Opinions On Zeppelin Cover Id: Is It Sieger 57A Or 57A?

The cover below was flown on Graf Zeppelin LZ 127 flight #62 leaving Friedrichshafen on May 18, 1930 and landing in Sevilla on May 19, 1930. It has been cancelled with an on board postmark (Sieger Type IIIb) dated 5/19/1930. The cover is franked with Germany C38 bearing the "1. Sudamerikafahrt" inscription in the upper left-hand corner.

The Sieger catalog describes 57A as containing an on board postmark of 5/19/1930 with normal franking (i.e., not the C38 described above). Catalog number 57a is described as on board mail to Sevilla postmarked 5/19/1930 with normal franking "written by passengers and crew members". The lower case letters under the "57" category in Sieger all refer to board mail of each individual stage of the 1930 South American Fllight.

In either case, since the cover is franked with the C38 (not "normal franking"), it would be considered a variety.

I have two questions:

1. Is this cover a 57A or 57a?

2. How does one distinguish between the two choices? Since flight #62 was the first stage of the entire 1930 South American Flight (which consisted of seven stages), it would seem that any on board letter carried solely on flight #62 would be considered "board mail of the stage".

All opinions are welcome.

From what you have provided, it seems the difference between 62A and 62a is that 62A is mail prepared by dealers or collectors who sent it to the Zeppelin company to receive an "On Board" cancel as opposed to the Friedrichshafen cancel; while 62a was mail that passengers and crew members prepared and actually posted on board at the time it was in flight. Your cover would therefore be 62A and not 62a.

As for the stamp, I am unclear how Sieger defined "normal franking" since in the case of this particular flight, there were two overprinted stamps, the 2 Mark and the 4 Mark that were supposed to be used on all of the mail. Yours has the 2 Mark overprinted stamp which was the letter rate to Spain so your cover has the normal stamp for this flight. It would seem to me that a "not normal" franking would be a cover without this 2 mark overprinted stamp, or a post card with the correct 1 mark franking since there was no 1 mark overprint thus requiring some other stamp or stamps making up the 1 mark rate for a card to Spain.

Kimo:

For the 1930 South American Flight, the Sieger catalog has an explicit introductory note (on page 99 of the 22nd edition) that states pricing for all cards and covers assumes franking with the "1. Sudamerikafahrt" overprint except for mail that flew solely on the Friedrichshafen-Sevilla stage (i.e., flight #62).

By way of example, the catalog price for 57A is 75 Euros for a postcard and 80 Euros for a cover. For a cover franked with Germany C38 shown in my original post, the minimum Sieger price is 500 Euros.

Below is a postcard that is a "true" 57A franked with Germany C32.

Thanks for the additional information though your example would be what one would expect of a postcard sent on this flight. There was no 1 mark overprint and so every posrcard flown on the Germany to Spain leg must be franked with something other than an overprinted stamp unless the sender somehow wanted to overpay the postage by double just to use an overprint. The correct rate for a cover from Germany to Spain was 2 marks and so I would think that most every cover flown on this route would have used the 2 mark overprinted stamp since that stamp was released specifically for mail on this flight. It does not make much sense to me that most of the mail would have not used the stamp that was made and released for this rate on this flight especially when most all of the mail is philatelic like the ones you have shown.

Agreed. I don't understand why the Sevilla stage is treated differently than the six other stages in this respect. It is just one example of the idiosyncrasies of the Sieger catalog that one could term as "intriguing".