Postal Stationery Help Please

Hello everybody, Is anybody familiar with postal stationery or know of a website where I can research it? I have a fair amount of postal covers and cards but can't find a good site to research ir. I also have a couple of questions. The first cover has words across the stamp portion that translates Envelope 10 cents.Is this a cancel? If so is it considered a precanceled cover? Is the second cover considered precancelled as well?The third scan is an overprinted Bosnia-Hertzgovenis card with an overptint.Is it overprinted in Russian and any idea pf the date?The last scan is a New Zealand newspaper wrapper. Any idea of the date?many thanks for any help you can give me.
David

Hi,

The third item is overprinted in Serbian and says "Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes" (the original name of Yugoslavia).

Many thanks nigelc, I windered why it was overprinted. I took your information and looked up the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and learned that it was formed in 1918 from the the defunct Austro-Hungarian Empire, hence the overprint. A nice little history lesson. Thanks
David

Hi David
Your New Zealand newspaper wrapper could be the first issue from 1878 if it is on white, un-watermarked paper. If it is on cream coloured, watermarked paper it is the 1881 issue.
Hope this helps!
DavidR

DavidR, thank you for that information, it does help a lot."
david

David, the first 2 are from the Netherlands Indies (East) ..the heads belong to King William III or the Netherlands ..so they are in the `1870-1888 time frame..i like postal history myself..but you have to buy specialized books to study postal history..they are expensive..all part of the hunt !!

Thanks Phil, that helps a lot. One of the things I like about postal histor is it gives you the best of two worlds, covers and stamps. Would these two covers be considered precancelled, sort of like usind a precancelled stamp?
Thanks
David

I don't have any references for the Dutch East Indies items but I believe the first one was issued with the diagonal printing and that this s part of the design not a pre-cancel. A very similar style was used for early stamped envelopes from some of the German states, e.g. Baden and Bavaria.

I think the second one has just been cancelled.

nigelc, Thank you, that is interesting.I think I do have a couple German covers like that. Great info.
Thanks
David

Nigekc is correct. The #1 item has the diagonal printing as part of the design. There are several "types" of wording on the diagonal lines. This helps determine when the item was issued. The second one is a value upgrade to "10" which seems to have been a CTO cancel (will have to look it up when I get home).

The postal stationery catalogs of the world leave a LOT to be desired. There are many specialty catalogs dealing with postal stationery. The original "bible" of postal statonery was the Higgins & Gage catalogs.
They show up for sale on ebay every now and then, but are usually in the $150 to $200 range. If you can get one
(which if you are seriously into postal stationery you should do) it will cover all known (at that time) countries up until around 1940ish in some countries.

The other data seems correct on the two other covers.

If you want more indiviual info, contact my at my email and we can discuss things.

Bob