German Tunis Feldpost Stamp

Found out today from Guido Gabisch that the imperf copy I mentioned in my original post is a fake. Oh well. I don't feel so bad, considering I paid well, well below market for it.

The "German Palm Tree" stamp was a provisional Feldpost Admission Stamp issued for "Feldpost" parcels between Tunis and Germany; the stamp bearing the palm tree and swastika emblem of the Afrika Korps. I grew-up seeing this German "Tunis Feldpost" hanging on the wall in my father's den. My father was attached to a Military Police Unit (M/S served in Tunisia/Algeria/Morocco) and had liberated the stamp personally from a German Afrika Korps 'Super Trooper'; which I got to hear more times than I'd you will ever know.

Anyway, BILLIG's PHILATELIC HANDBOOK, Volume 22, copyright 1955 (out-of-print), had an excellent section on German FeldPost Issues that includes four pages on the "Palm Tree" which I think might interest ...












These stamps are not as common as people think, and have been heavily forged, which is why Dr. Volz began his organization. The stamp my father liberated was sent to Mr Volz and received a certificate. Why would I send it knowing the provenance? Because, the Germans prefer a certificate with this stamp -- and they drive the market for it.

Hal


I'm adding this, I thought you might like to see a Volz Certificate - and it's available if anyone is interested.




and the translation...

Hal, it is wonderful that you found this information in the Billig Handbook. I would love to read it, only your scans are just a bit too small. Could you try uploading a slightly larger version of them so that the text can actually be read? ;)

If you hold the control (CTRL) key down and press the + key the image can be enlarged. It does not improve the resolution, but the pages can be read.

See is these scans are any easier to read.









Hope this worked,
Hal

Hal, thanks for the scanned pages - very much appreciated

Thanks for the information!. Here is my stamp:



Regards!
Rodolfo

I found this amongs things, I believe its To do with the German Afrika Korps WW2. any ideas on this , im new to this.

Welkom! It's nice, as you are probably aware. See previous discussion for problems and pitfalls.

daveonline,

Can you post larger scans of the cancel on the stamp, the purple cancel at lower left, and the reverse (if there's anything on it)?

Or at a minimum, tell me what the number is in the purple cancel? It appears to be 49294 -- if so, this is definitely a forgery.

Ok heres some close ups.

I can't quite make out the second digit of the Feldpost number, but none of the possibilities make sense with a Tunis stamp. Most likely a forgery.

Here is mine: