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  Finding the Unexpected on a Postcard

Posted by: Janet MacD
17-08-2025, 04:50 PM
Forum: Asia
- No Replies

A fifty-cent purchase provided many hours of entertainment and some lessons in history …

   

This postcard has a tear across the centre, but to me it holds excellent value because it led me through the Google-verse to learn about: US Marines in China, Naval Hospitals in Japan, the Boxer Rebellion, and two natural disasters.

It was the illustration that caught my attention first, and then the fact that it was postally used, unlike other Japanese cards in the dealer’s box. But what sealed the deal (pun intended) was the blue sticker, which reads “United States Naval Hospital Yokohama”.


   

Dated January 26, 1906, and postmarked the following day, it was sent to a woman named Edna Idle in San Francisco from a man named Ted, who noted that he was leaving for Shanghai in the afternoon.

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By the time the card arrived, Edna had moved. The card was forwarded to a hotel and then to another address, all in the Nob Hill district. The San Francisco earthquake occurred on April 18, 1906. I don’t know if the card reached Edna before the earthquake. Nob Hill suffered devastating damage from the earthquake and the fires that followed.

The naval hospital in Yokohama was built in 1872. It was still a busy facility at the time this card was sent, but it was no longer the preeminent naval hospital. Operations were winding down and by 1906 many cases were convalescents.

Edna Adle survived the San Francisco earthquake. She married, had a daughter named Jean, and died in 1951. She is buried in Washington State.

The naval hospital collapsed in an earthquake on September 1, 1923. Like the San Francisco earthquake, the Yokohama earthquake had a magnitude of 7.9 and was followed by devastating fires.

I doubt I will ever know what happened to Ted.

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  Orange Free State: Postal Stationery

Posted by: Hugh
16-08-2025, 11:38 PM
Forum: Africa
- Replies (2)

I recently acquired two more Orange Free State (OFS) postal cards. 

The first one is a 1½d. provisional card using a 2d stamp overprinted with the OFS arms (Setting 2, Die 2). The 1½ was added above the arms. The upper figure in the ½ uses a roman (serif) I and the lower element is a rather more cursive, antique 2. The I in BRIEF is fully formed ... that is, it is not missing the serif on the upper left. The address lines have been removed.

   

It is printed on a thick card stock. I got a micrometer from my woodturning shop and my estimate is that it is 0.4mm - within the recorded range of 0.33 to 0.47. I never thought of a micrometer as a philatelic tool, but I guess it is (smile).

   

From all this, it appears my new card is from an early printing.

It was mailed from Bloemfontein to Hansa Jewel in Cape Town in January of 1893. It is over-franked. The 1½d rate was meant for cards going overseas. The standard rate from OFS to the Cape was only 1d. There is no message on the card, Was it is pencil and erased over time or was it sent without a message? Who knows.

There is a very nice octagonal receiving cancel ('squared-octagonal'?] with BLOEMFONTEIN / O.V.S. and 17 JAN / 93. The single-ring arrival CDS reads CAPE TOWN * / CAPE COLONY * and is dated JA 19 / 93.

My understanding is that, by 1892, there was a railway line that joined the two colonies. I'm assuming, therefore, that the card travelled from Bloemfontein to Norval's Pint (Orange River Crossing) then on to Da Aar, Worcester and Cape Town. The January 17 to 19 travel time sounds very reasonable.

The second postal card is another provisional. This time it's an example of Setting 15A, Die 5. The B in BRIEF is missing its top left serif. The K in KAART is broken and the final T is split. The address lines, now back, have small breaks in lines 1,2 and 4 and the type used for the words Aan and Te have been changed. The card is thick, my estimate is again 0.4mm ... consistent with the known range of 0.39 and 0.44.

   

The OFS arms are overprinted on the card on top of a 1/2d stamp. The ½d overprint, above the coat of arms is the postcard rate for domestic use.

The card was sent from Winburg to J?.H. Wolmarans, Esq. in Kroonstad. There is a well-struck single-circle CDS from WINBURG * / O.V.S * dated P / SP 19 / 95. Which I assume means it was dispatched on the morning of September 19, 1895.

There is no arrival cancel. It was probably sent by horse cart or mail coach west from Winburg to a junction with the railway line about 30Km away.  From there it would have traveled north about 140Km to Kroonstad.

I'm just starting to study this area .. it's rather an interesting period, just before the war.

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  Free Album Pages from the APS

Posted by: Hugh
16-08-2025, 11:27 PM
Forum: Worldwide -- anything else that doesn't fit
- No Replies

The American Philatelic Society makes available to the general public a large number of Free downloadable PDF stamp albums. 

Here's the URL: https://stamps.org/community/stamp-albums

And, here's an example. A worldwide album of interest to those collectors who want to collect one, and only one, stamp from every country. It includes room for previous sovereign government. For example, under Canada it has space for the stamps of Newfoundland, PEI, NS, Vancouver Island and BC.

It was prepared by the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in 2013. So, it's a wee bit out of date with some of the recent changes. But, that's what stock pages are for, right?  (smile) 

https://stamps.org/Portals/0/albums/Stam...ountry.pdf

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  Iceland - chapter 1

Posted by: Janet MacD
16-08-2025, 01:54 PM
Forum: Scandinavia
- No Replies

There are few indoor activities as satisfying as starting a new album - stock book filled with stamps from Roy on my left, my first purchase from PostBeeld on my right, and all these empty pages filled with the promise of new discovery.

These albums come with a trigger warning. I still seethe with anger remembering all my teachers who had years to correct the fable that Columbus came first, and left us in ignorance. And don’t get me started on Cabot!  Smile

   

   

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  Great Britain Penny Reds : A short tutorial

Posted by: Webmaster
16-08-2025, 07:44 AM
Forum: United Kingdom and British Colonies / Commonwealth
- Replies (1)

Great Britain Penny Reds : A short tutorial

This series of stamps, in use from 1841 to about 1880 causes a lot of headaches, and mis-identifications.

Here are the three basic types:
   


Once you have learned to look at the upper corners first, the first one (#3) and last one (#33) do not present much of a problem. This tutorial is exclusively about the more complicated middle issue, Scott #8 to #20, with stars in the upper corners.

In my mind, if you have had a problem with these issues, it is not you, it Is the catalogue's fault! They seem to go higgly piggly all over the place -- but there is an underlying logic that can streamline identification.

The "set" has 4 basic properties, which show up in various combinations. If we pursue the properties in a logical order, everything becomes easy. These properties are:

Perforation : Either 14 or 16
Watermark: Either small crown (Scott wmk 18 = SG wmk 2) or Large crown (Sc wmk 20 = SG wmk 4) (See below)
Die : either original (equals SG die I) or re-engraved ( equals SG Die II) (See below)
Paper : either white or bluish (with varying depth of blue)

(SG means "Stanley Gibbons catalogue").

Sounds complicated, but it's not! Here's a useful ID table:

   


Here's the routine. Start with the perf gauge: 14 or 16? That puts you immediately into the top half or bottom half of the table, with only 4 choices now.

Next is the watermark: Small crown (18) or large crown (20)? Now you are down to 2 choices! Now the final narrowing down to one stamp may depend on either re-engraved or not, or bluish paper or not, but never both.

For example: Let's say your stamp is perf 16, wmk 20 (large crown). Only two choices for that combo, both of which are re-engraved -- either white (Scott #14) or bluish paper (Scott #18). Could it be much easier?

How about: perf 14, wmk 18 (small crown). Now you will see two choices again, both on bluish paper - the original die, and the re-engraved. Pull out your 10x magnifier and check the face -- that's it!

Here is the "close-up stuff" you are going to need:

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Note that I have ignored the Scott sub-numbers ("a", "b"). These are mostly colour shades. Gibbons gives most of these colour shades major numbers. That's why one Scott number translates to as many as 6 Gibbons numbers. In my mind, it is a great error for a novice collector to concentrate on colour for identification. Colours change over time. The red pigment in these stamps contains iron, and is subject to oxidation (rust). Frequently, there are many printings that are slightly different in colour, but are considered still be be colour "A", whereas to the novice, he/she sees a slightly different colour and thinks "one of them MUST be the better shade!". -- not so! Colours are best left to long experience, or verification by experts. (This is the subject of a whole 'nother tutorial). If you have never actually seen a correctly identified "orange red" vs. a "brick red" vs a "red brown", don't believe for a minute that you can tell the difference from word descriptions!

Now attack your penny reds! I hope this tutorial will make it easier for you.

Roy

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  Occupation of Germany: Post WW2

Posted by: Hugh
14-08-2025, 04:52 PM
Forum: Europe
- Replies (4)

Here are two interesting stamps issued during the Soviet Occupation of the Province of Saxony in 1946.

Why interesting? They were printed on very thin paper ... Michel refers to it as "so-called 'cigarette paper'" So thin it is almost transparent.

Stamps:
Province of Saxony under Soviet Occupation
Series: Land Reform in the Province of Saxony - Farmer Plowing
Issued on February 21, 1946

6Pf, dark opal green, "cigarette paper"
Mi.Nr. 90
12Pf, red, "cigarette paper"
Mi.Nr. 91

Here are the stamps scanned against a white background.

   

   

And, here are the same stamps as they appear on a light table. I photographed the 12pf stamp from the back just to illustrate how transparent they are. The image is as clear from the back as it is from the front. (The item on top of the 6pf stamp is just the end of my stamp tongs. The stamps have a tendency to curl so it is holding it down).

   

As Michel says "The watermark is barely visible". Very true ... I've just about given up. There's something there but none of my devices is able to resolve it into a clear image.

The perfs look good ... K 13x13.25.

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  India: CEF Stamps

Posted by: Hugh
14-08-2025, 04:43 PM
Forum: Asia
- Replies (2)

Not a fugitive stamp, but definately an unexpected one. I found this in a stockbook of stamps I bought at the club (mostly for the stockbook).

Stamp:
Series: India Military Stamps
Queen Victoria / Empress of India
Issued in 1900
3p, Carmine-rose, Overprint C.E.F. [China Expiditionary Force] on Sc. 54
Sc. M1

Two brigades of Indian troops were sent to China in 1900 during the Boxer Uprising 义和团运动 ... a postal unit was sent with the troops and I understand that the first recorded use of these overprinted military stamps was August 1900. Most of the Indian troops were withdrawn by 1906. 

   

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  Canada: Engraved Stamps

Posted by: Hugh
14-08-2025, 04:38 PM
Forum: Canada
- No Replies

Stamp:
Canada: Halifax Bicentenary
The founding of Halifax
Based on a painting by Charles William Jefferys
Issued on June 21, 1949
4c, Purple, engraved
Unitrade 283

Edward Cornwallis ... born on March 5, 1713. One of his grandfathers was First Lord of the Admiralty, the other was Governor of Ireland.

He was a twin. The family's plan was that one of the brothers would enter the church, one the military. But which one? When his brother fell from a horse and paralysed his arm., Edward, at 18, was commissioned into the army.

A career soldier, he fought for Cumberland at the Battle of Culloden in 1745 and was tasked, after the battle, with leading a regiment into the Highlands to 'pacify' Lochabar.

He was appointed Governor of Nova Scotia in 1749 and established the port town and fortifications of Halifax. He ended his career as a Lt. General and as the Governor of Gibraltar. He died in 1776.

His Nephew, Charles Cornwallis, commanded the British troops at Yorktown.

   

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  Japan: Stamps / Russo-Japanese War

Posted by: Hugh
14-08-2025, 04:33 PM
Forum: Asia
- No Replies

Finally got around to putting this in my album. A Commemorative celebrating victory in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05). This was the first major victory of an Asian Power over a European Empire in modern warfare.

Stamp:
Japan: 明治三十七八年戦役陸軍凱旋観兵式記念郵便切手
[Commemorative Postage Stamp for the Triumphal Military Review of the Army from the 37th–38th year of Meiji]
Issued on April 29, 1906 [Meiji 39]
1.5s, Blue, Engraved (T. Hosogai)
SG 154b (perf 12.5)

   

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  Brazil in WW2

Posted by: Hugh
14-08-2025, 04:30 PM
Forum: Central and South America and Mexico
- No Replies

Picked this up at the club a while ago. I don't collect Brazil so this stamp series was new to me.

In August 1942, Brazil had entered the war on the Allied side, responding in part to Axis submarine attacks on Brazilian shipping. The Força Expedicionária Brasileira (FEB) or the Brazilian Expeditionary Force in English, arrived in Naples in the summer of 1944. It was was the only Latin American ground force to fight in Europe during World War  2. Roughly 25,000 Brazilian troops served alongside the Allied forces in the Italian Campaign. These troops were integrated into the U.S. 5th  Army under the overall command of General Mark Clark. Much of their combat operations took place in northern Italy’s mountainous terrain.

Brazilian troops sported an emblem of a pipe-smoking snake nicknamed 'Cobra Fumando', referencing a popular saying at the time: “It’s more likely for a snake to smoke a pipe than for Brazil to send an expeditionary force overseas.” Once Brazil did go to war, the ironic image stuck as a badge of pride.

Stamps:
Brazil - Honouring the B.E.F. and the U.S. 5th Army
Issued on July 16, 1945
20c
Sc. 635
40c
Sc. 636
1Cr
Sc. 637
2Cr
Sc. 638
5Cr
Sc. 639

This display page appears to have been a dealer's sample and was included in a 2-hole 25 x 27cm loose leaf stamp album. 

   

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