Since we moved to a new server last week, we seem to be having issues with uploading images. 

I'm working on it. There are a lot of possibilities where the problem might lie.

In the meantime, text posts should work and I'll post here if (when) I get the problem fixed.

Roy

Hi there!

I want to share finding this neat miniature post office model kit with you.

It looks like it would be easy to put together!

   

I saw it in a games store on Princess Street, downtown Kingston.

... so while I'll miss seeing you guys at meeting while I'm off at soccer for the summer, I'm glad these fora are still here for us to stay in touch.

So I'm bound and determined that this summer I will work on ONE THING, to wit, the contents of the lovely Minkus "The American Revolution Stamp Album" below, which I obtained from Roy at last week's meeting. It's in great condition, with the added fun of some stamps missing from it, which I will add to my want list even as I catalogue the ones which ARE there. AND I have the added benefit of doing this during the US' 250th anniversary, which will, no doubt, give me occasion to add further stamps to it later on. Woohoo!

Does anyone else find their mind wandering as they collect (i.e. trying to work on too many things at once, what I like to call the "SQUIRREL!" syndrome that dogs get?!) 

   

A philatelic friend gave me a gift Thursday evening and it has been the perfect medicine. 

Since early April I have been struggling with a bacterial infection that wasn’t responding to any of the antibiotics doctors at Urgent Care and Emergency were sticking in the IVs. Finally, Prescription #7 - the drug used for the plague - seems to have worked, but the side effects including loss of concentration and balance, which may continue for months after the prescription has been finished, have made the philatelic activities that I love nearly impossible. I cannot read more than a few pages of a book and I have to rewind shows I am streaming because I have “lost the plot.” 

But last night Hugh and I were gifted a cover with a 7 page letter. I have been studying it for almost five hours without a break. My concentration seems to have returned. 


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My “philoogling” efforts are being rewarded. Studying this letter is a work in progress, but so far, I have noted:

• The “Via clipper” note handwritten in the upper left corner, and then partially covered with US censor tape - it looks like someone in the censor office carefully wrote “Via” on the tape?
  
• Censor number 2820 was assigned to San Francisco, a major hub for Pacific mail, Google opined.
  
• Given a photo of the cover, Google decided that censor 2820 was instead located in Honolulu.
  
• The letter travelled from Honolulu to Alameda, California in early January, 1943. 
  
• The air mail stamp depicts a clipper ship. 20 cents was the full commercial clipper rate. 
  
• The slogan cancel reads “Buy Defense Savings Bonds and Stamps”. I found a digitized copy of United States Postal Slogan Cancels compiled by Moe Luff and published in October 1950. It suggests this slogan was used between 1942 and 1950, but includes a sample with a postmark dated August 1941!
  

Morning all! Count on me to forget to ask a question while I was at the meeting last night...

For voting at the AGM, which I will not be at, is there a means for e-mail votes by members so that I can still do my bit?

Thanks! 

I won a few items at Roy's auctions last weekend ... including a couple of covers from the North German Confederation. I'm looking forward to picking then up at the club next week. 

In the meanwhile, I had a look at one of the North German covers I already had. It's a bit damaged (Well, a lot damaged actually) but it's always fun to play with a less-than-perfect cover and squeeze out as much from it as you can.

Here it is. It looks like sometime in the last 175 years someone torn off the upper left corner of this cover. It was not well done. Parts of the letter are hanging by a thread.

   

It was sent from Berlin to Geiersthal / K. Landg. Viechtach / i. Bayern - which I take to mean 'Geiersthal' near or under 'königliches Landgericht Viechtach' (the jurisdiction of the royal court-district of Viechtach) in Barvaria. This is supported by the Halbkreisstemple [Semi-circle] transit / arrival cancel on the other side which reads VIECHTACH. Viechtach is a town on the Schwarzer River northeast of Straubing.

The receiving cancel, on a 1 Gr. North German Confederation stamp issued in 1869 (Mi.Nr. 16), is a single ring CDS with BERLIN POST-EXP.23. 6-9N. inside the ring and 21 5 / 70 in the middle. Post Expidedition No. 23 would have been a branch post-office. 6-9N meant it was processed in the evening.

1 Grochen was the proper pre-UPU postal rate for a simple letter within the North German Confederation or to the southern German States under the 1866-71 postal union. There is a Fr. 1 handwritten on the cover. The Fr. would mean 'franco' and the '1' is in red / orange crayon and would have been written by the postal clerk when calculating the 1st level postal rate. The CDS was applied twice, once as an obliterator.

In 1870 it probably took 2-3 days to reach Bavaria. As noted above the Berlin CDS was clearly dated May 21. It's very fuzzy, but it looks to me like the Barbarian semi-circle or Fan stamp is dated May 24 - three days later. I assume it went from Berlin to Leipzig. Then to Hof on the Saxon-Bavarian frontier. From there it would have gone to Regensburg. -- the local hub. It might have continued to Straubing. The last leg, most likely, would have been by mail coach to Viechtach (where the Fan-cancel was applied) and then to Geiersthal.

   

   

The letter inside was written in Kurrent script which is always a bit of a challenge. This particular letter is (for me anyway) very had to transcribe due to the writers rather cryptic comments that are probably understood by his correspondent but are unkowable to anyone else outside the family. Essentially, he is describing complicated personal, business and family affairs. And, a plan that has fallen through.


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It's a good reminder that the past is a foreign country -- they do things different there (smile).

Lots of fun though.

Cheers, Hugh

PS - The letter has an embossed oval in the upper left corner that reads, "Hugo Diehle / Berlin". The Frano-Prussian War is only a few months away. One wonder how Hugo's plans unfolded over the rest of the year. Did things get better, or worse?

The 2026 Canada Post Community Foundation stamps are now available. The same surcharge of 10 cents per stamp / $1 per booklet applies. Instead of animals this year, the stamps feature children gardening and some very personable vegetables.


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The Canada Post Community Foundation has provided funding for more than 1,400 projects across Canada since it began in 2012. Funds are returned to the communities where donations were raised. This means Canada Post often awards funds to very small projects that might be ignored by other grant programs. Reading the reports of past winners gives you a sense of the excitement a small public school might experience getting $5,000 to purchase books for the library or art supplies or musical instruments or a piece of playground equipment.


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A booklet of these stamps would be a thoughtful gift tucked inside a Mother’s Day card, or a thank you card to a teacher. And I think it would be wonderful to give some of these with blank postcards to a young person and invite them to join you in a “retro” activity!


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I don’t collect US stamps but I will be making an exception for these when they are released on July 11th:

   

This is a wonderful example of stamps that appeal to people who don’t collect stamps. I expect these will be snapped up by hard core doll collectors, but they also appeal to anyone who owned one of the dolls pictured. I have wonderful memories of surprising my daughter with palaeontologist Barbie while she was studying palaeo-anthropology at university!

Weeks 1 and 2 enjoyed full attendance. There are only four participants, but three of them are “graduates” of the last session. The other participant was a KSC member some time ago and will be returning to the club.

Bob Gardner’s presentation this week was very informative. Before he started, he discovered he had personal connections to almost everyone in the room, so our discussion felt like a group of very good friends sitting around an antique oak library table. Hugh and I missed the ferry home because we couldn’t get the group out of the room when the class ended! 

We have created an all-new program for this final session, and we really appreciate the club members who have volunteered - not just to present, but to develop and present something that is new! We have incorporated a new hands on session so everyone can practise looking for watermarks, measuring perforations, finding some varieties, working with hinges, cutting a mount, examining stock books and sampling album pages - and hopefully go home and get closer to the collections they have inherited or built over time. 

We are ending with a bang! Roy Lingen has offered himself up as a philatelic sacrifice - inviting the group to ask him anything for an hour. A selfless act of bravery that is very much appreciated!

Week 1 - Introduction
Week 2 - Country Collecting: Saint Pierre & Miquelon with Bob Gardner
Week 3 - Introduction to Marcophily: 250 Years of Postal Cancellations with Hugh MacDonald
Week 4 - Hands On Session: Traditional Tools for Collectors with Richard Weigand, Val Mayers, Jim Gould and Hugh MacDonald
Week 5 - Country Collecting: Germany with Ted Luhtala
Week 6 - An Introduction to Topical Collecting with Janet MacDonald and “17th January” with Guy Monette
Week 7 - Digital Demos: New Tools for Collectors with Hugh and Janet MacDonald
Week 8 - Ask a Dealer Anything with Roy Lingen

I just put together 3 photo boxes of new stock of vintage picture postcards, most used. Most pre-1920. About 500+ cards per box. Many vintage Greeting cards. Most from USA, some foreign, very little Canada.

Your choice, 50 cents per card. Available for take-home approval. Let me know any interest and I'll make sure to bring them to the next meeting.

Roy