Postmark Theme, New, Old, How Or Why.

John, Thanks and a belated happy birthday.

Cholon was the Chinatown district in Saigon...here is a nice strike on an Indochina stamp

That's a beautiful SON cancel,
clear and precise, I do not have a single clear
strike in my entire collection.

Cochin-china
a French colony in the extreme south of vietnam, with Saigon
as principle city.
Includes the rich area of the delta of the Mekong
and formerly part of the Khmer empire.

I have a part cancel of Haiphong, which I think maybe a
forgery, Haiphong being in the extreme North.

Once again, Henry the Navigator from Portugal gets
involved in the name "Cochin China"


The name "Cochin" derives from the Malay Kuchi which referred to all of Vietnam, a term derived from the Chinese jiao zhi, pronounced giao ch#7881; in Vietnam. The name "Cochinchina" was coined by Portuguese traders circa 1516, who named it then "Cochin-China" to distinguish it from the city and princely state of "Cochin" in India, their first headquarters in the malabar coast.

Couple of parcels...
A Berlin private post



and an octagon on Italy (the cancel makes up for the stamp's condition for me)

Nice ones...

May be time shortly, to pack the balaclava,
torch and jemmy, and pay you a late night visit.

can't really put this one on the bullseye thread with a straight face...Ivory Coast (and best wishes to all Ivorians as they sort out their current issues)

If you squint, you can make out the paquebot cancel.

Yep, I can just spot it,
but someone looking at me doing so,
may have thought I was Mr. Magoo :)

A rather nice Umritsur (Amritsar) CDS, with a plainer Sealkote (Sialkot) CDS in black, a faint Sealkote CDS in red and a very plain Jammu black splodge cancelling Jammu SG 60, the ½ Anna red watercolour of 1868



I'm not sure how to explain this tiny cover. It should have had an Indian ½ Anna stamp to cover the carriage from Sialkot to Amritsar. The only explanation I can find is that postage was paid through the extra-territorial post office Jammu & Kashmir maintained at Sialkot, which then passed the letter (and postage) to the British Indian post office for onwards conveyance.

Might as well stick with the India theme:



Chakrata was a cantonment in the foothills of the Himalayas, which I take to mean a British military base. If the internet can be believed, you can apparently see the Great Wall of China from Chakrata.

Woriur was interesting to me for some reason, and I didn't keep track of it, so I have to start my research over. I see it was a regional capital of sorts in centuries past, and then came under British control. That wasn't it... It wasn't only the New Year's Eve aspect.

Hmm... I think the only way you'd see the Great Wall of China from Chakrata would be on a computer screen, or in a book. Those dashed Himalayas would keep on getting in the way

Tony, I was as skeptical as can be, but here it is, straight out of the mouth of Wikipedia...


They couldn't post it if it wasn't true, right?

Well, far be it from me to question Wikipedia (all bend the knee), but I still think you would need rather tall stilts, and powerful binoculars, to see the Great Wall of China, even "(partly)".

OK gentlemen,
enough about stilts and X-Ray vision.

How about an Indian "document mark" ID?
can anyone suggest whos arms they may belong to?
(On beautiful handmade laid paper)

Looks a bit like the whirling dervish of Bundi?


Correctamundo!
Was the sacred cows of Bundi with Maharaja centre.

You beat me to it, Rod. I was going to suggest Baroda as an alternative possibility, but Bundi looks to be on the money.