World Postal Stationery, Part 2

Philatelycanada, imprinting on the left side of the cover is a cachet/decorative printing. It has no postal/franking value. This item is not postal stationery.

Here's a nice message/reply card from Norway. This configuration always puzzled me. Since cards and letters were often backstamped or mucked up with ink by a cancelling machine, wouldn't that end up unintentionally cancelling the reply card?

Japan, 1875

It's quite remarkable how quickly Japan embraced modernization after the Meiji Restoration. The first Japanese postal card was issued in 1873, the same year that the United States issued its first postal card, and only four years after Austria-Hungary (the world's first). The first Japanese postage stamps were issued in 1871, when Baron Maejima Hisoka established the country's first modern postal service, based on a British model. All of this is even more astounding when you realize that feudalism had ended in Japan in 1868, only three years earlier.

Here is another Berlin "printed to private order" postal stationery envelope. This one is a special helicopter flight from Berlin, Germany to Runmaro, Sweden on March 20, 1955. Runmaro receiving cancel is 26 March 55.

Runmaro is a (resort) island in the Stockholm archipelago. The distance of the flight is 510 miles (821 km).

This 1959 West German lottery postal card (Mi #FP7) bears the indica of the definitive stamp series of the same year. The West German lottery postal cards begin before there was a Federal Republic... with a 1949, 10 pf card in the British and American zone.

Michel says the following about this card, "Produced at the instigation of the German auxiliary community for the radio lottery of the Northwest German Broadcasting Corporation and sold at the post office counters for 65 pfennigs. After deducting their expenses the post paid 50 pfennigs to the aid community."

North German Postal District formular card, franked with Michel #16, mailed from Glauchau to Leipzig on 25 October 1870. Not postal stationery, strictly speaking, but this was the closest the North German Postal District ever got to issuing a postal card.

After Austria-Hungary issued the first paid postal cards on 1 October 1869, various German states followed suit with their own versions of the "Correspondenz-Karte". The North German Postal District and the Kingdom of Bavaria issued formular cards on 1 July 1870, and the Grand Duchy of Baden did the same the following month. The Kingdom of Württemberg issued actual paid postal cards on 8 July 1870, the first outside of Austria-Hungary.

Here is a modern French PS envelope from 2006. Letter was mailed from Lyon to the USA. Prioritaire/airmail "ettiquite" is printed on the envelope.

French, English, and Spanish message of validity of the envelope is printed on the reverse.

This 1936 50 haleru postal card of Czechoslovakia was uprated to 1.50 koruna with the 1 k Macha statue stamp added to pay the international rate. Card was addressed to Waynesburg, Pa., USA, but was missent to Waynesboro, Pa.

New arrivals!

French Congo, 1892

Madagascar and Dependencies, 1897


I've been getting a fair number of cards from French colonies lately, but even so, French colonies and offices still constitute nearly a third of my "One Mint 19th-Century Postal Card from Everywhere" wishlist (excluding the large number of local, mostly German, private posts). Mint message+reply cards and letter cards from French colonies seem to be easier to find (and/or tend to be less expensive) than regular postal cards.

I just added an exemplar of Hungary #2 to my collection, mailed from Debrecen to Pest on 14 October 1870. Pest would unite with Buda and Óbuda three years later to become Budapest.

Nicaragua, 1891

Austria postmarked 1934. This one could do double duty in the music/composers category, flip side of postal card is picture of Beethoven.

Kashmir, 1883

This is Jammu and Kashmir 1883 ¼A red brown postal card (Deschl C1/Higgins and Gage A1), printed in typograhic process from Setting (correct term should be Die) I/Plate State A, assuming that it is on pale wafer horizontally laid paper which is the commonest paper type of JK postal cards.

The rectangle at the extreme right shows the Coat of Arms of Jammu and Kashmir state which is also found on JK 1884 1st issue telegraph stamps.

Below the CoA is the denomination Pao Ana (i.e. Quarter Ana) in Farsi script.

The inscriptions outside the rectangle, are all in Takri script of Dogri language.

The 1st line reads Postcard Kalamrõ i.e. Postcard of the (Feudatory) State, to the left of the sun and to the right is printed Jambu Kashm#299;r va Tibbat Ha where Jambu is the endonym of Jammu in Dogri, va means "and", Tibbat is Bod and Ha means "etc.".

Here Tibbat refers to the regions of Ladakh and Gilgit-Baltistan (now in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir or POK), which were part of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state.

Ladakh was annexed in 1834 and Gilgit-Baltistan in 1839 by Zorawarsinh Harisinh Kahluriya (1786–1841), General of the Army of Gulabsinh Kishorsinh Jamwal (1792–1857), the first ruler of Jammu and Kashmir state.

The second line reads Is Taraph Sivay Pata Kuchh Na Likhe meaning "Don't write anything on this side except address."