was not permitted to be used to U.S.A. even though it could be used to Canada. By 1948 service to U.S.A. was permitted.

7 ¹/₂p Aerogramme Fee 15 February 1971 - 30 June 1971 This is a very scarce postage rate being in effect for less than 5 months as was the previous rate of 1/6. From Cork '22 February 1971' to U.S.A.

	9p Aerogramme Fee 1 October 1974 - 31 March 1976 This style (Type III) was introduced in 1970 with an orange border, black text on a grey paper. In 1972 a different format of this style was printer using the same paper and ink colours. 1974 use from Dublin to Fiji. It is always nice to find unusual destinations instead of mail between Ireland and U.S.A. that is quite common.


40p Aerogramme Fee: 3 March 1986 - 31 December 1989 1987 An Post Aerogramme used from Dublin to Singapore •=• Type V

Bibliography:

Irish Aerogrammes and Airgraphs: William J. Murphy, pub: Éire Philatelic Association, U.S.A., 1998
Die Ganzsachen Irlands - Postal Stationery of Ireland: Bernard Clancy & Otto Jung, pub: FAI, Germany, 2002
Handbook of Irish Philately: David Feldman, pub: David Feldman Ltd, Dublin, 1968