Lot 20040 – 1903 Chinese 1c postal stationery card uprated Chi

1903 Chinese 1c postal stationery card uprated Chinese ‘Dragon’ 1c + 5c tied by tombstone chop, message (in French) « to be sent by the post-boy from An-yin », oval bilingual transit of PAOTING datestamp alongside, arrived at Chinese P.O. NEWCHANG (YINGKOW) 11 AUG 1903, passed to Russian P.O. for transmission to Belgium, franked ‘Kitai’ two 2k tied by YINGKOW/FIELD TELEGRAPH BRANCH/PRIAMUR DISTRICT/30 July 1903. Since China was not a member of the UPU its stamps were not valid for usage to foreign destinations hence the card being handed over to the Russian F.P.O. at Yingkow which handled civilian mail. The apparent discrepancy in dates on postmarks is due to the fact that China had adopted the western Gregorian calendar, while Russia continued to use the old style Julian calendar, 13 days in arrear.