
The Seventeen-cent Prexie
Fourth class use
This laundry tag was mailed between October 27, 1938 (when the seventeen-cent Prexie was first available) and January 1, 1949. This interval spans the time when there was a three-cent discount for mailing a package on a rural route for delivery to zones1-8, and the back of the tag, which bears fourteen cents in postage, is stamped "Mailed on rural route."
If the package of laundry, sent to zone 2, had been mailed before March 26, 1944 it would have weighed eight to nine pounds. If mailed between March 26, 1944 and January 1, 1949 a surcharge of 3%, one cent minimum, would have applied, and the total weight could only have been seven to eight pounds.
A fragment of a parcel wrapping sent to zone 5. The cost to send between one and two pounds from October 1, 1932 to March 26, 1944 was eleven cents for the first pound and five and three-tenths cents for the next pound or fraction of a pound. The postage would have been rounded up to seventeen cents.