British Central Africa Postcard Post Office?

I have bought a postcard from British Central Africa (later Nyassaland and today Malawi)from 1895 but I can't identify the exact Name of the post Office, the Name starts with TSH.... can somebody help me to identify the post Office Name or have any idea what it can be? thank you very much! rgds Peter

The cancel is probably Tsangano, Malawi; possibly a revised spelling from Tsh......

It's the only town shown that begins with TS.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...es_in_Malawi

Can we see the whole card?
Doug hit the nail on the mark.

enclosed Picture of the whole postcard:

Switzerland must be an unusual destination for something from Malawi...

Can we see the message side too?

here's the backside of the postcard as requested

Looks lovely!

The BCA mails passed through Tshinde, which is probably your example.

There is also a BCA cds from Tshiromo that you see from time to time. Any chance that fits? The fifth letter sure looks like an 'N' but it might look different when you're holding it in your hand.

The bigger questions in my mind are the 1d rate to Switzerland, and the date of the message after the date of the postmark.

There was also a 2d 'External' card, which is what I would have thought would be used to Switzerland...anyone have any ideas on that?

thanks CJD for your comments, do you eventually know how Tshinde or Chinde is called today? I've also seen that the date on the back (5.1.1895) is later then the post Office cancel, but I think that has no signification or are there also forgeries on the market for postcards?

Although there is a wide spot in the road within Malawi that is shown as Chinde, at 11°27'00"S, 33°25'00"E (near the western border of the country), I don't know when or if it had a post office.

Most (and perhaps all?) Tshinde/Chinde postmarks relate to the British concession at the Zambezi delta, an Indian Ocean port in present-day Mozambique. Mail and goods bound for BCA were offloaded from ocean-going ships at Chinde and sent upriver on steamers. Goods were logged in at Chiromo, which probably explains the prevalence of revenue cancels for Chiromo.

Anyone have a switchover date for the change in the cancels from TSHINDE to CHINDE? It looks like it must have been around 1895 or early 1896. (Chinde cancels frequently appear as a transit marking on BCA covers.)

Here is a 1906 map of the area around British Central Africa:

http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com...a%201906.htm

Chinde is just below Quilimane, near the bottom right corner, along the coast of the Indian Ocean. Chinde is a bit hard to read because of the heavy lines, but follow the Zambezi River to the ocean and there it is.

Quilimane is better known as Quelimane to stamp collectors.

What a fabulous hobby, no?

thank you very much for your detailed Information, now I can understand how it works with mail on that Region, but it's a pity anyway that no cancel from a british central africa City is on the postcard, Chinde (Tshinde) is therefore a Transit cancel on the way to Switzerland, but anyway another scarce postcard in my Switzerland incoming mail collection!

I would allow for the possibility that your card originated from someone working in Chinde, though I suppose you can't rule out the postmark being applied in Chinde to cancel a card that missed being canceled in the interior. (Or, at least not without knowing a lot more about the postal history of BCA.)

This is a total guess, but I wonder if there is a chance that 1d. was enough to get to Switzerland from Chinde, since the card didn't have to travel out of the interior, down the river to Chinde?

I've probably shown it here before, but here is a 2d External card, unfortunately not used: