door Receiving an obituary card is always annoying. A loved one has died, and at the time – 1876 – people will not have been informed of the death either. Telephone and internet did not yet exist. Although the first patent was granted to Bell in the US that year, the Netherlands had to wait until 1881, by which time there were 49 connections.
Of course, receiving an obituary card is never a celebration, but the student Steringa Kuyper in Utrecht was particularly unlucky.
The obituary card was not paid for, and the Post Office insisted that the recipient had to pay anyway. So suddenly that was 10 cents. 5 cents missing postage and doubling as punishment. A ten cents postage due stamp has been glued on. This fine letter from the Ad de Goede collection will be auctioned at René Hillesum Filatelie on 23. September.
