Postmark Theme, New, Old, How Or Why.

And of course, they are characteristic only of letterpress/typography printings

Really!? wow, something else learned.

Re: TonyMacG 10-22-10 on Kobe Address and Kobe Earthquake 1995 and Timbres667- 10-22-10 GoogleMapping is another hobby.

There was no "-ku" in the address on the 1941 cover. But thank you for the heads up. I wil keep that in mind for other Japanese address covers. I wasn't aware of the earthquake which certainly would have required a massive rebuild. But that leads us to ask if that area of Kobe was rebuilt due to demographics and economy post-WW2, and then rebuilt again post-earthquake. If there was no earthquake, I think there is good chance Kobe would have rebuilt that area anyway. Japan has always been beyond the leading edge of architectural design relative to the period in which they build it and the image that pinged back in reply to the address submitted is very ultra modern. I readily agree this was a post-quake rebuild.

Yes, Gogglemapping postal addresses can be a distinctly separate hobby. But it can be a welcome and necessary adjunct to delving deeper into the social history behind the postal history.

Reading and literature are separate activities from philately.
But there is philatelic literature which we can read, and thereby reading becomes a part of philatelic activity. Stamp collecting takes in more than just pasting stamps into an album. Its nice to learn about the lifestyle, history and industry of the area from which the stamp comes from, and the why of its issuance. Its nice to locate on the map the town from which the cancel originated. From that, it is only a small step to GoogleMap that town. Given the evidence, I would say that such GoogleMapping can be a distinct hobby from as well as an adjunct to philately. BlankPage.

BlankPage, I went in search of a bit more on Yamamoto-dori, in Kobe, and the results were quite interesting. These days, it's in Kitano-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe. Apparently it contains a number of historic Western-style buildings, dating from the earlier years of contact with the West, including a number of former consulates. Japanese Wikipedia has quite a bit of information - all in Japanese, I'm afraid.

Japanese addresses are a headache to everyone, including the Japanese. Street numbers aren't assigned sequentially, as they are in most Western countries, but in the order in which the building was erected. In addition to that, streets can be divided into 'districts' (chome) with the numbering re-starting in each chome. It appears that chome 1 to 3 of Yamamoto-dori contain the historic buildings. However, even if you could locate No. 7½ 3-chome now, there's no guarantee at all it's in the same place as it was in 1941.

As an aside, on the subject of rebuilding, the Japanese are very un-sentimental about the fabric of old buildings. Most historic buildings in Japan have been rebuilt at least once. Fire, in wooden structures, and earthquakes and other natural disasters in more solid structures, have destroyed just about all the originals.

This Egypt cancel from 1872 shows V.R. Poste Egiziane, where V.R. is Vice Reali, or Vice Regal. I believe it is a Blomfield Type III cancel, used from 1869.

A pretty Beirut strike...

My personal favorite

I can see why. Nice.

Knwledgeable on the Egypt there Collin. Source?

Always like those Beirut cancels, recalls the
of the history books I read 2 years ago on the Phoenecians,
the first peoples to take command of the surface of the sea in the
mediteranean, and the export of cedar logs.
For me, the beginning of mans exploration via sea, taking the
develpment of seacraft from the caravel to those tiny
ships of Henry the Navigator.
Beirut is basically where it all began.

Superficial knowledge, only. I have a bookmark on another computer...I'll share it when I'm back at that computer.

From himself near Brisbane, Australia, took 3 weeks to get to me with no other postmarks (or marker monkey marks) other than the originals from Australia.

No extra phosphorescent bar-codes front or back other than Australia's. I did finally get it, which makes me happy, but was this thicker, stiffer, cardboard envelope non-machinable perhaps or just no one wanted to actually put their postmark on it to say, hey, it's been laying here for a week and we are just now sending it on?

Perhaps I am being harsh but I am curious as to why some pieces get cancelled all to pieces by the original mailing office and sortation plants and then also by the receiving country and bar coded all over the place also. I like all the bar codes, helps to decipher the puzzle of it's journey.

Russell Island, Queensland, Australia to Doug in Canada. Nice simple short address, only one me in Canada and they all know who I am. (Oh, it's for Doug, we had better hurry that one on it's way before our coffee break even!) (Actually I hope they Don't know who I am!)



I like getting my little UV lamp out and looking at stamps and bar-codes. One interesting thing I noticed was that the only phosphorescent stamps / labels on the package were the fish stamp and the airmail label (and the one bar code). The other two did not seem to glow at all. Perhaps I need a short-wave lamp for Australia stamps or do the high-value stamps not phosphoresce? I used a long-wave one.

Love the Christmas island Santa and crabs stamp too !
The birds look somewhat like barn swallows here, but with a red breast.

The fish stamp gives me ideas for making Canada Picture Postage stamps, nice and bright and simple looking (the fish too) but a nice juxtaposition of colours and subliminal attitudes. Am I reading too much into things?

Good to know that all went well Puzzler!
Yes it is strange that the envelope had no other postmarks on it.
Maybe that type of thick cardboard envelope just does not fit in on the international postage sorting tables.
Maybe it had, to be processed by hand and not machine.
This would explain why there is no other postmarks on it, as the original Russell Island one would of been seen as the only cancel needed to be on the envelope as it went through the postal systems. Maybe! John

I forgot!

In Australia Decimal, phosphorescent is all news to me!

But I do use UV longwave lights on my Aust KGV penny reds.

I am going to try and use the UV on Aust dec and see what happens.

It is nice to learn some more about stamping.Thanks.

By chance, this label



arrived this morning on an outsized padded bag containing an auction catalogue from the UK. There were no cancellations of any sort - just a printed Postage Paid label on the other side. No inkjet barcode markings either.

Bacchus Marsh is an outer suburb of Melbourne, where apparently there is a 'DC' (Distribution Centre?)