Does Anyone Know What These Stamps Are? I Suspect - Japan

Any help would be appreciated. Is there any Scott listing on these?

I generally think I know Japanese stamps pretty well, and I don't believe I've ever seen anything like this before. I certainly don't think that they're postage stamps, because they don't even look like the provisionals I've seen. My guess would be that this is just some kind of label or cinderella, but I know that's not a very complete answer.

I'll ask on a specialist board and see if anyone knows anything, and will be happy to report back here.

Thank you. They have been baffling me also. Hence, the posting!

I'm pretty much with Dave on this regarding origin.

I'm going to go out on the limb and suggest they aren't Japanese, despite the red "sun+rays". I have a hard time believing there would be only English letters and no Japanese on a cinderella of that apparent age.

If I were to venture a guess (and a very wild guess), I would suggest a cinderella from one of the Young Christian Workers national movements. Probably one of the French language ones: YCW in French is JOC (Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne).

The reason for my guess is because I noticed that the last period is missing on the stamp. In other words, it says "J.O.C" instead of "JOC" or "J.O.C.", and I don't think it was accidental. JOC typically either used the acronym "JOC" with no periods or "J.O.C" without the last period. Here is an example of one of their pins:



Again, I've never seen your cinderella before, and I've never seen a JOC cinderella before, so this is a wild guess. But the color (red) and the theme (worker) does also seem to tie in well.

I'd be interested to see if Dave's buddies can ID it.

Although it looks like it could be Japanese (red ink, rising sun design, and the initials), it really could be from anywhere. My second guess would be Europe during one of the wars, or close before or after.

Another uninformed guess on my part about the initials might be "Japan Occupied China" -- possibly a charity or group protesting the Japanese Occupation of China, leading up to WWII? Pure speculation ...

Dave posted while I was editing...

Here's a French-language J.O.C cinderella label from 1935 that I found for sale:



This also seems to feature a rising sun although it's drawn in a different style.

JOC = Juventude Operaria Catolica = Young Catholic Workers

Possibly Portuguese or French section of the organisation.

Established in Belgium 1923

You shall have to translate
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juven...at%C3%B3lica

Hi Rod,

This is the same organisation that Kim identified. If you click on the "English" version on the Portuguese web page it takes you to "Young Christian Workers".

It's interesting that the Portuguese/Brazilian organisations decided on being explicitly "Catholic" rather than simply "Christian" in their name.

Brazil's organization rose from Ação Católica and was later influenced by the work of the European JOC. I don't think Europe's JOC came to Brazil until after the Second World War.

As for the cinderellas, I can't figure out if the figure in the stamp is saluting with his left arm and if it's a shovel he's holding. For that matter, what kind of hat is he wearing? It's a real mystery to me.

Thanks for the pic, Nigel! Now I've seen at least one certain JOC cinderella, and possibly a second (OP).

I've found a little more information on this (not a lot, though), but don't have time to post it at the moment. However, our discussion ended up concluding that the best guess is the J.O.C., as Khj and Nigel ("Nigelpedia" :-) ) identified. Some of their cinderellas have initials ("J.O.C."), and some are just "JOC". Judging from the multicolor ones issued later, and the crudeness of this design, my guess (but it's just a guess), is that the one in the original post was early.

I just don`t see it. This kind of salute, if that`s what it is, doesn`t strike me as appropriate to the J.O.C.

I don't think it's a salute. Just a guess, but it looks like someone holding a tool and pointing toward the sunrise?

Yes, that could be.