[Hugh]

Another wonderful damaged item I picked up at a club meeting.

   

On the front of the cover, we can see that the original postage stamp is missing. It was roughly torn off ... removing both the stamp and the original CDS. To a stamp collector that is a tragedy. For a postal historian, it is part of the fun. Let's see if we can reason it out ... what stamp used to be on this cover? Where did it the cover originate? Where was it going? When? What would the postal rate have been?

The large violet boxed hand-stamp CENSURA MILITAR / PONTEVEDRA suggests that the origin was the Nationalist zone of Spain, specifically the province of Pontevedra (Galicia). This is further suggested by one of the cinderellas on the back - also from Ponteverda.

The typed address Diego José Pazos Feijóo, Rivadavia 1235, Casa Mignaquy y Compañía – with BUENOS AIRES added in black at the bottom gives us the destination: REPÚBLICA ARGENTINA - which is also typed and underlined at the top of the cover.

There is no airmail etiquette, no indication of registration or other kind of special handling. So, it would appear to have travelled by surface mail. In 1937 Spain joined the Unión Postal de las Américas y España (UPAE). Outbound letters from the Nationalist Zone to UPAE countries would have been sent at the same rate as domestic mail. After March 17, 1937 that rate would have been 30 céntimos. Assuming there was only one stamp on the original cover (suggested by the size of the torn corner, IMO) we are, therefore, looking for a 30 cts stamp which would have been used in Pontevedra under Nationalist control. The date window of the cinderella stamps on the back suggest that it was mailed in 1937 or possibly 1938.

So, based on those assumptions, and given that someone thought the stamp was interesting enough to remove from the cover, it might be one of the following:

Pontevedra SG 36 (issued July 18, 1937). This was a local overprint of ¡ARRIBA ESPAÑA! / PONTEVEDRA / 18 Julio 1937 / II Another Triunfal on a 30 cts carmine SG755.

Spain SG 866 (issued September 1936) of Xavier Castle. Used throughout Nationalist Spain, the stamps in this series included the text Junta de Defensa Nacional.

There are also a number of hand-stamps on the front of the cover. 

A Franco portrait cachet (bottom left) a purple hand-stamp with Franco’s head and the legend Saludo a Franco – ¡ARRIBA ESPAÑA!.
It is a propaganda cachet from the Nationalist side; not postal, but it loudly advertises the sender’s political allegiance and was commonly used on patriotic mail and fundraising correspondence.

A diagonal ¡VIVA ESPAÑA! (top right)
Another purple slogan hand-stamp reinforcing the Nationalist tone of the cover.

A CENSURA MILITAR / PONTEVEDRA boxed hand-stamp, in purple. 
This is a Spanish military censor marking applied in the Nationalist-held city of Pontevedra. It would seem to confirm that the cover was examined by a military censor at that city which, in the absence of the CDS suggests the origin of the letter.

On the back of the cover are a number of Nationalist cinderella stamps. 

   

Pontevedra (1937)

   

Frentes y hospitales (1936-39)

   

Auxilio de invierno (1936)

   

Santiago (St James Apostle -- patron of Spain and Galicia) La Coruña (1936-37)

   

In short, this appears to be a cover sent in or about 1937 during the Spanish Civil War by surface mail, using a security envelope, from a Nationalist sender in Pontevedra (Galicia) to a correspond in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Before dispatch, a number of Nationalist cachets / hand-stamps, and cinderellas were appliled. It then passed through military censorship at Pontevedra.

That was fun! If you have a different opinion about the missing stamp, corrections and comments are welcome. 

Cheers, Hugh