The Blue Flea : Advanced Information.

Might Kreiensen have been in the Soviet Zone? That would explain it.

[edit: No, I see that it was not in the Soviet Zone. Back to the drawing board.]

Can someone help her out on this one ? I know there are advanced Germany collectors and knowledgeable philatelists who read the forum.

I know nothing about Bizone issues other than what I can read from Michel, so take this with a grain of salt...

The postage and markings on that cover don't make much sense. It's almost certainly philatelic in origin.

The 6 and 4 pfenning stamps are from the Bizone (American and British controlled area), and I think 10 pfenning was the proper rate for a local letter (Hannover and Kreinsen are both in Lower Saxony). However, it would be odd for a letter between those two cities to be sent airmail, as they're only 60km apart. There's also no postage to cover the airmail rate, which I think was 5 pf at that time.

The third stamp is from the French Zone, and shouldn't have been used on a letter from Hannover.

The cancel is a commemorative cancel celebrating stamp day, so it's likely this was created at a stamp exhibition for philatelic purposes.

Thank you, PostmasterGS! Your explanation makes perfectly sense, I had not thought about it being a philatelic cover. Those stams and covers from that post war era are confusing!
Jopie

Coming late to the party, I have been cataloging a bunch of accumulated stamps and discovered one of what I now know is referred to as the "Blue Flea". Thanks to rod222, who posted an excerpt from the Byrum catalog, I identified this as a Byrum S1, imperforate, wmk. A2 (standing, facing left).

Also, using rod222's link to the German Philatelic Society, I affirmed that the design is the pointed "N", the low-angle "R", the slim and uniform "Berlin" and the "E" extends beyond the "N".

Thanks to the Forum for fantastic information.
Donald

Stayed up all night sorting and identifying the various types of the BLUE FLEA ,got about two pages of stamps ready to mount .Hoping to show them later today here .

I came to this thread only because I wondered what in the heck a Blue Flea was. Now I've read the whole thing, and it was fascinating -- both in regard to the stamp itself and the knowledge of Rod and the other posters. This is why I love stamp collecting.

Finally finished my BLUE FLEA pages,as many of you know I am a worldwide collector and not a German expert ,I used the information that many of you posted here .....so this is what it looks like ....

Here is the second page ,remember this is my first try and if I get a bunch more FLEAS ,then I will re do these pages neater ,but this is the first lay-out.

Well done, floortrader! Question: Were you inspired to collect the Blue Flea by this thread?

Thanks for the positive note . I had two or three in my main collection .But did have a few dozen in my German stock books ,never did anything with them until I seen this discussion .

I have several of these blue fleas. What makes the million dollar one special? The perfs on one of mine is 13 I believe. I'll have to dig out my others.

Missed floortrader's posting.
Nice work!

I also have a fat envelope and a few bundles of these things, that I plan to sort 'one day'. I wonder if everyone does?

Right now I'm sorting perfs. on Switzerland Standing Helvetias. Quite lucrative (on a cat. value basis, anyway). Rather more so than these fleas!

My flea infestation:



Doubt I ever get driven to sort them all out.