Contrived (Philatelic) Or Commercial (Postal)?

In light of recent discussions about "contrived" covers, the following cover which has just come into my possession would seem to illustrate that sometimes the lines blur.

Front:

Back:


It is a First Day Cover, but on a WWII Boone patriotic cover, not a cover prepared specifically for this stamp's FDOI. But it was postally used to send correspondence from Miss G. Tucker of Oberlin, Ohio to a Captain Gonsales (sp?) in Mazagon, Bombay, India.

I could use some help understanding the markings and franking. The airmail stamp would only be valid for domestic airmail, hence the stamp "BY AIRMAIL OVER U.S. / Domestic Routes Only." It appears to have originated in Washington, D.C., where it received the FDOI cancel, and then went by domestic airmail to Miami, Florida, where I presume it was loaded onto a ship bound for India. It is backstamped with what appears to be an arrival stamp at Mazagon, but I cannot make out the date.

The censor markings are "Greek" to me, but I'm eager to learn more about them. Was this item opened twice, once at each end?

Anything else interesting or of note about it?

Captain Gonsalves was a noted collector, and source of a number of philatelic Indian covers, himself:



(Cochin SG 67)

So, definitely a contrived philatelic cover, I'd say.

14c was not the U.P.U. Surface Rate (5c under 20gr) or FAM Airmail Rate (70c) to India. Here's what I believe happened - called rate confusion. The 8c Airmail was to cover domestic airmail service to the U.S. port of embarkation, while the 5c cover the U.P.U. surface rate to India. I can't tell you how many covers I have between the mid-1930's and the early 1950's showing this multiple type franking. Yet, I have never seen a dual-carriage system noted within the postal regs.

Hal

Anyone know what the blue marking on the face of the cover is that reads DHC/141?

wt1,

Thanks for explaining a bit about Capt. Gonsalves.

As for the "DHC" marking, it appears on the back with a stamp containing a crown. A quick Google turns up a lot of stamps censored in India with this marking, but I haven't determined what the letters mean. So it was opened in India. I wonder if Miss Tucker had anything to say to Capt. Gonsalves, or if on opening it, it was empty. While philatelic, it seems likely to me, given the censoring it, that it carried a letter of some kind also.

But what about the other end, where the 30322 is? Is that evidence of another censoring?

Hal,

Why would this be "rate confusion?" Short of any regs to handle this sort of situation, how else could it have been franked?

District High Commission?

The "30322" is a U.S. censor tape.

Source: http://bnaps.org/hhl/newsletters/wt...-11-w007.pdf

So D, for Dominion, H for India, and presumably C for Bombay?

Edit: Yes, C was for Bombay (or Mumbai as they prefer it now). Lots more about the Indian censorship markings here:

http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopi...0&start=1200

This 1944 Washington DC, USA–Mumbai cover is genuine and commercially used.

The blue DHC/141 rubber stamp is Morenweiser type 5A Examiner's Chop Number censor mark of Mumbai Censor Station which was officially allotted station code C in May 1941.

This mark was used from March 1942 to August 1645 in violet and less commonly in blue ink.

The numeral 141 is the chop number of the examiner who opened the cover and censored it before striking the type 5A stamp which is found with chop numbers ranging 1–722 when used in Mumbai CS.

The cover was closed with Morenweiser type 13A OPENED BY EXAMINER P.C. 90 (P.C. stands for Postal Censor) gray brown label which in Mumbai CS, was in use from August 1942 to August 1945.

The label was pasted by the examiner having chop number 41? who applied the Morenweiser type 6 octagonal PASSED BY CENSOR black censor stamp of Mumbai CS.

This mark is found with chop numbers ranging 1–80 and it was used extensively from March 1942 to August 1945.

Postal Route: This cover was sent via Miami because after the suspension of the India–USA airmail route via Chongqing and Tamaki Makaurau from December 24,1941 following the invasion of Zhongguo by Nihon, all USA to India eastbound airmail was routed via Miami to Lagos by Pan-American Airways and from Lagos by Imperial Airways along the Horseshoe Route via eThekwini–Maputo–Dar as Salam–Khartum–Al Kahirah–Hawr al Habbaniyyah–Al Basrah to Karachi.
This route remained open till September 2,1945.

The oblong cachet dt. April 8,1944 (5.30 p.m.) in black is Bayanwala type Sl-32 (if the dimension is 5.1cm×2.5cm) or type Sl-32A (if 4.7cm×2.4cm) slogan delivery mark of Mazgão SPO, Mumbai which reads BUY NATIONAL SAVINGS CERTIFICATES.

tonymacg posted:


This cover is contrieved because the address Mattancheri in Kochchi city itself, was specifically chosen because it came under the delivery domain of the dispatching Añchal Office i.e. Kochchi City AO (est.1903; converted to Sub AO in 1939) where the 3 Kochchi 1938 2P SG 67 stamps were canceled with Pai type 28/Trowbridge type 9 cds dt. Makaram 16,1116K (Kollavarsham calendar) which corresponds to January 29,1941.

This cds type is recorded to be used from October 1932 to November 1949.

6P was the basic letter rate within the state of Kochchi and to the state of Tiruvitamkur for 6.83gm (½ tola) weight from August 16,1932 to July 16,1943.

The reverse should have Pai type 77/78 delivery cds of Kochchi City AO.

blcjr wrote:



All the information regarding Indian postal censorship in that Stampboards link was actually posted by me.

On the cover in the original post, the 30322 was a censor examiner number used at the Miami, FL censorship station.

The cover was probably carried on Route FAM-22. Ken Lawrence has written several articles on the history of this airmail route which were published in the APS American Philatelist last year. I believe they are posted on the APS website and available to all readers.

Mike

Joy,

Thanks for all the valuable information. I will prepare a note with it to keep with this cover.

Mike (and Joy),

There isn't enough postage for this to have been carried on FAM-22, or by any airmail route. (NB the postal marking that makes the 8 cent airmail stamp valid only for the US domestic part of the postal route.) That is why I surmised (above) that it went from Miami to India aboard ship. It would be easy to confirm that one way or the other if the received datestamp could be read.

Edit: reading Joy's notes more carefully, he dates the backstamp April 8. I've done some image manipulation to get a better look at the backstamp:



I think that looks more like MAY than APR. And that would be more consistent with surface mail by ship from Miami to India, wouldn't it?

/End Edit

A question on this that Joy might know the answer to: were different censor locations used for mail being received by air versus that being received by ship? If not, then it doesn't help. But if so, it might help settle the matter of whether it went by air or by ship from Miami. But it seems to me that the postage itself should settle that question. As Hal pointed out at the beginning of the thread, the FAM rate was 70 cents, while 5 cents covered the surface rate to India.

Basil

The thread today about the use of WWII patriotic covers for FDCs motivated me to dig back into the archives here and resurrect this thread. Not everyone on the board now was around back in 2015. Hal, one of our more knowledgable members back then (especially on the prexies) had this to say:




I've always wondered about this explanation. Maybe newer members might have opinions to share. [The reference to 14c is surely a typo for 13c.] Rate confusion? I think it is pretty clear that the sender wanted to send an FDC of the 8 cent airmail to Capt. Gonsalves, but that was only good for continental airmail. From there, the only way to get it to India was to pay 70c for airmail, or 5c for surface. Why would there have to be something specific in the postal regs about this?

Basil

Just because you haven't seen it it exists. Start on page 104 of the Beecher and Wawrukiewicz International rate book. The text is footnoted with each footnote assigned the postal bulletin reference number and date.

US Domestic air, surface abroad and surface to USA, air within the USA are not rare covers. So-called 8 cent unified airmail rate.

This is a wonderful cover which performed proper mail service carriage in spite of one stamp being used on its first day. The exact rate was paid, 8 cents airmail to the US port of departure and 5 cent UPU surface rate from there.