Foreign (To Us) Airmail

How important are whole air envelopes. Can I cut the blue tissue type to a corner with the cancel?

And while we're on the subject... customs declarations on packaging?

My take:
Retaining the full cover is always the highest aim
for all philately, I was once challenged by this
when I owned a Shell Oil wooden crate, with a sackcloth
piece nailed to the side that had about 200 Straits settlements
stamps affixed, and were looking a little poorly.

I passed the quandry onto someone else when they purchased it at auction.

Sometimes retaining the entire cover is not appropriate
for certain peoples storage space. I still believe it should be passed on
via auction or whatever, as single stamps of most issues
are always available.
Not so "auxilliary markings" etc, these should <always> be left on cover.
otherwise their full story will be cryptic.
In the end they are yours, and you do what you see fit.
Just remember the joy you receive when you find old covers,
one day, perhaps 150 years hence, someone else will share this with
your modern cover.

I would agree with rod222. I once had an oversize cover that had a full, over-sized, sheet of German stamps that I was tempted to soak off but, I passed it along to a specialized German collector that was pleased as punch to get it. He had examined it closely and found that it would not survive soaking and left it intact, somehow archivally protected. It was way beyond my collection but I found it a good home and probably assured its continued existence at least for another generation.

This



is one of my favourite examples of why you should leave covers intact.

Off paper, the used Queen Victoria Indian ½ Anna stamp is worthless. They were printed by the billions.

Cut to shape, to retain the postmark, you might get 20c for the nice strike of the Jammu postmark.

Left intact, it's a tens of dollars item. First up, it's a mourning cover, with the black edging to the envelope. They were used, particularly in the 19th Century, to announce deaths and send condolence letters. There are a number of collectors who specialise in them.

Then, there's the historical interest of the recipient. Lady Younghusband was the wife of Colonel Sir Francis Younghusband, who led the 1904 British Expedition to Tibet. If you're old enough to have read Rudyard Kipling's Kim about the Great Game in Central Asia, Younghusband was a key player in the Game. The British Residency in Srinagar, the Summer capital of Jammu & Kashmir, was also one of the key centres of the Game.

Finally, there's the fascination of the route the letter must have taken, from Jammu in the lowlands of Jammu & Kashmir, over the mountain passes and down into Srinagar. And as this letter was sent during the Indian Winter (which was very hard at Srinagar), it must have been a very trying trip for the postal runner who would have carried it.

Trim this cover down to its stamp, and you lose not only a lot of money, but a delightful historical artefact.

Thank you so much for the interesting lessons in stamping and history.