I would say Lundy is a 'half real' local post. I am sure I will think of a better term later but I have been feeling so crappy this past week that's all I can come up with.
Look, everyone has their opinion about local post, different opinions are written in books, on websites and in magazines.....so I have mine too !
A real local post.....an item with a local stamp or label ONLY on the cover/packet. For example, many Scout posts in the UK [but not all] are real local posts. You buy the stamp at a given outlet, post it in a special postbox placed there by the scouting association and it then collected by the scouts, given a scout cancel and delivered by them. This to me is a real local post.
Other examples of local posts in this category might include Storkow,Lubbenau and the Pony Express, to name but a few.
A 'half [or semi] local' post will include Lundy. A Lundy stamp is affixed to front left or back of an envelope, a Brtish stamp is affixed in the usual place for the onward journey. Without that GB stamp, the letter would go nowhere. This would be carried by boat [Lundy's own boat] or air [in the past, service no longer available] to Bideford,North Devon for the onward journey.
There are many examples of this kind of local post. Rattlesnake Island is one of them. [The problem I would have with Rattlesnake Island is that it is not 'open' like Lundy, but restricted to the Elite few].
There are many,many other examples of local posts which emanate from real places but which have no local service at all [except for the owner !!]. Still a local post though and anyone can set one up if they wish.
Then there are fantasy local posts where there are no such place except in the imagination of the issuer. A collectors paradise if you are into such things.......
And here are some Lundy fantasies, never seen even half a local use....but great just the same
More to come no doubt
Londonbus1......going local
Posted 03/23/2009 9:49 pm
