Lot# 8001

the right column inscribed “信重○兩○錢”, and bearing a small red “北總” handstamp at lower left, representing the Taipeh General Station office code (Station Classification Mark). This indicates that the item was dispatched from the Taipeh General Station to the Huwei (modern Tamsui) branch station. Issued under the Liu Ming-chuan postal system, this slip is part of the Postal Commercial Receipt series produced by the Taiwan Local Postal Administration. After the postal clerk received a letter and collected the required postage, this receipt slip was handed to the sender as proof of postage payment, serving simultaneously as both a postal receipt and certification of delivery for commercial correspondence. This system marked the first instance in Taiwan’s postal history of a dual structure combining postage receipt and accounting recordkeeping. This example was used on the 15th day of the 2nd month of Kuanghsu 20 (March 21, 1894), when mail was dispatched from the Taipeh General Station to the Huwei sub-office, during a period of active trade and postal communication in northern Taiwan’s treaty-port era. According to the Stanley Gibbons Catalogue, p.198, only about six used examples are recorded. An extremely rare and historically significant postal artifact from the Ching-era Taiwan Local Post system. Mizuhara "Huayou Jijin II" vol. 7, p.261.