BULLETIN 134 - March 2005
Plating
New
discoveries
– Léo Tavano
Frame
plate III1 in combinations C and D
(Fig.1.)
50 centimes 1915 – Railway over M’Pozo
New combination III+B2
▼
Figure 2. (#33 Plates III+B1) Figure 3. (#33 Plates III+B2)
Here we have
an important new discovery, giving rise to the identification of a new centre
plate ‘B2’ (Fig.3). The new state is identifiable only in
positions 31 and 33 and is confirmed by ‘light’ doubling of the lower
hillside. It is more easily detected and slightly more positive in #33.
Much less prominent is doubling of the left hand precipice side.
(I found
this latter particularly difficult and at the time of publication am still
trying to identify it! It seems not long ago that Ray Keach found his eyes no
longer performing well and passing everything to the much younger Brian Hudson
for sorting and verification. I have now got to this stage and on occasions
dependant on the likes of Leo. - Ed)
‘The
first printing of ‘III + B1’ was used in the
The second
combination ‘B2’ was created by the re-entry of the centres of stamps 31 and
33. This printing was initially used in the
OAT and AV2 - markings on Covers
By
– Alan
Morvay
OAT and AV2 markings have fascinated collectors for decades. The research of them
is an evolving study.
The ‘OAT’ initials were used as an acronym for ‘Onward Air Transmission’.
Nineteen basic types were used between 1940 and 1965.
Figure 1 - OAT - Type IV
‘AV2’ was an abbreviation for ‘Avion 2’, which was one of various ‘UPU forms’ that accompanied international mail in transit. It is now known that twenty-four basic types of this were in use during the period 1940 to 1956. In comparison with the number of OAT marks, these are much scarcer as less than a tenth of that number were used on covers from the Belgian Congo.
Figure 2 - AV2 - Type 6
The ‘AV2’ was applied to
‘small quantities of mail’, which were collected into bundles or packets,
and sent from one country to another in a sealed bag or pouch.
“Where there was insufficient airmail to one or more
countries to justify the use of individual bags to each, such mail would be tied
into bundles or packets and labelled for each destination.
A number of packets to different destinations would be put
into a single mailbag, which was then labelled and despatched to a post office
in a country where the ongoing routes to the individual destination countries
converged. These offices were known as ‘Exchange Offices’. On arrival at the
‘Exchange Office’, the bag would be opened and the individual packets
re-bagged, either to be reopened and re-dispatched again further down the line,
or dispatched as airmail from other locations to its final destination country
in a sealed closed bag.
The initial despatch, and any later despatches which led to a bag being opened ‘en route’ was known as an open (à découvert) airmail and it is to such mail alone that the OAT and AV2 markings relate.”[1]
The most common usage of OAT marks, ‘Type VI’ (Fig. 3) and ‘Type VII’ (Fig.4.) was
from
Figure 3.
Figure 4.
OAT – Type VI
OAT – Type VII
Figure 5.
Figure 6.
OAT – Type IX
OAT – Type XI
Others, such as OAT ‘Type I’ and OAT ‘Type IV’ (Fig.1) are much more uncommon.
[2] Greg Schmidt, American Airmail Society,
Censorship – ‘Transmission impossible!
By – Emile
Hoorens
Transmission
impossibleIllustrated
is an airmail registered letter sent on 23rd September 1942 from Buta
to
*
The PAR AVION label is
cancelled in green ink.
* It
was first censored in the Belgian Congo with the two line cachet ‘CENSURE
DU CONGO BELGE /
* The second censorship was in the Gold Coast with yellow/brown tape “Opened by Examiner – GOLD COAST”
*
Circular ‘CASABLANCA-POSTES 6-12 42’
transit
mark, white censorship tape with “CONTROL POSTAL ” and oval cachet
‘OUVERT / PAR
LES /
* French
post office ‘TANGER CHERIFIEN 19-12 42’
transit and the following day an oval ‘REGISTERED
/ 20 DE 42 / BRITISH. P.O. TANGIER.
* Thence
across the straights to Gibraltar where it received the oval ‘REGISTERED
/ 4PM / 21 DE 42 /
* It
arrived in
In
summary it is interesting that:
- It is the only letter I have seen that crossed
so many African borders before arriving at its destination in
- Five different Censors opened the letter.
- The journey took 4 months and 10 days.
(No
doubt justification of the annulled Airmail sticker – Ed.)
- Having been opened in both Gold Coast and
Q uestion
Who,
where and why was the one line cachet ‘Acheminement impossible’
applied?
(The type style appears German; the ink is apparently the same colour as the ’Wermacht X’ - Ed.)
Poste Militaire – A stampless cover
By – Alan Morvay
Figure 1.
Figure 1.
illustrates a stampless cover posted on 5th August 1941. Addressed to
the Red Cross in
After the
outset of W.W.II,
In October 1940 a ‘2 circles’ cancellation POSTE
MILITAIRE /
Figure 2. Figure 3. Figure 4.
I have in my collection several Belgian Congo stamps cancelled by the ‘Poste Militaire Congo Belge N°3 and N°4’ in Ethiopia (These do not reproduce satisfactorily in the Bulletin – Ed) and a nice ‘N°4’ used in Nigeria on British stamps (Fig.4).
“A cover with Postes Militaires Congo Belge N°4 dated 1st September1941. It was sent from Watsa and has three different censorship tapes. There is a green and white Sudanese censorship tape on the left side of the cover, a British censorship tape on the bottom of the cover and a scarce ‘Censure Militaire Congo Belge censor tape on the right side of the cover.
The ‘Postes
Militaires Congo Belge N°4’ canceller was used in Watsa from June to October
1941, in
Figure 5.
References
Emile R. Hoorens
Acknowledgements
N.R.Handley
Emile R. Hoorens
Robert Kinsley
Foreign
Censor Marks – continued
By – Walter Deijnckens
Preface
“As a
result of my request for information about foreign censor marks on
Many new
examples have been reported and several scanned or photocopied illustrations
received. The response has been both helpful and much appreciated but
unfortunately not all examples lend themselves to clear reproduction. For that
reason it is not possible to illustrate examples of all now on record, but I
hope that your appetite will be whet and any member with clear examples will let
me have them so that they may be added to our ‘data base’ and included in
later articles in this series.
I am
particularly grateful to Alan Morvay for the vast amount of material sent for
examination and also the additional contributions from Jean Oth, Stuart Smith
and Michael Wright.”
Contrôle Postal – Commission A -
Censor
mark used at Brazzaville
Cover 1.
The cover illustrated above bears the following marks:
i. A sharp edged oval ‘OUVERT / PAR / L’AUTORITÉ MILITAIRE’. (Fig.1).
ii.
Round edged oval ‘OUVERT / PAR LES / AUTORITÉS DE CONTRÔLE’
(Fig.2)
iii. Small (very indistinct) single circle A/8
iv. Nigerian ‘half moon’ censor mark, type 2. (Fig.3)
v. Censor Label – CONTROL POSTAL
vi.
Other non-reproducible censor labels and
cancellations of
Figure 1.
Figure 2.
Figure 3.
-------------------------
Cover 2.
Cover 2, illustrated above shows the use of:
i.
‘CENSURE
ii.
Large 2 circle ‘CONTRÔLE POSTAL (AFRIQUE EQUATORIALE FRANÇAISE)
Commission A’
(Fig.4) – applied
at Brazzaville
iii.
Large 2 circle ‘CONTRÔLE POSTAL (AFRIQUE EQUATORIALE FRANÇAISE) Commission B’
(Fig.5) – applied at Pointe Noire
iv. Small single circle ‘B/1’. (Fig.6)
v.
Censor tape ‘Afrique
Equatorial Française et Cameroun
/ CONTROLE POSTAL’
(Fig.7)
Other recorded censor marks used at
i. Small single circle ‘A/5’ (Fig. 8)
ii. Small single circle ‘A/1’ (Fig. 9)
iii. Two-line ‘CONTROL/POSTAL’
iv. Publicity/advertising rubber stamp (Fig.10) (Frame size approx. 48x32mm)
Ref. (ix) -
This advertisement for a victory loan exists in two forms, one inscribed ‘Souscrivez
a L’Emprunt de Victoire Schrijf in op de Overwinningsleening’
and the other with the
Dutch word ‘Teeken’
replacing ‘Schrijf’.
Figure 4.
Figure 5.
Figure 7.
Figure 6. Figure 8. Figure 9.
Figure 10.
Contrôle Postal – Commission B
-
Censor mark used at Pointe Noire
Large 2-circle CONTRÔLE
POSTAL (AFRIQUE EQUATORIALE FRANÇAISE) Commission B’ (Fig.5)
Contrôle Postal – Commission C
-
Censor mark used at
Libreville
(
Gabon
)
Contrôle Postal – Commission E
-
Censor mark used at
Bangui
A large 2-circle ‘CONTRÔLE POSTAL (AFRIQUE EQUATORIALE FRANÇAISE) Commission E’ is recorded as well as a small single circle ‘E/1’ (Fig. 11)
Figure 11.
Contrôle Postal – Commission G
-
Censor mark used at Port Lamy (
Chad
)
The
letter on which the above transit mark was applied, originated from Leopoldville
26 May 1941 and was received in
Figure 12.
Contrôle Télégraphique – Commission A
- Censor mark used at Brazzaville
-----------------------------
Figure 13.
This
is recorded as a transit mark applied at
----------------------------
Contrôle
Postal – Commission A -
Censor mark used at Doula
Figure 14. Figure 15.
i. Large 2-circle ‘CONTRÔLE POSTAL (TERRITOIRE DU CAMEROUN) Commission A’ (similar to Fig.14). Recorded in use May1942 to April 1943.
ii. Label – ‘CONTROLE POSTAL MILITAIRE’. (Fig.15) Recorded in use May 1942 to April 1943.
iii. ‘Territoire du Cameroun Commission A Contrôle’ censor mark as a wheel round a Brazzaville single
circle A/5. (Fig.8)
Contrôle
Postal – Commission B -
Censor mark used at
i.
Large 2-circle ‘CONTRÔLE
POSTAL (TERRITOIRE
DU
ii.
Label – ‘CONTROLE POSTAL MILITAIRE’.
Recorded on a cover from Elisabethville to
‘CONTRÔLE (TERRITOIRE DU
Censor mark recorded February 1941 (Fig.16)
Figure
16.
Note
– Whilst in many cases illustrations of postmarks, cancellers etc. are
approximately similar in size to the originals, they should never be considered
as accurate or used for reference or comparative purposes. In
concluding this series of articles it is intended to confirm as far as possible
the precise dimensions referred to.
Editor
Is
this a new canceller? - MANDAT de POSTE
Communication from - Andrew Ramsey
While studying some old ‘Postal Mandats’ I came across a cancellation (Fig.1) which is not listed in Cellis’ book ‘La Philatélie de Transition’. The cancellation would seem to be an updated form of H&K’s type 17, a type specifically intended for use by the ‘Bureau de Cheques Postaux’.
Figure 1.
Question – Has anyone come across this? Please get in touch if you have.
(Andrew’s
particular ‘
The
‘Mandat de Poste’ (Fig.2, sides ‘a’ and ‘b’) functions as the
equivalent of a British Postal Order except that the format is different. The
major difference from the U.K. system is that having paid the money to the Post
Office, you don’t take it away with you and arrange your own delivery to the
recipient – the Post Office retains it and delivers directly to the address
declared on the Mandat.
From
memory, the original format was in three sections, each divided by perforations.
The first of these is for the sender on payment of the required sum (Z19.84 in
this case) and is his receipt. The one illustrated was cancelled at Mbandaka 1
(previously Coquilhatville) with the I.7 – CEL/C cancel, dated 03.05.73.
The
remaining two sections, still joined, are then sent by the post office to the
appropriate office according to the address written on the Mandat by the sender.
The
address in this instance is “Procurer de la République,
c/o Parquet de 1e Instance, Mbandundu”. (Note
the writer made an error, as the official spelling is Bandundu.)
Figure 2. (Side ‘a’) (Side ‘b’)
On arrival at its destination, the receiving office applies its cancel in several places (in this case the Bandundu I.2/-, dated 07.05.73 was used) and the 2nd section of the Mandat is detached and put in the recipient’s post box as notification. If the Mandat has to pass through several different post offices ‘en route’, then each will apply its cancel to the Mandat.
When the recipient calls at the destination post office he is paid the appropriate sum and he signs the 3rd section. In the illustration, being an official government office, the recipient has also applied the official stamp. The post office cancels this third section again (here dated 09.05.73) and keeps it as its proof of payment. It is just this 3rd section, retained by the post office that is illustrated in figure 2.
Airport Cancellers c.1970
By – Andrew Ramsey
Figure 1.
When
referring to the Kinshasa Airport cancellations in George Cellis’ ‘Les
Bureaux de Poste du Zaire’, he writes that ‘this office, apparently
not mentioned in any lists, is probably the one that gave rise to the following
two offices, going by the types of cancellers and by the dates:
-
-
Effectively
he is suggesting that around 1970, the
Figure 2.
What
is not apparent is whether this would have been applied in the
Figure 3a. Figure 3b.
We can see from the other transit marks on the reverse (Fig.3’a’ and ‘b’), that it took eight days to get to Ohio and despite the sender having paid the extra money for registration, it actually travelled in the ordinary mail.
----------------------------
Question answered ?
In Bulletin #130 Ed Lavitt told us of an ‘Interesting Card’ purporting to have Lado connections. There appeared to be no satisfactory explanation of its travels though Ray Keach had managed to concoct a theory. One thing for certain, it remained a mystery!
Whilst not wishing to put a damper on things, Lado related stationery carries a premium but what value is placed on an apparently mischievous and contrived item is anyone’s guess. L’Abbé Gudenkauf reminded us of the ‘Dubious and Forged cancels on covers from the Lado Enclave’ in his article (Bulletin 40, June 1981). This appears to fall into the ‘Dubious’ category.
The routing
is simply contrived and mischievous.