1948 Interim mail abroad rarity: surface mailed printed matter cover sent from KFAR VITKIN to ROTTERDAM Holland, franked 5m per period postage rate using interim Negev stamp single tied by full strike of the local interim postmark in violet - both against regulations as for overseas mail both the stamp and the postmark had to be UPU compliant, eg. Mandate stamps and Mandate postmark, but the stamps were no longer sold over the counter and the postmarks outside of the head post offices mostly decommissioned; unsealed per printed matter regulations.
In this period most mail sent abroad is observed without transit or arrival postmarks, at best foreign censor markings where applicable. Here a rare rate not yet seen by this cataloguer in this period. The clean full strike of the postmark suggests early usage, eg. 2 May or shortly thereafter - in the period where the Head Post Offices of the major cities, controlling mail abroad, were still run by the Mandate postal service; the cover could have been carried by any of the following ships: the SS Providence departing Haifa on 4 May, the SS Kedma departing Haifa on 7 May, the SS Argentine or Franconia departing Haifa 16 May; the Marine Carp (departing Haifa 20 May) carried mostly interim mail to Eastern Europe & the US.
