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 | | Only known dispatch note on russian form. |
1. The Beginnings of the Postal Service in Poland’s Second Republic: 1918-1920
by Julian Auleytner, PL-Warschau
With the proclamation of Polish independence the country began integrating the former postal systems of Germany and Austria as well as their two separates currencies. This process called for new officials regulations and infrastructure and lasted until the end of 1920. Before the first Polish government was formed local authorities in territories recovered from Austria and Germany quickly took over the postal services from the former administrations. German stamps in the former GGW area were withdrawn by mid-December 1918.
Those of Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, also called precursors, were used up in the area covered by the Lublin postal directorate by the end of February 1919 and as regards the former Galicia region they were officially with drawn with effect from 20th January 1919.
As a result of the Uprising in Wielkopolska (Great Poland) the Polish Post began operating in the western part of the country in the winter of 1919. The provisional period in this area lasted until the ratification by Germany of the Treaty of Versailles. In the meantime, on 1st May 1919, Poland officially became a member of the Universal Postal Union, which among often changes, resulted in the withdrawal from circulation all of the regionally overprinted stamps.
Postal agencies have also been created in Odessa and Constantinople in 1919. The first of these was only in operation for 4,5 months and the second for nearly two years. Commercial mail from these two agencies is very rare.
In the eastern territories the Polish Post was functioning from August 1919 to July 1920. The preliminary terms of the Treaty of Riga finally defined the Polish eastern border in the autumn of 1920. Items of mail from these territories can only be described as unique. Only a few items of private, official and commercial mail have survived from this period. In some cases these are rare or single examples, which are now real philatelic gems. | | Undated envelope, bearing a 1875 RMSPC 10 cents. carmine-rose, perf. 12 ½, cancelled by a faint pen cross and by the oval ‘FRANCO’ canceller of a Dominican post office. Presumably posted in Samana and addressed to Gonaives in Haiti. |
2. Private Shipping Companies in the West Indies
by Federico Borromeo d’Adda, I-Rome
The West Indies, also called the Indies, is an archipelago in the Northern and South America, comprising the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles and the Bahamas. Is a portion of sea in which are scattered a great number of islands, large and small, with nearly the same area as France, including the Caribbean Sea, as well as the Spanish Main. From the point of view of the postal history, the interest arouses from the many different postal administrations, connected with the European colonies, or from some independent countries that were present in that area, an area after all, relatively limited. Actually, there were English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Danes and even Swedish colonies, with Haiti and the Dominican Republic being independent countries. All the postal administrations adopted postage stamps from 1847, in Trinidad, the last classic stamps issue being the Haiti one, in 1882. Particularly Great Britain, from 1842 with the British Packet, and France with the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, from 1862, founded state owned shipping companies for the conveyance of mail and freight. Furthermore there were some American, Dutch, German, Venezuelan private companies, as well as many small local coasting vessels, sharing, of course, a much less amount of traffic. Some of these shipping companies issued their own stamps. On this aspect of philately, concerning the state owned steam companies, two large and erudite works were published: by Alan Robertson for the British mail, and by Raymond Salle for the French mail. For the so called local stamps, in which are falling those issued by the private companies, we must recall a few historical facts. I n the late 19th century, stamps of the local and private posts were looked by many collectors as an essential part of the philately. Unfortunately the decision of the Stanley Gibbons, after 1899, to cease to stock ‘locals’, lead the consequence that no more catalogues or albums were published. Most probably the decision was taken because the enormous amount of new stamps issues, both ‘official’ and ‘private’. New collectors were then ignorant of either the existence and the meaning of this kind of items, with the exception, perhaps, of the ‘Lady McLeod’. Later on, in 1942, unfortunately in the turmoil of the war, a new catalogue, devoted only to ‘locals’ have been published in five instalments by E. Hurt and by L. N. and M. Williams. In the catalogue, nevertheless, were omitted Railway stamps of Great Britain, local stamps of the United States, Zemstovo of Russia, Egyptian Interpostal, and all t he local express companies of Germany. Many years later, in 1972, the famous Julius Steindler concerning Shipping Companies Stamps, went on the market, sold by Robson Lowe in Basel, but strangely no other large collections, like that one, were never formed afterwards. Finally Tester and Ringström published, in 1979, their fundamental work in three volumes concerning the ‘Private Ship Letter Stamps of the World’, the first one, devoted to the ‘Caribbean’. From then, all these stamps have reached their philatelic dignity and respect. The only problem for the collector, is that some of these stamps are, even if not very rare, very much sought after, and for that reason very costly, as in the case of the ‘Lady McLeod’. Some other stamps, in the other hand, even not very expensive, are extremely rare, so that very difficult to find.
Caption of the cover.  | | Letter posted from the small village of Beforona, Madagascar on December 7, 1897 to Nancy, France prior to the arrival of standard post office cancelling devices. The letter was sent at the 50c registered rate (25c postage plus 25c registration), and bears a manuscript date indication: Beforona 7/12; a provisional Beforona manuscript cancellation tying the stamp (only recorded example); and a Nancy January 15, 1898 arrival on the reverse. |
6. The Group Type from Madagascar & Dependencies
by Dr. Ed Grabowski, Westfield/NJ (USA)
Madagascar & Dependencies represents one of the most complex and postally rich regions for the period of the French Colonial Group Type’s use. Group Type stamps and postal stationery arrived in the existing Indian Ocean Colonies of Diego Suarez, Nossi-Bé, Mayotte and Anjouan in early 1893, and in Sainte Marie de Madagascar in 1894. In mid 1896 the colony of Madagascar & Dependencies was declared based on the success of the French military campaign beginning in Majunga in 1895, and Group Type stamps were provided. Sainte Marie de Madagascar, Diego Suarez and Nossi-Bé were soon placed under the Madagascar administration. In 1911 the colonies of Mayotte and Anjouan, and the newer colonies of Grand Comoro and Moheli were also placed under the administration of Madagascar, and available Group Type stamps from all of these entities were used interchangeably throughout Madagascar & Dependencies.
This presentation will examine the use of the Group Type stamps and postal stationery from all of the areas that ultimately became part of Madagascar & Dependencies. Related areas such as military franchise mail of the period, provisional use of Group Type stamps as postage due stamps, use of established French Colonies and Madagascar postage due stamps, use of Group Type stamps on fiscal mail, etc. will also be discussed. issued on: 23. August 2010
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