Following are tables showing money-orders exchanged between the United States and for eign countries during the fiscal year ended 30 June 1918: Countries having postal money-order sys tems arrange themselves into two general groups: 1. The United States, Great Britain, her colonies, protectorates and dependencies, com prising Canada, the Commonwealth of Aus tralia, the Union of South Africa, Egypt and Hongkong.
2. The countries of Continental Europe Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Nor way, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland.
The general distinction between the two groups is that the countries named in the first (excepting the United States) rely upon an advice to facilitate and safeguard payment; those in the second use a card order sent in open mail by the issuing to the paying post master. In the first case, the intending remitter must file with the proper amount for order and fee a written application containing the full particulars of the remittance — amount, name and address of sender and of payee, from which the postmaster prepares the order, which is then handed to the applicant to be mailed at his own expense to the payee.
Card orders are printed on thin boards and supplied to applicants free or at a merely nomi nal charge. The remitter fills in the required spaces on the card and hands it with the needed sum to the postmaster. Postage stamps repre senting the amount of the fee are affixed to the card, which is then numbered, signed, stamped and mailed by the postmaster. No written application is required from the re mitter who receives, however, for his protec tion, a coupon receipt corresponding to the order. (The foregoing statements refer par
ticularly to Germany, but are believed to apply equally to the other countries named in the same class). When it reaches the office of de livery, the order is given to a letter carrier, who calls at the designated address, pays the amount to the payee and obtains the latter's signature to a form of receipt on the back of the card, which is then returned to the post master at the office of payment.
France uses both forms of money-order and is in a class by herself.
As a separate feature or adjunct of the money-order systems, many countries issue postal orders or notes for small sums, limiting the amount to the equivalent of $5 or $10. The notes of Great Britain and Canada are printed in fixed denominations from 6 pence to 21 shillings in the one case and from 20 cents to $10 in the other. Twenty-two separate pieces are needed to complete a set of British notes and 18 of the Canadian. Intermediate amounts may be represented by canceled postage stamps affixed to the notes.
In the French service, it is understood, frac tions being excluded, the amounts are expressed in writing, from one franc to 20 francs.
In effect, card orders and postal notes are money-orders without advices, issued by the postmaster with the minimum expenditure of time and labor consistent with a reasonable degree of safety. As already explained, postal notes are for small amounts only and, as might be expected, greatly outnumber the issues of money-orders.