Postal Stationery Miscellany

Rare and Unusual Stationery #44 (from Issue 358 of Postal Stationery Magazine)

HUNGARY PRINTED-TO-PRIVATE-ORDER ADVERTISING CARD

The Hungarian government printed the front side of a double sized postal card in 1930, and a private advertising company printed the back with multiple ads, with the intent to sell the card below face value, with the ads making up the difference. The art deco ads still resonate today.

Rare and Unusual Stationery #43 (from Issue 357 of Postal Stationery Magazine)

ORANGE FREE STATE POST CARD

The African country of the Orange Free State was too poor to have postal card dies made in Europe where its adhesive stamps were printed, so it used the expedient of having the local printer Borckenhagen make up a type-set printing form, and for security, used its adhesive stamps applied to the cards prior to the printing, thus tying the stamps to the card. The O.F.S. coat-of-arms was used over the stamp, bearing the motto GEDUKD EN MOED, VRYHEID (above, at left). A similar appearing design, with the motto NEWS OF THE WORLD, the trademark of the newspaper The Express was used as an advertising letterhead heading for its stationery, etc. (Above, at right). In the 8th printing of the postal cards, the newspaper die was inadvertently inserted and a few cards were printed and issued before it was corrected. There are today about six mint (CTO) and used copies known. Used example courtesy of Tim Bartsche, correctly used. It is canceled Boshof, O.F. State 14 Nov. 94.

Rare and Unusual Stationery #41 (from Issue 355 of Postal Stationery Magazine)

CANADA PRINTED-TO-PRIVATE-ORDER REPLY POSTAL CARD

This private reply card printed by the Canada Gypsum and Alabastine company, which sent the card to have the message side stamped with a 1-cent stamp, and the reply side stamped with the half-cent-stamp. Since a very small percentage of these "junk mail" cards were actually returned, the Canadian Post Office only required that the reply portion of business mail to be one-half the normal rate. There is not much to say about this card, except to admire the beauty of the lithography of the time.

Rare and Unusual Stationery #37 (from Issue 351 of Postal Stationery Magazine)

INDIAN FEUDATORY STATE OF BUSSAHIR ENVELOPE

It is not often that an item of postal stationery comes to light that was not only previously undocumented, but that emanated from a country not known to have issued postal stationery, but that is exactly what happened at the June 15, 2006 Stanley Gibbons auction of the Veldman collection of Indian Feudatory States. This item was described as: 1900, December 13? ¼ Anna violet postal stationery envelope with rose monogram, additionally franked by 1895 imperf 2a orange-yellow with mauve monogram (SG 4) close to good margins, used locally with two strikes of Rampur CDS and boxed manuscript registration marking at left, some pinholes and light creasing but a wonderful cover, one of the gems of the collection. Certainly a unique registered usage of the very rare stationery envelope (not listed by Deschl or Higgins & Gage) with Holcombe Certificate. Est £2000-2400 The lot realized £6000, or about $10,800, certainly a healthy price for an item of Indian States stationery.

In the same sale, the very rare Rajpeepla envelope (not to be confused with the relatively common lettersheets) realized £2800 against an estimate of £330 to 340, even though the example has foxing marks. It too is shown here.

Very Unusual S54b Plate Position

Is This a New Major Variety?

Has anyone out there seen another one of these? Notice the right-hand side of the Vignette. Instead of a constant heavy vertical border line, this card exhibits two separate lines and a 2mm space in between having no border! This is clearly not an inking variety and might be a catalog listing candidate if additional examples can be found. Check your cards and drop an email to the editor of Postal Stationery if have a similar card.

Click on the image to see the entire card actual size.

Rare and Unusual Stationery #23 (from Issue 338 of Postal Stationery Magazine)

Japanese Occupation of Dutch Indies
Butlerman #248a, H&G unlisted

When the Japanese occupied the Dutch Indies shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack, the eastern portion of that immense island nation (bigger in length than the USA) was given to the Japanese Imperial Navy to administer. In the Celebes, like most everywhere else, most communications were restricted to the use of postal cards. There were large stocks of Duch Indies cards at post offices, and the Japanese Navy overprinted them for civilian use. Kanji characters were added to supplement the Indonesian language, but the Dutch language on the cards was deemed offensive, and consequently barred out. The monetary unit was the Japanese Yen, divided into 100 Sen, and the card rate was 3.5 Sen. The card shown was, unusually, overprinted by printing vs. the more normal hand stamping. The offending stamp design was blotted out by a red circle signifying the rising sun.

Rare and Unusual Stationery #19 (from Issue 335 of Postal Stationery Magazine)

Columbia SCADTA Envelope Used
H&G FB 2

Because of the vastness of the country of Colombia and the lack of sufficient roads, the mail needed air transport. SCADTA was a private company that carried mail. Several Colombian items of postal stationery were issued, including envelopes in denominations of 25 and 50 centavos. The mint examples are scarce, and the used ones are great rarities.

This example of the 50c is a little worse for wear, but is perhaps the only example still surviving.

Thanks to member Deborah Friedman for sharing this with us. The other side of the envelope is illustrated at left.

Rare and Unusual Stationery #18 (from Issue 334 of Postal Stationery Magazine)

Salvador 1912 Surcharged Formular Card
H&G --- (Not Listed)

In 1908, the poor financial condition of the Salvadorian treasury precluded the ordering of needed postal stationery from their foreign printers, and stocks began to run out. To meet the shortage of postal cards, the post office ordered local production of postal cards. Because of the need for security, they did not entrust the printing of the stamp denominations on the cards, but instead had formular cards produced. The post office then applied surplus adhesive stamps to the cards prior to sale. The cards are listed in H&G as numbers 67-69, and one is illustrated overleaf (not shown here). Two years later, a new definitive set of cards was issued, featuring a bust of General Figueroa, in denominations of 1c, 4c, and 5c.

In 1912, with the demise of the general and his regime, the post office devalued the 1910 issue. However, because of pressing need for the local rate 1c value, they used up the remaining 1910 issue with an overprint obliterating the portrait, and surcharging the cards, in the upper left, "Vale un centavo" (Value one centavo). These cards are noted in H&G as numbers 73-75, and an example of #73 is shown overleaf (not shown here).

Shown above is the sole known used example of the overprint/surcharge on the formular card of 1908. This card must have been still in the unsold stocks of some post office when all postal cards were ordered to be returned to the central administration for revalidation. One mint copy of this card is also known.

An FDC Error or Not??

Note B in The UPSS Postal Card Catalog lists this postal card (S292) as only being given FDC service by the USPS when provided in single cards.

Here is an interesting whole sheetlet which has been cancelled on the first day of issue, submitted by Ed Bisconti. Ed writes: "I mailed them in the sheet format and did not know that they should be separated. Now I don't really know if these are truly unique in that all 4 sheets were returned to me intact and not separated."

Is this then, a scarce error or a case of mass-misunderstanding of the regulations on the part of the USPS regarding the FDC servicing policy for this issue resulting in many of these full sheets being issued? Is our postal card catalog in error?? How many other sheets of these cards exist cancelled thusly?

'Domestic' Liberty UPU Reply Card

Rob Washburn discovered this card in Montreal, Canada. At first glance, it appears like a previously unlisted domestic UPU postal card sent to Canada June 6, 1961. However, the UPU inscription was privately added by the mailer and patterned after the official international UPU Card Issue MR26.

Supposedly, the French incriptions (Like 'Etats-Unis D'Amerique - United States of America) were required by UPU regulations for the prestamped postage on overseas postal cards to be honored by UPU member countries, particularly for Message-Reply cards. Many countries still forced their own stamps to be used on these cards back to the states.

Because this card is the domestic message-reply card, it technically isn't valid internationally based upon UPU regulations. The rate to Canada at the time, however, was 3-Cents, so use of the proper international card would constitute an overpayment. The mailer was probably just being efficient, although one has to wonder at the cost of the print job for applying the UPU inscription...

This is a great unofficial companion card for the standard MR26 Issue. This is just another great example of the plethora of interesting usages which can be discovered on our postal cards.

A 'Phantom' Airpost Usage from the Canal Zone

Back in 1998, it seemed long overdue that the Scott catalog editors saw fit to significantly revise the used values for Canal Zone airmail postal cards. These cards are truly scarce when used within the proper rate period, arguably more so than many of the high priced earlier regular cards. With this in mind, one can only imagine the difficulty of locating a modern airpost rate specimen for which a card was never issued. The card below illustrates a proper usage for this final "phantom" domestic airpost rate.

From the useful endnotes for the airmail rate tables in our Postal Card Catalog, we know that the formal separation between U.S. surface and airmail postal card rates "...effectively ended on October 10, 1975, as thereafter all first class mail was given air transportation in the domestic mails ... so far as practical and expeditious, at the first-class rate ... the separate airmail service and rates were formally ended, effective May 1, 1977." During this interim period, the airmail postcard rate was actually 14-Cents. As a U.S. posession, this rate policy was also in effect for the Canal Zone.

An 11-Cent airmail postal card was never issued for the Canal Zone. The card illustrated here was the last Canal Zone airpost card issued. It was commercially sent to request a free gardening catalog. While this card probably would have made it successfully to Lima, Ohio via airmail with only a 2-Cent added adhesive, perhaps rate confusion on the part of the postal clerk, and/or the sender's urgency for expeditiously receiving that free gardening catalog resulted in a 5-Cent adhesive being used to pay the "phantom" airpost rate.

The extreme difficulty of finding a U.S. domestic airmail card so uprated makes one used from the Canal Zone truly a modern postal history "gem".

New Zealand 'Cigarette' Postal Card

In the early years of WWII, the Post Card Society of America and International Postal Stationery Society had not yet merged into the UPSS. During this time, a handful of small philatelic journals were published sporadically which could have been considered 'unofficial' postal stationery organs of the period. Many of these issues had great postal stationery articles as well as some fascinating items. One of these journals was entitled 'The Scientific Philatelist'. The postal card shown here was photographed in the April 1942 issue of this journal.

Apparently, tiny specimens like the postal card illustrated here were placed in packages of cigarettes (similar to the English pictorial 'cigarette' cards). The actual article clipping from the magazine can be seen at right and explains the origin of this very interesting little postal card measuring under 2x3 inches in dimension.