1933 Netherlands Indies Airmail Cover

Today I will share a cover from my collection with a nice cancellation from Medan, North Sumatra Island, Netherlands Indies. The bottom part says "SEINT VIA RADIO." The word "seint" translates to "signals," so it says: "signals by radio." Can anyone explain the context here as to what this means and why it was used here.

Thanks,
Linus

Hi,

This cancel was intended to promote the use of Radio Telegrams to the Netherlands. It was used at 8 postoffices beginning in 1931.

The word "SEINT" is the verb form, so the inscription would translate as "Send it by Radio".

Jan

It is a slogan postmark advertising radio telephone (also wireless telegraph) between the Dutch colonies (in this case Medan in the Dutch East Indies) and the Netherlands.

Jan

Thanks for the reply, it now makes sense, a slogan cancel.

Also, thanks NSK. I had never seen this one before.

Linus

Another example from the web

An interesting conversation I had in 2008 regarding these.......



Palembang seems to be right, it was an large city
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palembang
and it had a Chinese 'population'
http://www.antiquariaten.com/gemila...s/c00760.htm
(Study on the socio-economic position of the Chinese in Palembang)

However 'seint' is only known as the 3rd person singular from the verb
seinen, present tense:
hij seint = he sends/signals
That makes the text a bit strange. I would have expected past tense (Eng
'sent via radio) or maybe an imperative (send via radio!).
Seint does not mean cable.

Bye
Jan
------------------

> Thanks Tony and Rodney for your answers. I also got an interesting
> direct reply from a Singapore reader:
>
>> It appears that your cover was sent from Palembang, in eastern Sumatra.
>> SEINT in dutch means cable. The Chinese words are numbers. Telegraph in
>> Chinese were /are sent using sets of four digits, each set representing a
>> character. Difficult to make furthher judgements without seeing the whole
>> cover.
>
> Here is a scan of the whole tattered cover front. The back has only the
> two transit and receiver cancels.
>
> http://www.cijoint.fr/cjlink.php?fi...jkuYDn4r.jpg.
>
> Something to be learned everyday.
>
> Best regards
> Richard Thouin

This is a Dutch landmark that is related to the cancellation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Kootwijk



'Seinen' is best translated by 'signal.' Translating it by 'cable' is a very specific use of the word.
At that time the verb 'zenden' or 'sturen' we would now use when radio signals are involved would not have been frequently used for two-way radio communication.

A land, city or community is considerd grammaticly a het.

het being a 3 person singular, the only correct spelling is seint.

Seint in this context has nothing to with cable. A better word would be transmits.

According to my "van Dale - Handwordenboek Nederlands Engels" the verb "seinen" has three possible meanings (all related to signalling).

0.1 [seinen geven, bekendmaken] signal -> flash (met lichten)
0.2 [berichten afzenden] telegraph -> (draadloos) radio
6.1 met de ogen ~ s. with the eyes

I believe that the second meaning is relevant here (sending messages by wireless telegraph).

"seint" has two possible interpretations: Either as third person singular present tense or as an imperative.

The cancel itself is somewhat ambiguous with the two interpretations of "seint"

As one sentence "MEDAN SEINT VIA RADIO": Medan transmits by radio.
As two sentences"MEDAN. SEINT VIA RADIO": Medan. Transmit it by radio.

As cancels usually have a place name, I would lean toward the second interpretation.

Jan

That appears the most likely interpretation.

Being a slogan postmark, the imperative would be the correct form. Nowadays, it cannot be the imperative, but this cancellation is from the 1930s.
It would be interesting to see whether there are examples of this cancellation on local mail or mail sent within the colony.

Thanks everyone for the links and nice discussion. If anyone else has any similar cancels to show, I would also love to see them posted here.

Linus

Linus,
this was a cover from an auction back in 2008 when
researching this postmark.

Similar rate 42½ cents?

Bandoeng (Bandung) in the west of Java.
The 30 cents 'Luchtpost' stamp paid the fee for carriage by airmail added to the postage rate.

One of my favorite movies "Krakatoa East of Java" which, ironically, is actually west of Java!

Don

The book "Poststempels Nederlands-Indie 1864-1950" by P.R. Bulteman says this cancel was used in the following offices:

Bandoeng
Buitenzorg
Cheribon
Makasser
Medan
Padang
Palembang
Soerabaja

The period of use is July 1930 to January 1942, but this differs quite a bit depending on the office.

Jan

http://goscf.com/t/55535&whichpage=6#754148 br /