Any Interest In World Postal Stationery?

Bobby De La Rue: Nice card and useage. That card would be # 1 issued, May 1893. Catalog # P1. Nice find. Thanks for sharing.

erilaz: Nice start to your "one 19 century mint card from everywhere" collection. A lot of countries were late arrivals
in the game and didn't issue until early 20th century. But, one goal at a time. Keep sharing. Also nice additions to your "Esparanto" collection

I'm surprised how many countries and territories are making the cut with 1890s issues, though. It looks like I barely missed Korea with my cutoff, and of course the Commonwealth of Australia didn't exist until 1901. But I still need to get the various Australian states!

More cards are coming. I have five ebay purchases en route.

It's tricky trying to decide which card will be the "one": a delicate balancing act between attractive design, affordable price, and availability. One of my ebay purchases is from the Dutch East Indies, but now I think that I should have got something with Dutch and the local languages (Malay and Javanese?) on it, rather than Dutch and French. I have a feeling that for some countries I'll end up with more than one.

Five more cards for the collection arrived today. All from islands.

Bahamas:



Ceylon (I love the look of the Sinhala and Tamil inscriptions in the border):



Cook Islands:



Newfoundland:



New Zealand:

Thanks PoStat4evR

It's actually an envelope but I'm curious to know what catalogue you're quoting from? Could you please let me know! Thanks.

Bobby De La Rue: My mistake. I forgot to change lines. The card I was referring to was erlilaz's early
Germany Private Post card. That data came from a German catalog.
Your card is indeed NOT a German card, so guess I can just say "Sorry for the mistype".

No problems PoStat4evR - thanks for clarifying

So you're saying that my Hanauer Privat-Briefverkehr card is from May 1893, then? Good to know. I have the Michel Ganzsachen-Katalog Deutschland 1980 (which I scored for only $5.50 at a nearby used book store), but it doesn't cover the local private posts.

erilaz: I just picked up this past year, a four volume set of Horst Muller's "deutschen Privatepost catalogs. 3 volumes on a-z and one volume on Berlin Packetfahrt listings. It pretty well covers Germany.

If I intended to specialize in postal stationery of the German private posts, that would be a worthwhile investment, but 150 euros is a bit too rich for my blood otherwise.

New arrivals for my "One from Everywhere" collection:

Nicaragua. I had intended to avoid message+reply cards for this collection, and especially to avoid halves of such pairs, but Idiot Boy bought this without properly researching it or noticing the words "RESPUESTA PAGADA" at the top. D'oh! It's such a pretty card, though.



Japan. I similarly bought this one, not realizing that it was a message+reply card, but this time I got both halves.




Germany. This card was issued in the final days of December 1899, so I wanted it as a bookend for the collection. This way I could also squeeze in a Germania. (Yes, I know that the 19th century technically ended at the end of 1900, but December 31, 1899 is still my cutoff.)



For the other bookend, I need to get Austria #1, from 1869, the world's first postal card.

The first postcard was issued by Austria in October 1869. It was invented by Dr Emmanuel Herrmann of the Military Institute of Vienna. The Austrian Post Office was doubtful whether the public would permit such lack of privacy in their correspondence, even though it was half the cost of a letter, and the earliest cards bore an inscription signifying: 'The Post Office undertakes no responsibility for the contents of the communication'. Other countries, including Britain, adopted postcards in 1870.

The First Lettersheet with prepaid postage was New South Wales Australia 1838
(The first Lettercard Belgium 1882)

James Mackay.
The Guinness book of stamp facts and feats
1982
isbn 0851122418

I got some more....

Curaçao (Netherlands Antilles).



Egypt. I love the design of this one.



Great Britain and Ireland.



Honduras.



Netherlands. Queen Wilhelmina as a little girl: too cute!



Netherlands Indies (Dutch East Indies).

While sorting through some Switzerland items, I came across this "cat" postal card. Card issued in 1991 (Michel P250).



Now observe the corner under UV light! The tagging bar to left of image AND glowing cat eyes! Clever! I wonder how many cat/stamp collectors know about this one?



Enjoy your collecting!

Very cool cat!

More for my collection:

Cameroon



Luxembourg



Seychelles



United States of America

Here's a postal card (U.S. Scott #UX27) with advertising that interests me topically: