My Lz Hindenburg Cover

I thought I would show off my LZ Hindenburg cover.





I inquired about this cover many years ago, and this is the response I received:




The stamps are Austria Scott C33, C41 and C44. I don't know the cover's current value as a Hindenburg cover, but the three stamps catalog $71 on cover (from the 2015 Scott Classic Specialized catalog).

Hope you enjoy.

Feel free to post your own Hindenburg covers.

Robert

It has got the red confirmation cancel but it has not got the boarding cancel.
Michel catalogue: 60€ for cover of Austria.

Hi, I would like to share with you some of my Hindenburg and Zeppelin items ...


Quite interesting postcard but with a massive crease:



Back side:



Huge cover with the same handstamp:



Hindenburg with Lakehurst handstamp. The bottom part of this picture is scan of back side.



Well known stamp #C18:






Hope you enjoy.

I really like Zeppelin covers.

People should collect what they like, but if one is looking for something that will get a substantial percentage of catalog value - one should look for examples that are what most serious Zeppelin collectors seek. To use these nice covers and the used stamp as an example of why they would not achieve optimal value in most auctions or sales:

The Austrian dispatch is a great cover as many collectors seek out dispatches from other than the originating country, but it has a serious drawback in that the stamps are on the back. The ideal is for a cover with the stamps on the front so it can be displayed on a page. This example is also a bit roughly opened at the top.

The Dayton postcard has great stamps, but the crease is a big detraction. Also, for top value collectors hope for postcards that feature the Zeppelin itself in the photo side.

The New York Graf Zeppelin cover is colorful which is a plus, but it is a legal sized envelope which is hard to display and store. It also has wrinkles in the paper.

The Philadelphia and New York cover to Czechoslovakia is good because it is was being forwarded to an unusual destination, but the cover itself is oversized, the New York on top of the Philadelphia cancels result in overkilling of the stamps, and the fountain pen ink writing along the top was smudged.

The C18 cover is near perfect with only a small amount of paper wrinkling of the envelope. It is very neat, everything is readable and nicely arranged without any overlapping including the cachet and the stamp is a Zeppelin stamp on a Zeppelin cover. This is an excellent example of a premium cover that would get close to its catalog value

The loose used C18 stamp is nice for its World's Fair cancelation, but the image is shifted down so far that the perforations are beginning to cut into the printed border of the design. On mint and used loose stamps collectors seek well centered examples for paying highest prices.

I'd like to know more about these cancels. What were their purposes? Can anybody elaborate, and show examples? Without a boarding cancel, is it possible the cover did not get put aboard the the Hindenburg?

Thanks, Robert

Hi Trainwreck.

I think that Asmodeus' comment that it "has the red confirmation cancel" might be confusing and perhaps because English is not his first language. What he is referring to is called a "cachet". Cachets on first flight covers are normally attractive rubber stamped marking that typically combined a pictorial representation and some text that indicate the cover went on the indicated first flight. In this case, this red cachet indicates that this cover was mailed and carried on the Hindenburg's September 11, 1936 North America flight from Germany to New Jersey. Every piece of mail that was on this flight received this cachet.

When the "on board" cancel is mentioned what they are referring to is the cancelation that was applied to mail that was posted by someone who was actually on the Zeppelin during that flight. These Zeppelins had small post offices (basically a tiny closet sized room) where passengers and crew could mail a letter while the Zeppelin was in flight. A crew member served as the postal clerk and cancelled such mail with what is called the "on board" or in German the "an bord" cancellation in the same way a clerk in the post office in Friedrichshafen or any other town in the world cancels the stamps on letters mailed in those post offices with their own unique cancellation devices that show the city name and date. Some dealers did make arrangements to have some uncancelled mail put on Zeppelins and cancelled there, but the amount of mail with on board cancellations is normally much smaller than the amount that have ordinary city postmarks.

During the years that Zeppelins were flying, there were several different "on board" cancellation devices used - they changed the design slightly every few years mainly when an old cancellation device wore out. Collectors paid more for a letter that was actually mailed on board a Zeppelin than one that was mailed somewhere on the ground before the flight began.

Here are a couple of examples of different "on board" Zeppelin cancels - there are others as well:

Kimo,

Thanks for the information, and clarifying the cancels. You've increased my understanding of zeppelin covers.

Robert