This week's Postal History Sunday features two covers mailed in July of 1863 that traveled from the United States to Shanghai, China. Though they left one week apart, they arrived in Shanghai on the same day. One paid the 53 cent postage rate to go overland via France and the other paid the 45 cent rate to take an ocean going vessel around France and Spain.
Have a good day all!
This week's Postal History Sunday looks at this cover and tries to figure out if it was normal for it to take one whole month to get from the origin to the destination in 1864.
Postal History Sunday is available to those who might like to read it. This week features some of the early stamped internal mail for France.
Rob
This week's Postal History Sunday features US Air Mail, something I have not really explored before. The item that got me started with the exploration is shown here. It was mailed in 1924 and it took the trans-Continental route from Cleveland to San Francisco at the time when night flying was introduced.
So, is anyone yet collecting the rash of modern postal forgeries? My wife just got a scam/phishing letter in the mail, using what seems to be one:
The cut edges of the coil 'stamp' are rough and appear to have some inking issues, but the rest looks fairly good. I haven't yet looked at it under UV light.
Bill,
I agree with Terence that it would be an interesting exhibit. I have to admit that I have not been able to keep up with recent developments. Only so much of my time to go around, sadly.
Today is Sunday, so Postal History Sunday is available to those who might enjoy reading it.
Here is the featured cover from Rome (1854) to Boston. The 38 bajocchi in postage only paid to get the letter to the port in the US. Five more cents were collected from the recipient.
This week's Postal History Sunday features an item mailed in Mons, Belgium and sent to Paris, France, during the year 1864. We're just going to go through the process of breaking one down and see if anything interesting turns up in the process.
Shown here is a printed death announcement for Marie-Victor Chaverot, who died in Saint Alban, France, on June 12, 1865. The death notice was apparently printed on June 13 according to the printed notation at the bottom and the funeral itself was to be held on the morning of June 15th.
This week, in Postal History Sunday, we take a look at mourning covers, that might have carried announcements like this one.
I realize I missed posting a couple of weeks of Postal History Sunday. Last week's issue focused on a more "modern" cover from the Sudan to the United States.
Two weeks ago we had a sort of "catch-all" Postal History Sunday that actually turned into having a theme of "destinations." Sometimes you don't know what you've got until you've done it, I guess. That PHS featured this very interesting item from the US to Madeira (the island off the northwest coast of Africa).
And, this will catch me up. I apologize for missing a few weeks, Covid-19 finally caught me and it did me no favors.
This Postal History Sunday, from the beginning of May, focused on how mail patrons tried to use every scrap of paper when sending a letter or correspondence via the mail. This letter, from the US to the UK, includes an example of cross-writing.
This week's Postal History Sunday features some 24 cent 1861 postal history items that illustrate how life has always been imperfect - despite our tendency to look fondly on the "golden days."
Shown below is an 1863 letter sent from Philadelphia, US, to Andelfingen, Switzerland. At the time, the postal rate was 33 cents per 1/2 ounce to get the letter there via the Prussian Closed Mail.
Many people would say this is a beautiful example of a classic US stamp cover (and it is). But, something is wrong with it. Do you see it?
You mean other than you have to subtract the one cent stamp from the rest in order to get 33 cents total? 🙂
