Postai és Távközlési Múzeumi Alapítvány, Postamúzeumi évkönyv, 1990

Tanulmányok - dr. Kamody Miklós: Az ajánlás (Rekommandáció) mint postai szolgáltatás múltja

at the first time letters with ’with special recommendation’ (’rekommandiert’) notices on them. One of the letters of Peter HÜTTER post master of Eger also mentioned the letters with recommendation.

A typical travel document of the post of Ferenc RÁKÓCZI II. was the so called ’paletán’ that contained notices, beside the exact definition of the destination, on the urgency and the importance of the consignemet. (For example on the letters of the Prince two special pen-and-ink drawing may be seen under the addressing line!)

According to the author’s opinion the recommendation was born by the conditions of correspondence in the second half of the XVII-th. century, which, getting into the common knoxledge was regulated and became a tarified service in the age of Maria Theresia.

In Mar. 9, 1776 an imperial patent mentioned the recommendation fee, which was 3 kr within the country and in case on consingnement sent abroad it was 6 kr. (This patent is the first mentioning of the recommendation fees!)

The postal literature originates the official start of the recommendation at Nov. 1, 1789, when the half postal charge system appeared. The NB (Note Bene- to be noted well) notices were used to call attention on the recommended consignemets. KAMODY introduces in the postal routes started on the basis of the postal law of 1838, the letter fees, and the way of sending recommended letters. The recommendation fee was 4 Krajcár (appr. 4 pennies) according to the schedule of charges of 1840, and the guilty official had to pay 2 forints for the lost recommended (registered) letter.

After defeating the war of indepence of 1848-49, the Austrian post law was extended to Hungary and Transylvania as well from Feb. 1, 1851, which resulted the use of the official German language, and the total unification of the handling and the schedule of charges.

The author deals in details with the recommendation services of the independent Hungarian Post after the Compromise of 1867.

The General Post Association (UPU) founded in Oct. 9, 1874 in Bern introduced the marking of the recommended letter with R (Recommandé), based on an international agreement.

The general use of the recommendation marks was started in 1890, when the stamps with R mark were cancelled, and this opened a new section in the history of recommendations.

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