Any Interest In World Postal Stationery?

jamesw: Thanks for the post. I think the Swedish had the right idea. That is the best way they can keep up the military moral (by paying for replies from home). I think other countries should have adopted that concept. Again, thanks for sharing.

jamesw: Nice Swedish military item. I was wondering why other soldier mail from other countries did not also include a free return stamp, but I can understand the American thinking: "the soldier gets free mail, the rest of you, safe at home, can pay".

asmodeus: Back on p22, a number of the covers you posted featured hand-drawn blue cross-hairs ... any thought as to their source or function?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

My first guess was that this was a simple inventory-and-re-order card, but then I noticed the postmark: 11/Nov/1963. So I took the first letter from each block, created the respective anagram, fed it into Google Translate, and got "MEETMEGRASSYKNOLL".

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

"asmodeus: Back on p22, a number of the covers you posted featured hand-drawn blue cross-hairs ... any thought as to their source or function?"

You will find these blue cross markings on registered covers.

I read somewhere that registered mail would be bundled together using blue string. Somewhere in the accumulation I have some unused registered mail envelopes with blue lines preprinted on them.

Robert

In https://goscf.com/t/36613&whichpage=18#376031

re https://goscf.com/t/36613&whichpage=18#375974

PoStat4evR wrote: I have never figured out the Japanese dating system on the postmarks yet.

Here's a pretty good guess: the '27' refers to 'the 27th Year of the Reign' (of Emperor Hirohito).

The latter took office 25/Dec/1926, so I would take that 27.12.15 into Gregorian as 15/Dec/1953, but if you want an opinion you can rely on you need to ask somebody who might, like, you know, actually know.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

https://www.stampcommunity.org/uplo...06_Image.jpg

From my dumpster diving (bargain boxes) at the ASDA on Friday ...

... not a bad way to go if you like a little bit of everything.

First up is a UPU postal card from Persia-overprinted-Iran, revalued to 10 Dinars.

I read the date on the arrival cds as 14 5 07, which is unhelpful as I don't know 14th of what or 7th of what.

The shah in the indicia reigned from 1925 to 1944; the currency changed in 1932; the name changed in 1935, to wit:


The card is postmarked UR, a small city in far northwestern Iran ... which is not the UR (the birthplace of Abraham, in Iraq).



An uprated aerogram from Indonesia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tebing_Tinggi ... postmarked TEBING TINGGI DELI (North Sumatra) 1954022



A badly-worn (did I mention the dumpster?) c1915 postal card from Hungary, postmarked (1916)0124.

2c postage due paid in New York 19160222.



Lastly, a GI's never-posted Japanese postal card, dated 19450406, perhaps obtained from a prisoner of war, perhaps purchased at a shop on Okinawa.





Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

ikeyPikey:
Your first card is Iran # 51 (H&G catalog) issued in 1935. Re-evaluate the date on cancel.
The Indonesia card issued in 1954-5. H&G # 30.
Nice New York cancel on the Hungary item.
The Japanese item issued 1944 with a H&G #69.

Thank you, PoStat4evR!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Hijri_calendar ... from 1925. the Iranians use a 33-year-cycle calendar, but I could not match the 7th or 14th year to the late 1930s ... 14th-year-of-the-reign (began 1925) would barely fit, but I know that I am grasping, and that its all Farsi to me.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Here's a registered envelope from Barbados, front and back. The embossed stamp on the flap only covered the registration fee. An interesting feature of this one is that a layer of gauze is attached to the inside of the envelope, probably to provide added protection.

Note the cross markings -- these are red, so I'm not sure blue was a required color.

Nice.

Regards,
Stampalotapus

I really like the design and color on this Honduras postcard. The back sports an ad for the Holton Stamp Company. Apparently they used these as eye-catching flyers. I have a couple others like this from Holton -- has anyone else come across them?

Very nice, GregAlex, very nice.

Postal cards with pre-printed commercial messages were the first topic I chose to collect as an adult collector.

I prefer mine GPU (Genuinely Postally Used), but will take them just about any way they come ...

... even if I have to delay knowing what they are about until I translate them 'some day' ... see my Indian card, above, and this old beauty from Portugal.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Hi, comments from Japan;




Image turned by 90 degrees to show the correct position and re-uploaded;



The datestamp is categorized as "arabesque machine datestamp (left writing) / small wave" (JMD-10 in "Handbook of Japanese Postmarks", 2008 Edition, JPS), and further subcategorized as "post office in left writing / postwar time stamp", with auburn (reddish-brown) ink. This datestamp was officially used from June 1st, 1952 to around 1968, and has several variations. The auburn ink was used during March 1st, 1950 and October 14, 1953.

When writing in horizontal direction, Japanese characters were used to be written in the direction from right to left (like arabic). The post office name on the datestamp/cancellation was also in this style, and the direction was altered by the Notice No.177 of September 30, 1949 to be from left to right (like english). Thus the name "post office in left writing".

As already have been mentioned by ikeyPikey, the year "27" corresponds to the 27th year of "Showa"(the reign of emperor Hirohito) which is 1952. Indeed, we here in Japan still uses the year of the reign in our domestic datestamp; this year (2015) is "Heisei 27" (the 27 year of the reign of emperor Akihito) so the year inscription is (also) "27"!

The timestamp is "AM 0-8", "AM 8-12", "PM 0-6", or "PM 6-12", which is called "postwar style".



Cheers, unechan @Osaka, Japan

unechan, Greetings:

So each year of an emporer's reign ends on 31/Dec?

I had expected it to run from the day of ascension, eg, in Emporer Hirohito's case, 25/Dec-to-24/Dec.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey (whose sister-in-law was the blond face of Fuji Film in the mid-1970s)