Field post and first flight?
Collecting envelopes transported by airplane on the maiden flight to a new destination was a favorite pastime from the very beginning of aviation. During the Second World War, it was difficult to continue doing so,...
Postal service
The old post office tree
Every now and then, you have to rummage through the boxes of mail again to be able to write an article. That is how I came across the postcard that was sent on October 16, 1985, from the city of Mosselbaai or Mosselbay on the...
The Austrian Alpine Association (part 2)
In Part 1 of the newspaper bindings of the 'Deutscher und Österreichischer Alpenverein', the Michel catalogue of Postal Stationery states that the sale of newspaper bindings was terminated on April 10, 1916, and that no more newspaper bindings were issued thereafter. At first glance...
The Austrian Alpine Association (part 1)
The Austrian Alpine Association (Der Österreichische Alpenverein, ÖAV) was founded in Vienna in 1862 and was the second oldest mountaineering association in the world. On 9 May 1869, the 'German and Austrian Alpine Society' (DÖAV) was founded in Munich in the...
Central Courier Service (part 5)
The first service stamp for confidential official documents was issued on April 1, 1965. Below the coat of arms of the GDR, the number 20 was included, representing 20 Pfennig. The stamps were only vertically perforated. A reprint of the service stamp was also issued in 1965...
Central Courier Service (part 1)
Upon seeing the label VD Vertrauliche Dienstsache on a letter from the Ministry for the Chemical Industry in the GDR dated August 28, 1967, I became curious about its background. Michel's stamp catalog states the following regarding this...
The unofficial (?) service stamps of Ecuador from 1949
During a social evening of the Monster Stamp Society, a friendly club with enthusiastic members, a fellow collector pressed a small envelope into my hands with the question, 'Do you know these stamps?' It was an envelope containing three unperforated stamps...
Heinrich von Stephan
One of the founders of the Universal Postal Union, or UPU, was Heinrich von Stephan. He was born on January 7, 1831, in Stolp, present-day Słupsk on the coast of Poland, once part of the Kingdom of Prussia. He...
Mail for the Emperor
During his years of exile in the Netherlands (1918-1944), the Emperor not only felled countless trees and held hours-long conversations, but he was also an enthusiastic letter writer. In my First World War collection, his correspondence now has a (modest) place...
Lightning-fast messengers (part 2)
During the Second World War, Dirk Ernsting found a parachute in his orchard in the Beemster (Zuiderweg 62), with a tube attached containing a live carrier pigeon. The intention was that such pigeons, equipped with a message, would be released again...
Channel Islands in the Second World War (part 2)
The period of use of halved 2 Penny stamps from December 27, 1940, ended on February 18, 1941. Because all contacts with Great Britain had been severed by order of the German occupier, a solution was sought to the shortage...
Overturned stamp sheets
In the days when Jan Kluft (chairman of the Posthoorn, Zaanstreek for centuries) still regularly scoured archives, he stumbled upon a remarkable document. He had some copies made and came across them again recently when he was...
First KNILM flight Surabaya-Manokwari
From the early 1920s, regular test flights took place in the former Dutch East Indies to transport mail within the archipelago. Initially, these flights were carried out with aircraft of the Naval Air Service, but from October 1928, flights were operated by the KNILM....
Postage due stamp becomes postage stamp
Postage stamps from the classical period of Suriname are primarily known for the many overprinted stamps that were issued. The fact that a postage stamp is overprinted with a new face value because the original value no longer fits within the tariff scheme comes across as very...
Red Cross overprint stamps 1915
While browsing through the bins of mail at fairs and stamp exhibitions, one often comes across nice envelopes or postcards. Even though the experience after returning home from the Letter Fair in Gouda at the end of March 2015 was unpleasant: an unknown person...
Around the corner
Two Veth stamps that you would leave in the penny books and three postage due stamps with a minimal catalogue value: they formed the basis of a philatelic masterpiece. In January 1934, baker Bus from Zuidoostbeemster received an express postcard from the Tin Factories of...
