Zeppelin Zr3 Aka Uss Los Angeles Delivery Flight

I'm really happy that I stumbled onto this cover. Condition of it would place it in the "space filler" category. But..., it was very inexpensive and I didn't have one. I would have to spend more money, on a clean version of this flight, then I have on any of my Zep covers.

I believe this is the flight that brought the ZR3 to the U.S. It was a gift/reparation from the German government. It was later renamed USS Los Angeles
I don't know how many pieces of mail were carried on this flight.

It is a common flight, but the franking is better than usual.

It's funny Bill, and shows my ignorance, that I never gave the stamps much consideration. I just now looked them up in my 2008 Scott. Based on CV, they appear to be pretty common.
Are they unique on this cover because they are not air mail stamps?

From what I have seen, non-airmail stamps tend to be the normal stamps on these covers. The 1924 air mails issued on January 1 of that year with the pigeon design do not seem to have been used as much as one might expect. As was mentioned, this is one of the most common Zeppelin covers encountered. There were about 18,000 of them flown. The scarce ones to keep your eye out for are those that were dropped at the Azores and backstamped there, and also the ones that were posted from Danzig.

As to how to characterize the giving of the ZR-3 from Germany to the US, it all depends on which side of the table you sat on during the peace talks at the end of the first world war. If you were on the American side the Zeppelin was either a "gift" or a "reparation". If you were sitting on the German side of the table it was an "extortion" or "one of a series of outrages that led up to the nationalist party and eventually the second world war". Like everything political, both sides are partially right and partially wrong and it all depends on which side you view things from.

Kimo, thank's for that info! I'll now be watching for those also.

18,000 pieces... that is more than I had expected. Great pieces of history though. Especially given the historical perspective that you've added. Thanks again Kimo.

This newest one isn't an Azore backstamp or Danzig post but it's different from the other one I have. Also I like the look of the orange pen with the orange stamps..

Hi Stampcrow. I like this one even better than the first one you posted because it has two different denominations of the seven values issued in January, 1924 carrier pigeon design airmail stamps - two 50 pfennigs and one 100 pfennigs. I would suspect that the orange colored ink was not originally orange but rather it was red and has since faded and oxidized to the orange color now seen. But, as you say it is very attractive with the orange color 50 pfennig airmail stamps.

Hey Kimo, thanks again for responding. Obviously I'm having a ball with this stuff. My long range plan is putting together an album of Zeppelin covers.
I'm on the lookout for the Danzig postmark.
I'm thinking the Azore piece might be out of my price range at this time.

best of luck, though either the Danzig postmark or the Azores receiving mark will likely be very tough to find and if the seller knows anything about Zeppelin covers they will be priced at very high levels, unlike the common ones that you now possess.

The Azores drop is a real oddity. The ZR3 made an unscheduled stop in the Azores, and the crewmembers were allowed to drop letters or cards for transit back to the Europe aboard an Italian liner. They can be distinguished by the Portuguese postage and black Angra seal.

Because it was only crewmember mail, these letters are very scarce. I can only recall seeing one for sale/auction on the Internet in the last 10 years or so. One card, but saw it at auction twice.



Sale price was somewhere around $1,000, IIRC.

PostmasterGS, yea that's more then I've spent on my entire collection of Zep covers. Of course, my collection, in both quality and rarity, reflects my budget.
But...I have found things, philatelic, stashed in $30.00 box lots of stuff. So you never know.