Recent Japanese - Updated 5/13/13 7:55 Pm With Additional

I obtained these in our recent stamp club auction and assume they are revenue stamps, although I have not found them in catalog yet. I'll add some of the other Japanese covers once I get them scanned.

Several more covers - front and back





The interesting thing for the following cover is that part of a newspaper had been pasted inside of the envelope to prevent reading of the contents; e.g., an a self-made security envelope. I had hope that the reverse image would show it but, alas, it doesn't.

Hi -- Those items shown in your first post are definitely Japanese revenue stamps, and are great examples of usage! Definitely hang on to them intact as is. Although the usage is relatively recent, I should probably put that in quotes, because the late 60's will be coming up in 50 years ago in the not-too-distant future. (And I am in total denial about that, by the way.)

You'll notice that your 3rd and 4th examples show a year of "42" or "43". That's the "regnal year", meaning that the year is measured by the length of the emperor's reign. Your examples are from the Showa era (for Emperor Hirohito), and year 42 was 1967.

The Japanese use both the Western year and the regnal, so context can become important. The current year, 2013, is Heisei 25, for Hirihito's son, Emperor Akihito.

Great pieces!

-- Dave

Dave - Thank you for the information. I love covers, but I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to foreign covers. I just posted some of the post cards I received.

Several more Japanese covers I received via the auction...