Luxembourgian Philately

Baggage fee in 1912

2012-01-08T12:36:00.001+07:00

From the early 1900s, you’ll find postcards featuring a postman about to deliver a letter, such as the example above. And often a “bag” would be attached to the card containing a strip of photos.

In this instance, the bag contains 10 photos of Brussels (above). So should what is ostensibly a postcard pay the letter rate in view of the bag and its enclosure?

Brussels, Belgium, 8 August, 1912, to Petange,
9 August 1912 – taxed 10 centimes

Apparently “yes,” as this card, which was sent at the 5-centime postcard rate, was taxed 10 centimes (that being double the 5-centime deficiency from the 10-centime letter rate then in effect).

That charge reminds me of the ever-increasing fees we pay at the airport for bags, extra bags, and the carbon emissions air travel produces!

Bogus use of a surcharged 6-centime postal card (updated below by Boettger and Doose)

2012-01-07T15:05:00.001+07:00

On May 1, 1878, the 6c German treaty postal card rate was increased to 12½c, rendering obsolete Luxembourg’s six-centime postal cards. Frugal Luxembourg, therefore, recalled and surcharged an unsold stock of 7,000 six-centime cards to the 5c domestic postal card rate. These surcharged cards were issued on September 10, 1878.

Three different cards were surcharged: accordingly to Moens, 500 of the 6c violet (P. 25/P. 16) and 1,000 of the 6c carmine (P. 26/P. 19) Fifth Arms issue, and 5,500 of the 6c carmine Sixth Arms issue (P. 27/P. 21). Thus, the surcharge can potentially be found on each of the 38 plate types comprising these three cards, including the three printings of P. 21. (My plating study of the surcharged cards appeared in the Luxembourg Collectors Club journal Castellum, Vol. 9, No. 3 [December 2005].) As Moens’ data suggest, P. 25 and P. 26 are much scarcer than P. 27.

Collectors apparently quickly bought up many of the surcharged cards; as a result, commercial uses of these cards are seldom seen. In fact, I am unaware of any reported use of the 6-centime (violet) 5th Arms issue surcharge (P. 25).

But beware of faked uses such as the example below of P. 27 (type 1 - third printing):

· The postmark is dated November 3, 1876. The surcharged cards were not issued until September 10, 1878.

· The ink is not typical of the period.

· The handwriting is a poor imitation of the fluency of the cursive writing of the 1870s.

· Use of red for the text and address is peculiar.

· Diekirch is misspelled “DierKich.”

· The message reads “Cher Jean” and is also signed “Jean.”

While the card and the surcharge are genuine, the postmark, message, and address appear to me to be bogus.

Comments?

Lars Boettger comments:

This cancel was cleaned after 1885 and used mainly on postal stationery with bogus addresses and messages. You will find these items in collections of well known and knowledgeable philatelists. The break in the circle occurred some time in 1877/78.

Hans-Ulrich Doose comments:

The only used P. 25 ever seen up to now belongs to M. Robert Scholtes (I have enclosed a scan for you).

[Here are his scans of this unique gem (part of the Eltz correspondence)!]

Diekirch to Serang in 1900; Luxembourg-Gare to Matadi in 1901; Vianden to Puerto Principe (Cuba) in 1896

2011-12-29T14:26:00.001+07:00

Serang, Indonesia (47 miles west of Jakarta)

The G.D. Adolphe postal stationery provides a rich range of uses, much to the postal historian’s delight.

The first of the three Adolphe postal stationery issues was valid from May 4, 1895 until the end of 1908. During this period, postcard and postal card use reached its zenith, providing a popular economical medium for personal and business communication.

Happily, the Adolphe cards, now over 100 years old, remain plentiful. There are no records of how many were printed. You’ll find a few with scarce cancels, others with interesting uprated uses, and some to exotic destinations, as shown by the three cards below, occasionally for only a few dollars or euros (depending on the seller’s acumen!).

So keep your eyes open at the bourses and on the web. Luxembourg’s neo-classical postal stationery is still underpriced and underappreciated, but that might change!

5c Adolphe stationery (1st series)
Uprated UPU use from Diekirch in 1900
to Serang, Indonesia

Diekirch, 21 Aug 1900

Luxembourg-Gare, 21 Aug 1900

Postagent Penang [Malaya], 17 Sep 1900

Singapore, 19 Sep 1900

Weltevreden, Netherlands East Indies, 24 Sep 1900

Serang, Netherlands East Indies, 24 Sep 1900

* * *

Matadi, near the mouth of the Congo river,
just upstream from Banana and Boma

5c Adolphe stationery (1st series)
Uprated UPU use in 1901 to
Matadi, Belgian Congo

Luxembourg-Gare, 3 Jul 1901
Written at Mamer, showing the cachet of
Bois-J.B. Plüger-Grains.

Matadi, Belgian Congo, 26 (?) Aug 1901

* * *

Camagüey [formerly Puerto Principe], in central Cuba

10c Adolphe stationery (1st series)

UPU use from Vianden in 1896
to Puerto Principe [now: Camagüey], Cuba

Vianden, 20 Aug 1896

Havana, Cuba [b/s], 2 Sep 1896

Luxembourg airmail within Europe: May 1, 1939 to the October 1, 1940 required use of Reichmark franking

2011-12-27T15:04:00.001+07:00

Effective May 1, 1939, foreign (Belgian, French or German) franking was no longer required to pay international airmail supplements on airmail originating from Luxembourg.

And, according to the Basien-Hoffkamp rate book at p. 173, from that date forward there were only two rates for airmail to other European countries:

50c per 20g for letters to Germany, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Switzerland
75c per 20g for letters to all other European countries

The first two covers illustrate these rates. The rating of the third is a mystery.

Airmail to France
24 Jul 1939

50c airmail supplement

Luxembourg-Ville, July 24, 1939, to Nice, France, July 26, 1939, properly rated at the 20g letter rate to France (1.25F) plus a 50c airmail supplement.

Censored Airmail to Finland
31 Jan 1940

75c airmail supplement

Luxembourg-Ville, January 31, 1940, routed via the Netherlands and Sweden, from the Finnish consulate in Luxembourg, censored in Finland, with February 1, 1940 Brussels transit and February 6, 1940 Helsinki backstamps.

The cover is properly rated at the 20g UPU letter rate (1.75F) plus a 75c airmail supplement.

Officially Resealed Airmail to Italy
13 May 1939

Rate ???

Luxembourg-Gare, May 13, 1939 (less than two weeks since the abolition of the foreign-stamp surcharges), routed in manuscript “Via Cologne,” to Merano, Italy, May 17, 1939, with a strip of four official seals reading “Amministrazione delle Regie Poste,” each dated May 17th [Drummond Type OS2].

Here the franking totals 3.75F. As a 20g UPU letter, 2.50F would have paid postage and the airmail supplement, with the letter overfranked by 1.25F. As a 20-40g UPU letter, 4.25F franking would have been required [1.75F + 1F + 75c + 75c], leaving the letter underpaid by 50c.

Is the letter incorrectly franked? Somebody must know, and I hate to describe a lovely cover as “misfranked.”

A heavy registered 1901 mourning cover (and a more frugal example), an official registered mourning cover, a registered incoming mourning cover, and one with insufficient postage

2011-12-25T18:18:00.001+07:00

Mourning cover collectors have never agreed on the significance, if any, of the width of the covers’ black borders, but they all agree that registered mourning covers are unusual and scarce.

Consider this big guy:

The cover measures 140x218 mm.; the front borders are a robust 25 mm. wide!

Endorsed “75 gr,” the cover pays the 5th step letter rate to Germany (25c/15g x 5 = 1.25F) plus a 25c registry, with the 1.50F total charge nicely paid with the 50c and 1F Adolphe definitives.

But putting those details aside, the interesting question this cover raises is why the sender—J. Bunsen-Knaff—sent it by registered mail, replete with four wax seals. Perhaps because the addressee--Philipp Bunsen--in Hannover, Germany, probably was a relative? Posted from Luxembourg-Ville, October 28, 1901, it arrived the next day, as shown by the backstamp.

Mourning covers offer a lot of postal history and genealogical appeal. You can learn much more about mourning covers at www.mscc.ms/ , which web address will take you to the website of the Mourning Stamp and Cover Club.

Another Example of Wide Borders

Here is another mourning cover with even slightly wider borders. But it is of especial interest for another reason--because it unfolds to reveal the identity of the person being mourned.

Posted from Luxembourg-Ville, March 27, 1933, to Göppingen, Germany, the cover mourns Benjamin Bonn, an attorney who died on March 25, 1933, and who was interred in the Jewish Cemetery at Luxembourg Belle-Vue on March 28, 1933.

Unlike the registered cover, this cover was sent at the frugal 35c rate for printed matter to Germany not exceeding 50g!

Registered Mourning Cover from the Royal Residence at Colmar-Berg in 1912 sent to Bavarian royalty in Munich

Registered official mail from the royal residence at Colmar-Berg franked with the 50c William IV official, posted June 24, 1912 to Munich, Germany, and is backstamped Munchen, June 25, 1912.

The addressee is Nelly von Schmidt, who was the maid of honor to Countess Mathilde Trani (as indicated in the second line of the address). Nelly von Schmidt died in 1919; Mathilde Trani in 1925. They were buried in the same crypt at Waldfried in Munich.

The cover is also interesting because it was sent just 12 days after Grand Duchess Marie-Adélaïde became of age on her 18th birthday. It is endorsed in purple: “Service de la Grand Duchesse.”

In whose hand was the letter addressed? And who was being mourning?

Registered incoming mourning cover
from Bavaria in 1919

Ruchheim, Bavaria, October 14, 1919, with backstamps of Bad Dürkheim, October 15th, and Luxembourg-Ville, October 17th, addressed to Luxembourg-Limpertsberg.

A 1912 Mourning Cover from Luxembourg
to Germany with postage due!

This mourning cover, franked only with a 10c G.D. William IV definitive, was posted from Luxembourg-Ville, September 26, 1912, to Osnabrück, Germany, short-paid by 2½ centimes (the 20g letter rate to Germany at the time being 12½c). The cover is marked “T” in blue crayon, has been handstamped “PORTO” (probably in Germany), and has the deficiency indicated in pencil.

Mourning covers with postage due assessed are even scarcer than registered mourning covers. This might partly be explained by the reluctance of postal clerks to tax covers bringing bad news! But that wasn’t the case in this instance.

Is this scarce 5-franc stamp in your collection?

2011-12-09T12:25:00.001+07:00

See my December 8, 2011, post on “The 1925 5-franc ‘Police des Estrangers’ (Foreign Registration) stamp” at www.luxrevenuephilately.blogspot.com .

Echternach’s Postbox Cancels—the Consdorf ‘W’ on a postal card written at Breidweiler in 1883 (post updated)

2011-11-12T17:12:00.001+07:00

Most of Luxembourg’s neo-classical postal stationery—beginning with Enschede’s mass printing of the 5c and 10c twelfth Arms issue in 1880 [Prifix 39 & 40]—is very common. Yet, dealers often price it at five or ten dollars a card, apparently thinking that anything from Luxembourg is or must be scarce. Nonetheless, I always inspect these offerings, hoping against hope to find something unusual and interesting.

Such was the case recently when I viewed a dealer’s web offerings of mostly valueless neoclassics. There, along with three other cards in a small lot, was the card shown below, written at Breidweiler, February 2, 1883, with the ‘W’ postbox cancel associated with Echternach, postmarked at Echternach that day:

Francis Rhein, writing in The Postal History of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (1941), refers to this type of cancel as a “majuscule.” He notes that these majuscules were rural control marks used by mail carriers who collected mail from small communities that did not have a post office. According to Rhein, the canceller was attached to the interior of the rural mail box. Thus, I prefer calling Rhein’s majuscules “post box” cancels. He depicts Echternach’s ‘W’ at page 114 of his book.

Presumably the function of the post box cancels was to document the origin of mail deposited in rural post boxes although I’ve never been entirely clear on that point.

N. Poos, writing in Die Post des Groβherzogtums Luxemburg (1950) at p. 418, also refers to these cancels as “majuscules” and offers this historical note:

A partir de 1836 (date de l’introduction des tournées rurales sous le régime belge), les facteurs ruraux devaient prendre sur leur part comptable l’empreinte de la dite letter, qui servait donc à controller la levee régulière des boîtes. C’est au moyen de la meme empreinte qu’ils pouvaient oblitérer les timbres-poste appliqués sur des correspondances qu’ils avaient retirees de la boîte et qui étaient encore à distribuer dans la meme tournée.

And he provides a list of these rare control marks authored and published by A. Ungeheuer in 1946. In that list, ‘W’ is associated with Tuntange, Ansembourg, and Echternach.

Breidweiler in the Echternach Canton,
Consdorf Commune

Although I’ve searched relentlessly since the 1950s for unusual markings on the neo-classical postal stationery, I’ve only discovered two other cards with a post box cancel. But that’s the challenge factor of Luxembourg philately. When you stop looking at common (but often overpriced) Luxembourg postal cards from the 1880s, that’s when you might be missing a chance to make a memorable discovery!

Update

The extraordinarily knowledgeable Luxembourg philatelist, Dieter Basien, has kindly provided a map showing the venues at which post box mail was collected and routed to the Echternach post office and the post box cancels for each postbox:

Source: ECHTERNACH 698-1998, Cercle Philatélique Echternach, 57. Journée du Timbre 1998.

The map shows that the ‘W’ post box cancel was assigned to the Consdorf post box. This is consistent with the fact that the postal card was written at Breidweiler, which is located in the Consdorf commune.

Dieter also provides this chart:

Certainly these post box cancels are among the most exotic Luxembourg postal markings. So be vigilant; one might be reposing in that box of common postal stationery that you never look at or bother to organize!

Double Invalidity

2011-10-17T13:50:00.001+07:00

An exhibit of invalid Luxembourg frankings would leave most philatelic judges stupefied. How would they assess the philatelic significance of such material? Would they consider all such uses to be “philatelically contrived?” And what criteria would they apply to the “challenge factor?”

Consider that finding invalid Luxembourg frankings is much more difficult than finding multiples of Luxembourg #1 on cover, and philatelic knowledge is more useful than a plump bank account. But as we should know, philatelic judging is subjective; the equal interval point scale used at the FIP level is illusory. It makes a mockery of the logic of measurement. So don’t necessarily expect to be rewarded with medals when you discover these rarities! Sadly, they are elusive but little appreciated.

After more than 50 years of sniffing through dealers’ junk boxes, my album of invalid uses is still pretty thin. Here is the only example I’ve found of double invalidity:

20c Luxembourg Arms postal card used with a
5+5-pf German Württemberg Arms semipostal,
posted within Germany, July 15, 1927

Luxembourg postal stationery, regardless of validity, of course could not be used within another country. Even the reply cards from double cards had to be returned to their country of origin. But what about the German semipostal stamp? It was issued on December 1, 1926; however, it was only valid until June 30, 1927. Here it is used 15 days too late, on July 15, 1927. Thus, both the Luxembourg postal stationery imprint and the German semipostal stamp are invalid, albeit for different reasons.

Kudos to the sharp-eyed German postal clerk in Karlsruhe who taxed the card double the German domestic postcard rate and marked off both the stamp and the stationery imprint as invalid!

Mysterious green labels on WWI official mail to the International Red Cross Prisoners-of-War Agency from the Luxembourg Red Cross Society

2011-10-14T16:08:00.001+07:00

Mail to the Red Cross Prisoners-of-War Agency in Geneva

Registered letter from the Luxembourg Government Information Office [the “Renseignements” or “Amtliche Auskunftsstelle”], Luxembourg Red Cross Society, to the Agence des Prisonniers de Guerre of the Comité International de la Croix Rouge (the “AIPG”), in Geneva, Switzerland, with Luxembourg-Ville IV cds, August 17, 1915, and Trier censorship, backstamped at Geneva, August 21, 1915.

The 12½c, 15c, and 37½c GD William IV official stamps pay 40c UPU postage for a 20-40g letter plus the 25c registry fee.

But what additional meaning does the mysterious green label provide? Was it applied by the AIPG in Geneva? For what purpose? Without answers to these questions, the cover’s postal history will remain incomplete.

The label is perforated on the left hand side. The number ‘38,’ the letter “B,” and the name ‘Melle Ch. Lachenae’ have been added in manuscript.

The International Prisoners of War Agency

Wikipedia tells us that the AIPG was a service of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and was founded in 1914. During World War I, the AIPG established an office in Geneva at the Rath museum for a finding prisoners and displaced people of all nationalities (even though there was no convention protecting civilians at the time). It allowed them to contact their families and send mail and parcels, bypassing barriers between warring countries.

AIPG at the Rath Museum

The images below show the AIPG’s typing and file rooms, which employed about 100 persons around 1918. Notice the extensive card files in the second image. During the war, according to Wikipedia, the war the Agency prepared 4,805,000 index cards and dispatched 1,854,914 parcels and consignments of collective relief.

Another Example

Here the green label appears with the letters ‘E F/E’ added in typescript. This triple-weight (40-60 g) cover was posted on May 19, 1915. The 5c Arms and 50c GD William IV officials correctly pay the 55c postage.

Surely those of you familiar with the International Red Cross can explain the use of these distinctive green labels!

The ‘Paderborn Puzzler’

2011-10-02T07:52:00.001+07:00

Paderborn
in East Westphalia, Germany

Although I’ve collected Luxembourg postal stationery for more than a half century, I’m amazed at how frequently I still find new material that belies easy explanation. Consider this card:

Yes, it’s the August 1879 10-centime German treaty rate and UPU-rate card from the 10th Arms Issue, which appeared in August 1879 and is easily identified by the elongated ‘P’ of POSTALE and POSTKARTE in the third text line[Prifix & FSPL Handbook No. 35] . But here it has been commercially used from Paderborn, a university town in East Westphalia, Germany. The Paderborn cds is dated September 11, 1882. The card is addressed to the Breisdoff bookstore in Luxembourg-Ville (a business that saved many fine incoming postal stationery cards!), and backstamped at Luxembourg,
September 13, 1882.

I suppose I should attribute this unusual use simply to postal clerk compliance and be done with it. But the German postal clerks of this era seldom failed to tax improper uses of stamps or stationery.

Therefore, an alternate explanation might be that the postal clerk mistook this card for the reply card of the double card from this issue [Prifix & FSPL Handbook No. 36]. The design is similar, featuring the distinctive elongated P’s, as seen in the example below.

Le Havre, France, November 24, 1886,
to Luxembourg-Ville the next day

1919 Money Letter to Germany – Why was it inadmissible?

2011-09-24T12:40:00.001+07:00

Wecker, 6 Jun 1919, to Trier, Germany

The postal history of Luxembourg during and shortly after World
War I is still poorly understood by many collectors, largely because it has been inadequately documented. It could easily be the subject of an award-winning tome. Here is an illustrative example.

This is a front from a 10,000-franc money letter posted from Wecker to Germany in June of 1919. It was returned with a rectangular ‘Retour/Zurück’ handstamp and ‘non-admis’ in purple manscript. Why?

Nicely franked with the 5c, 40c, 1F, and 2½F definitives, the rate presumably is 30c for a 20-250g letter to Germany, 25c registry fee, and 10c/300F money letter fee (10,000F/300F = 34 x 10c = 3.40 F), totaling 3.95 F. (The Basien-Hoffkamp rate book shows the 5c/300F fee still in effect; either the ratebook is wrong or the Wecker postal clerk mis-rated this money letter.)

Duchscher & Company in Wecker has provided us with many well-franked commercial covers. Some of the early Duchscher air mail covers are truly spectacular. But this 1919 money letter front needs further explanation before it can take an honored place in my WWI postal history collection. Can you help?

5-Franc Marie-Adélaïde Definitive with Gemen & Bourg Double-Impression Perfin

2011-08-08T18:36:00.001+07:00

Occasionally a perfin prompts me to blink twice. And so it was when I saw this 5F Marie-Adélaïde definitive (Prifix 109) in a general Luxembourg collection. Any perfinned 5F definitive is welcome in my Luxembourg perfin collection.

And when the collection with the 5F perfin arrived, I was even more surprised. The perfin pattern is a double-impression of the scarce
G B pattern used by Gemen & Bourg Rosiéristes in Luxembourg-Limpertsberg. The cancel is dated 28 November 1921.

The FSPL Catalogue des Timbres Perforés Luxembourgeois (2002) lists the G B perfin as used between 1916 to 1922. It is known on only 7 stamps – the 10c, 2½F, 5F, and 20c/17½c Marie-Adélaïde definitives, the 30c Charlotte (1st series), 5F Adolphe Bridge, and 50c Charlotte (2nd series).

The other 300 or so stamps in the collection must be just a little jealous of this beauty!

The octagonal CAISSE cancels

2011-07-16T12:14:00.001+07:00

I occasionally find octagonal caisse cancels, such as this one from Arsdorf dated August 11, 1971, on documents – in this instance, on a deposit receipt.

I would be interested in learning more about the uses of the caisse cancels. In particular, why were they used instead of the office’s regular postal cancel for documents such as the one shown here? Could a postal cancel have been used instead? Were these cancels ever used to cancel stamps? When were the first introduced? Were they issued to all post offices?

On this deposit receipt above, the Arsdorf double-circle postal cancel dated October 28, 1935, is seen.

Update – August 8, 2011

These cancels and their cousins are no longer a mystery! The FSPL’s Commission d’Études in March 2011 published a comprehensive study and listing of these cancels as chapter 8 of the Handbuch zur Philatelie in Luxemburg.

The Handbuch illustrates the various types of octagonal kassenstempel, as shown below.

Thanks to the dedicated work of the FSPL, I now better understand and appreciate my Arsdorf caisse cancel! It was one of those philatelic mysteries that I thought might never be solved.

Incoming mail during WWI censored in Brünn

2011-07-14T16:07:00.001+07:00

1. Unusual WWI Dual Censorship

We sometimes see dual censorship of incoming mail to Luxembourg from other European countries during World War I. But I’ve never before seen dual censorship of incoming mail from the United States.

This letter, which was sent from San Francisco, California, January 6, 1915, to Schieren, shows two censor marks: one from the Czechoslovak Moravian town of Brünn [Brno], as well as the usual German censorship mark applied in Trier.

Perhaps a postal clerk distracted by the nice franking – the 1c and a pair of the 2c Pan-Pacific Exposition commemoratives paying the 5c UPU 20g letter rate – deposited the letter into the wrong mail sack! There are no marks on the back to provide clues.

2. Typical WWI Dual Censorship

Picture postcard incoming to Mondorf-les-Bains from Fixheim in the then-German Lorraine. The card is dated November 24, 1915, and was censored at Diedenhofen [today: Thionville] in the Lorraine and Trier, Germany.

Censoring Luxembourg’s mail during World War I must have provided full employment for many German functionaries. The same probably could be said today for Rupert Murdock’s functionaries, who recently were found to have snooped through many 21st century electronic communications, but without the excuse of an ongoing war to justify the intrusions.

From Boma to Arsdorf in 1926

2011-07-13T18:30:00.001+07:00

Being connected ancestrally to the small Ardennes village of Arsdorf, the birthplace of my maternal grandfather, I enjoy collecting the village’s postal history.

International incoming mail to Arsdorf is understandably elusive, so the postcard seen here from Boma in the Belgian Congo was a delightful recent discovery! The card is dated 25 December 1926 at Souga and was posted from Boma. The Arsdorf receiving cancel is dated 17 January 1927. The card shows a real photo of children in Souga. It’s franked with three singles of the 1923 25c basket weaving pictorial.

My favorite St. Willibrord cover

2011-07-13T17:18:00.001+07:00

Having grown up in a small Minnesota village where Luxembourg pioneers in the 1880s dedicated the local Roman Catholic church to
St. Willibrord, I enjoy collecting covers with a ‘Willibrord’ connection. Here is my favorite:

1.75 F + 50c
1938 St. Willibrord semi-postal

Sole Luxembourg franking — two-country airmail cover

Until May 1, 1939, Luxembourg franking paid the applicable UPU or treaty rate on outgoing international airmail, with the airmail charge paid with stamps of the neighboring country from which the airmail service began — France, Germany, or Belgium.

Here the visually striking 1.75 F Luxembourg semi-postal commemorative issued for the 12^th centenary of St. Willibrord’s death pays the UPU rate for a 20g letter to Italy. A 75c French definitive pays the additional charge for airmail service from Strasbourg. The foreign stamp was stocked and sold at the Luxembourg post office and applied when the letter was mailed in Luxembourg, but the regulations provided that it was to be cancelled upon arrival at the foreign (in this instance, French) airport of dispatch.

On 20 September 1938, this cover was routed to Strasbourg’s airport postal facility and then apparently flown from Strasbourg to Bâle [Basel], Switzerland. It then traveled on the Luxembourg A Bâle and Chiasso [Switzerland] to Milan [Italy] TPOs the next day, reaching its destination of Merano in the southern Tyrol region of Italy early on the morning of 22 Sep 1938.

Here is my explication of the cancels:

Front:

· Luxembourg-Ville, 20 Sep 1938 (11:00 a.m.-12:00 noon)

· Strasbourg Pl. de la Gare, 20 Sep 1938 (9:00 p.m.)

Back:

· Strasbourg Gare Avion, 20 Sep 1938 (11:00 p.m.)

· Luxembourg a Bale, 21 Sep 1938

· Amb. Chiasso Milano, 21 Sep 1938

· Merano (Balzano), Italy, 22 Sep 1938 (6 a.m.)

Semi-postals were seldom used on these airmail covers with two-country frankings. This cover is a remarkable exception.

The 1924 Marie-Adélaïde Caritas Semi-postals

2011-07-06T19:49:00.001+07:00

Grand Duchess Marie-Adélaïde died an untimely death on
January 24, 1924. As a memorial, Luxembourg overprinted the 12½c, 35c, 2½ F, and 5 F Marie-Adélaïde definitives with the word CARITAS, adding surcharges of 7½c, 10c, 1 F, and 2 F, respectively. The surcharge proceeds were donated to the Luxembourg Red Cross.

Although 104,745 sets of these semi-postals were issued on April 17, 1924 (valid to July 1, 1928), we seldom see them used on properly rated covers, and almost never on non-philatelic covers. This is perhaps explained by the absence of contemporary rates that required these denominations!

Thus, my recent acquisition of the cover seen below was very special. Here a pair of the 12½c+7½c denomination exactly pays the 25c 20g domestic letter rate for a letter from Remich to Belvaux posted on March 19, 1925.

Has anyone seen a commercial use of the 2½F+1F or the 5F+ 2F? Sometimes I like to dream about what such a cover would look like. The 5F+2F registered sole use shown below from the Administration des Postes et des Télégraphes to Paris, France, April 19, 1924 (two days after issuance) is obviously overfranked.

And this correctly rated registered cover from Wilwerwiltz to Monaco bearing a block of the 35c+10c was posted January 11, 1929, after the Caritas stamps had been demonitized more than seven months earlier!

Communal Revenues from 71 Luxembourg towns

2011-06-12T13:01:00.001+07:00

Vianden

Junglinster

Kayl

Boevange-sur-Attert

At www.luxrevenuephilately.blogspot.com (under the “Communal Revenues” post), I’ve posted images of communal revenue stamps from 71 Luxembourg towns, including uses on documents.

These much neglected pictorials and key types exhibit a diverse range of artistic beauty. They also offer unparalleled challenges for the philatelist who enjoys doing original research about stamps that are scarce but not excessively expensive.

Here is a list of the towns (I’d welcome scans of those in your collections to add to the website) I’ll be adding more in the future:

Arsdorf

Bascharage

Beaufort

Beckerich

Bertrange

Bettembourg

Bigonville

Bissen

Boevange-sur-Attern

Boulaide

Bourscheid

Bumerange

Contern

Diekirch

Differdange

Dippach

Dudelange

Echternach

Ell

Esch-sur-Alzette

Esch-sur-Sûre

Ettelbrück

Feulen

Fishbach-Mersch

Folchette

Garnich

Goesdorf

Grevenmacher

Grosbous

Heiderscheid

Hesperange

Hosingen

Junglinster

Kayl

Kehlen

Larochette

Lenningen

Lintgen

Lorentzweiler

Luxembourg-Ville

Mamer

Mersch

Mondercange

Munshausen

Nommern

Perlé

Pétange

Rambrouch

Reckange/Mess

Rédange-sur-Attert

Reisdorf

Roeser

Rosport

Rumelange

Saeul

Sanem

Schieren

Schifflange

Steinfort

Strassen

Troisvierges

Useldange

Vianden

Wahl

Walferdange

Weiler-la-Tour

Weiswampach

Wiltz

Wincrange

Wormeldange

Belgo-Luxembourgeoise License Revenues

2011-06-04T14:58:00.001+07:00

Luxembourg revenue philately – little appreciated by most Luxembourg aficionados – remains a fertile ground for original research and new discoveries. Like postage stamps, Luxembourg revenues paid government fees. They are undeserving of the philatelic discrimination they suffer! I’ve listed a few at www.luxrevenuephilately.com, but there are many more to be added to that site.

For example, here you see the Belgo-Luxembourgeoise license revenue stamps, which were used jointly by Belgium and Luxembourg to pay import permit charges.

Type 1

5F BELGISCH-LUXEMBURGSCHE

COMMISSIE

Denominated ‘Fr-‘

Type 2

BELGISCH-LUXEMBURGSCHE

COMMISSIE

Denominated ‘Frs B.‘

Type 3

10F BELGISCH-LUXEMBURGSE

COMMISSIE

Denominated ‘Frs B.‘

Cancelled: Office Central des Contingents & Licenses, 17 December 1974.

20F BELGISCH-LUXEMBURGSE

COMMISSIE

Type 4

2.50F BELGISCH-LUXEMBURGSCHE
VERREKEMINGSDIENST BRUSSEL
(OBLC logo design)

John Barefoot’s Benelux Revenues [2nd ed.], lists only four of the Belgium & Luxembourg License revenues.

My Type 1 5-franc shown here (denominated simply in francs rather than Belgian francs) is unlisted in Barefoot.
My Type 2 10-franc with spelling LUXEMBURGSCHE is the only denomination Barefoot lists with this spelling.
Barefoot lists 5F, 10F and 20F Type 3 denominations with the spelling LUXEMBURGSE.
My Type 4 design is unlisted.

You can help by sharing your research. I would like to know:

What stamps were issued? When? In what format?
Who printed the stamps?
What quantities were printed?
What were the import license tax rates?
What are the pertinent laws and regulations?
On what documents were the stamps used?
Why are some denominated in francs; others in Belgian francs?
Has the use of licenses revenues been discontinued (if so, when)?
What is known about the Commission Belgo-Luxembourgeoise?

You can be the first to do the research and publish your findings, if you like, as a guest blogger on this website!

Failed Frugality — A taxed letter from Boulaide in 1921

2011-04-23T04:22:00.001+07:00

James Newcomer writes that “[i]n the modern world of 1919-1920 political Luxembourg came of age.”[1] Amidst the economic uncertainty of the postwar years, the Grand Duchy’s economic orientation toward Germany ended. The country’s economic union with Belgium – the L’union économique belgo-luxembourgeoise (U.E.B.L.) — was negotiated in 1921, taking effect the next year. And about this time, the 15c domestic letter rate was increased to 25c, effective April 1, 1921. Perhaps this context helps explain the cover shown here.

The Grand Duke Adolphe definitives were demonetized on January 1, 1909. But here a frugal Luxembourger from Boulaide uses the 5c and 10c denominations in combination with the then current 10c Marie Adélaïde definitive to pay the new 25c domestic 20g letter rate. The letter was posted July 21, 1921, to Buchholtz (post: Grevenmacher).

Ah, but the attempt to save 15 centimes by using the long-invalidated stamps failed. A postal clerk has marked off the Adolphe definitives, showing with a ‘0’ that they no longer have any postal value. At Grevenmacher the next day a strip of three 10c postage due stamps is used to pay the 15c deficiency, doubled of course to impose a fiscal penalty on the unlucky recipient.

[1] The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg: The Evolution of Nationhood 963 A.D. to 1983 (University Press of America, 1984), p. 238.

Privately printed registry label used in 1886

2011-04-02T20:28:00.001+07:00

Ant. Berger's privately printed registry label in red anticipates those that Luxembourg used in the 1930s. Here we see it used on a registered cover from Luxembourg-Ville, May 30, 1886, to the Royal Irish Rifles Quartermaster at New Barracks, Gosport, England.

The oval transit marking on the front is the London registry cancel of May 31, 1886. On the back is the Luxembourg-Gare, May 30, 1886 transit, and the Gosport, England receiver dated June 1, 1886. A p. 12x12½ 50-centime Allegory pays 25c UPU postage for this 13-gram letter and the 25c registry fee. The red wax seal is still nicely intact.

Ant. Berger was, I think, a dealer or collector. I can't recall having seen the privately printed registry label before. This cover turned up at the FIP Show in Lisbon last year. It's a compelling registered cover in all aspects. It would have been a shame to leave it in the dealer's stock!

Absender Grossherzogin d'Luxemburg in 1916

2011-03-29T19:19:00.001+07:00

Mourning Cover in the Hand of
G.D. Marie-Adélaïde

Who was Grand Duchess Marie-Adélaïde mourning when she posted this cover from Schloss Berg at Colmar-Berg on December 4, 1916, to the Baroness Ritter in Munich, Germany? Perhaps I'll find the answer in Edith O'Shaughnessy's detailed biography of the Grand Duchess, or maybe a reader of this blog will offer a suggestion.

Marie-Adélaïde's distinctive handwriting sometimes perplexed postal clerks. Here someone, after deciphering the cover's destination, has written München in colored pencil across the front with strong underscoring!

Update

Indeed, Edith O'Shaughnessy, in her fine biography, Marie Adelaide: Grand Duchess of Luxemburg Duchess of Nassau (1921: Harrison Smith, New York), tells us that it was Marie-Adélaïde's paternal grandmother, Adelheid-Marie of Anhalt-Dessau, for whom Marie-Adélaïde was in mourning when she posted this cover (pp. 139-140). She writes:

Towards the end of October, 1916, Marie Adelaide left her Duchy for the first time since the outbreak of the war. It was to go to Königstein, near Frankfurt, the estate that years before the Grand Duke Adolf had given to his consort, Adelheid Marie of the House of Anhalt. There she stood by the bedside of that mortally-stricken, beloved figure of her childhood, of her adolescence, of her reign. Again on November 20th, she went to bury her.

Adelheid-Marie, seen in the images below, was born in Dessau on December 25, 1833, and died at Schloss Königstein on November 24, 1916. Sadly, Marie-Adélaïde's visits to her dying grandmother were used by her political opponents as evidence that she was sympathetic to Germany during World War I.

Heinerscheid Registry No. 1

2011-03-12T13:24:00.001+07:00

License plates with low numbers are much sought after. But what about covers with low registry numbers? Aren't they just as desirable? Well, you'll have to decide.

Here's a cover with the optimum low registry number -- No. 1. It is all the more remarkable because the number was written in the space provided for the registry number in the registry handstamp. At least 95% of the covers I've seen have the number written outside the registry handstamp.

I also like the usage. The cover was posted at Heinerscheid, May 23, 1922. The Heinerscheid FSPL type 32 double-circle cancel is uncommon, even though it was used from 1910 until mid-October 1940. (Heinerscheid was never issued a type 33 bridge-and-bar canceler.) The cover was backstamped at Echternach the next day -- May 24, 1922.

The 25c Marie-Adélaïde definitive pays the domestic 20g letter rate; the 50c pays the registry fee.

How many number ones are in your collection? No, I don't mean how many of the 10c William III 1852 issue. These number ones are considerably scarcer!

A railway cancel in manuscript!

2011-03-06T10:23:00.001+07:00

Ambulant
Ech/Ettelbr
8/7/91

As a long-time collector of Luxembourg railway cancels, I can't recall ever before seeing a railroad cancel rendered in manuscript. But here is a recently-acquired 5c Allegory (3^rd series) postal card with such a cancel from the Echternach-Ettelbrück TPO.

This rail line made its way from Echternach to Ettelbrück, passing by Weilerbach, Bollendorf, Grundhof, Dillingen, Wallendorf, Reisdorf, Moestroff, Bettendorf, and Gilsdorf.

Here's an example of the cancel:

Why was the card uprated to 10 centimes?

The card is uprated to ten centimes, so I assume the destination was the village of Bollendorf in Germany on the left bank of the Sauer river, opposite Bollendorf-Pont on the Luxembourg side.

The addressee is a Mademoiselle Barreau, perhaps residing at the Bollendorf Waldvilla Barreau seen on the postcard below:

This card would fit nicely into an exhibit of either railway cancels or Allegory postal stationery. Maybe that's why it was so expensive!

Centilux & Jack Beken

2011-03-04T19:33:00.001+07:00

This is a correctly franked cover posted from the Centilux philatelic exhibition on the last day of the show, June 4, 1952. The Centilux tête-bêche pair and the 2 F Europa commemorative pay the 4-franc UPU letter rate and 4-franc registry fee. The oval backstamp documents the cover's arrival at Isleworth, Middlesex, England, June 7, 1952. And so it's a nice modern postal history cover.

But it's a lot more. As a young collector in the 1960s, I enjoyed putting together a modest Liechtenstein collection. In those days, long before the advent of Internet technology, obtaining philatelic information and solving philatelic mysteries required dedicated correspondence with knowledgeable senior collectors. One of the kindest and most helpful was the late Jack Beken, the British gentlemen and Liechtenstein philately authority to whom this cover is addressed. No matter how naïve or elementary the question, Jack Beken always provided a satisfying answer. It was a sad day in 1977 when I learned that this distinguished philatelist had died.

I sold most of my Liechtenstein material long ago to finance Luxembourg purchases, but the eight-stamp block below remains. When I acquired the block for $6.00 from a Matthew Bennett auction in the 1960s, I was clueless why it was imperforate and ungummed. Of course Jack Beken had the answer -- it's a proof!

Now we have ever fewer devoted philatelic authorities like Jack Beken. When there is none, philately will be remembered mostly as a curious pursuit rather than the learned endeavor it is.

An unusual mixed franking uprating a 5c Allegory Postal Card in 1888!

2011-03-03T20:38:00.001+07:00

Luxembourg's classic postal stationery ends with the last Coat of Arms issue in 1881; the neo-classics begin with the Allegory stationery in 1882.

Sometimes -- not very often -- we find the 1880 Haarlem print definitives used to uprate an Allegory postal card, and almost always the card will be from the first Allegory stationery issue. So you can imagine my pleasure when I discovered this 5c card from the third Allegory stationery issue uprated with a 1c Allegory definitive and a 4c Arms definitive from the 1875 local print definitives.

Judging by the long message on the back, use of the 4c Arms definitive was an act of frugality, and not a philatelic creation. The card left Echternach on September 1, 1888, between 12:00-1:00 p.m., transited Luxembourg-Gare a few hours later, between 3:00-4:00 p.m., and arrived in Paris the next day. There is a blue-green Paris Etranger cds tying the two stamps to the card and a Paris (66) R. Meissonier delivery cds.

And there's an added bonus. This card has an unserifed 'A' before the first address line above 'An.' This shows that it is from the initial printing of 41,000 third-issue 5c cards. These were delivered in July 1888. The 37 subsequent printings that appeared from August 14, 1888 through December 24, 1894, comprising 2,647,990 cards, all feature a serifed 'A.'

There's really nothing that I dislike about this card. I think even those collectors whose nose takes a downward turn when postal stationery appears will appreciate and enjoy it.

Philatelic hanky-panky

2011-02-18T20:24:00.001+07:00

The English expression hanky-panky refers to activity that is devious or mischievous. A common form of philatelic hanky-panky is the use of stamps prior to their official release date.

Consider the Souvenir II cover below:

The Souvenir II surcharges were issued on May 27, 1923 -- the date shown on the stamps. But the vertical strips of three on this 48-gram registered cover to Paris are postmarked at Wecker on May 23, 1923 -- four days earlier. Even the poster stamp on the back is tied by a Wecker May 23rd cancel. And there is also a Luxembourg-Ville transit dated May 23rd.

That the return address on the envelope flap has been torn off also suggests hanky-panky. Even today premature use of Luxembourg stamps is unusual, and certainly such use in the 1920s must have been a serious violation of government policy. But knowledgeable collectors know that this cover was not the only hanky-panky that emanated from a certain entrepreneur in Wecker (and Berbourg)!

The cover is overfranked. At 48 grams, the postage would have been 70c plus a 50c registry fee, for a total of 1.20F. The stamps affixed, however, total 1.50F.

French customs was also curious. The customs label indicates that the letter was to be held for customs inspection!

The handed-back cover below shows the stamps actually canceled on the first day of issue:

Saar Protectorate rates after World War I

2011-02-18T14:01:00.001+07:00

Under the Treaty of Versailles, the Saar area was occupied jointly by the United Kingdom and France. In 1920, Britain and France established a nominally independent occupation government in an area separated from the previous Prussian Rhine province (main part) enlarged by two Bavarian districts (Homburg and St. Ingbert) ceded from the Palatinate.

This arrangement was sanctioned by a 15-year League of Nations mandate. During the post-World War I mandate, mail from Luxembourg to the Saar Protectorate was charged the UPU rate. Only after the Saar was returned to Germany did the German treaty rates again apply, beginning March 1, 1935.

Here's an example:

Vianden, transit Diekirch, to Dellingen, the Saar,
September 19, 1921

UPU 20g letter rate = 50c

UPU registry fee = 50c

The Souvenir I set (10c, 15c, & 25c) and the 50c Marie Adélaïde correctly pay the one-franc rate. If the cover had been mailed to Germany, the treaty rate in September 1921 for 20g letters (30c) would have applied plus a 50c registry fee.

Check the covers in your collection posted between 1920 and 1935 to the Saar Protectorate. Were they correctly rated?

In an earlier post, I showed covers paying the special post-World War II rates to the Saarland that were in effect from 1949 to 1958. You can find the post here.

Modern Postal History Delights

2011-01-26T19:13:00.001+07:00

Collecting modern postal history can offer you a lot of philatelic pleasure without emptying your bank account. My "modern" Luxembourg collection begins with the issues of the late 1950s. It has no arbitrary ending date.

So-called "modern covers" are like young children. They might not yet have found their place in the (postal history) world, but that will just take time. Give them another fifty years to mature. Collectors will look back over the immediate past 75 or 100 years, caterwauling about the beauty of covers showing the rates, routes and markings of the latter half of the 21st century. And some pundits will wonder why so many such covers were tossed in the bin by the 21st century postal historians.

Here are a few examples of delightful modern Caritas covers:

Domestic 1969 Registered Special Delivery Cover
with Mixed-Issue 1968-1969 Caritas Franking

Walferdange, transit Luxembourg-Ville [b/s], December 30, 1969, incoming to Strassen [b/s], December 31, 1969, for delivery in Bridel.

* 20-100g domestic letter = 6,00 F

* Registry fee = 10,00 F

* Special Delivery fee = 10,00 F

Correctly franked thus:

3F+50c 1968 Caritas (4) (valid only to the end of 1969),
2F+25c & 6F+1F (2) 1969 Caritas

Covers with mixed-issue Caritas frankings are scarce. The Caritas issues prior to 1986 were only valid to the end of the year following their issuance. Thus there typically were only a few days when both issues could be used.

For the cover shown above, the 1968 Caritas stamps were valid only to the end of 1969. The 1969 Caritas stamps were issued on December 8, 1969. Therefore 1968-1969 mixed-issue Caritas frankings were only possible for 24 days -- from December 8 to December 31, 1969. You better check the bargain boxes at your favorite bourse to add a few to your collection!

The Elegance of Sole Frankings
on Correctly-rated Covers

Weiswampach, May 5, 1959, to Mondorf-les-Bains [b/s], May 6th,
correctly rated 2.50F for a domestic letter up to 50 g, with sole franking of the 2.50F+50c 1958 Caritas Capellen coat-of-arms stamp.

Sole frankings exude the elegance of a beautiful flower in full bloom. Searching for correctly rated, sole-franked covers for each value of a set is a worthy task, not easily accomplished!

Postings to Exotic Destinations|
(such as Uganda)

Luxembourg-Ville, March 3, 1988, to Kampala, Uganda,
with three 1987 Caritas stamps paying 28F postage.

UPU 20g letter = 20F

Airmail supplement (3F/10g) = 6F (?)

(Overfranked 2F)

Highest Value of a Set Properly Used

Luxembourg-Gare, December 20, 1962, to Wandsbeker, Germany, franked with the 2.50F+50c and 8.50F+4.60F 1962 Caritas stamps. The 8.50F is the highest value of the six-stamp 1962 Caritas set.

Assuming a 40-60g letter to Germany, the 11F postage pays:

1st 20g = 5F

Plus 3F for each add'l 20g = 6F

The auxiliary postal label applied at Lübeck indicates that the letter arrived damaged [Beschädigt] on December 21st. It was repaired with eight official postal seals.

300-day Journey to & from the Belgian Congo in 1902 -- a 'Philatelic Tragedy'

2011-01-09T18:10:00.002+07:00

10c+10c Allegory Message-Reply Card (3rd series)

UPU-rate message-reply (double) cards can be the postal stationery collector's worst enemy or best friend -- your worst enemy if you lack incoming uses of the reply cards; your best friend if you have scarce incoming uses.

Well, while working on a one-frame exhibit of incoming uses of Luxembourg reply cards (and outgoing uses of other countries' reply cards posted from Luxembourg), I revisited this well traveled Allegory message-reply card with the unused reply card still attached.

Here's this double card's apparent three-country, 300-day journey to the Belgian Congo and back:

July 29, 1901 to May 25, 1902

Alfred Beck, a student whose address is 5 Saarstrasse in Trier, Germany, writes to G. Kalber in Boma, the Belgian Congo, proposing an exchange of cards and stamps. He dates the card 'Wasserbillig, le 28 juillet 1901,' and posts it on July 29, 1901 from Wasserbilling [large double circle cds].
The card arrives in Boma, Belgian Congo [blue-green cds] on August 27, 1901. But where is Monsieur G. Kalber?
Auxiliary marks in French are applied: 'Retour a l'Expediteur' [at the bottom] and another at the upper left that I think indicates addressee unknown.
Boma, April 29, 1902 [black cds struck twice], as the card is now being returned since G. Kalber hasn't called for it. The sender's name and address has been transcribed from the message side to the front in purple pencil for return to Trier.
Trier, Germany [bridge cancel], May 23, 1902. Now the card is back to Trier, but the writer apparently isn't at 5 Saarstrasse anymore.
Auxiliary mark: 'REBUT' [dead letter] returned to Wasserbillig [May 25, 1902, large double-circle cds].

So, while interesting, this story is really a philatelic tragedy. If G. Kalber had returned the reply card from Boma, we might now have an even more interesting story -- a reply card returned from Africa.
By the way, double cards returned from Africa are quite a challenge. I show an uprated G.D. Adolphe card returned from Tunisia here.

The writer's message

Explaining two-country frankings on the Allegory postal cards

2011-01-02T13:35:00.001+07:00

Explaining two-country frankings — occasionally found on the Allegory postal cards, especially during the 1890s — challenges even the most erudite postal historians. Here are four on which to test your knowledge.

1. Bettingen to Stuttgart in 1894, redirected to
Munich, Germany

Württemberg 5-pf definitive

10-centime Allegory postal card (3rd series)

Bettingen, 24 Feb 1894

* Stuttgart (faint incoming cds), 25 Feb 1894

* Stuttgart (outgoing), 26 Feb 1894

* Munchen [No. 1], 26 Feb 1894

While Württemberg and Bavaria were never separate UPU members, they participated in the UPU through the German Imperial Post Office. Württemberg retained its postal autonomy until March 31, 1902; Bavaria until March 31, 1920.

From the inception of the Treaty of Berne on July 1, 1875, no additional postage was to be charged for the redirection of postal articles within the interior of the union. So why was a 5-pf Württemburg stamp added when this card was forwarded to Munich? The 10-centime Allegory stamp imprint paid the UPU postal card rate. Perhaps because of the change in the addressee's name, five centimes were added to pay what I assume was the rate within Germany (from Württemberg to Bavaria)?

2. Luxembourg-Gare to Rappoltsweiler in 1893, redirected to Hamburg-Hohenfelde, Germany

5-pf German definitive

Message Card of a10c + 10c Allegory Message-Reply Card (3rd series)

* Luxembourg-Gare, 9 Dec 1893

* Rappoltsweiler, then German-Alsace, 10 Dec 1893

*Hamburg-Hohenfelde, 10 [or '11'] Dec 1893

As in the first example, a 5-pf stamp has been added to this card sent by the well-known Luxembourg rose growers, Gebrüder Ketten, when it was forwarded from Rappoltsweiler in the German Alsace to Hamburg, Germany. (Rappoltsweiler, located in the Haut-Rhin department of today's French Alsace, is now known as Ribeauvillé.)

As the 10-centime Allegory imprint paid the UPU rate, was additional postage necessary to forward this card?

3. Berlin, Germany to Poste-Restante, Brussels, Belgium
in 1892!

5-pf German definitive

Reply Card of a 5c + 5c Allegory postal card (3rd series)

* Berlin, Germany, 19 Oct 1892

*Bruxelles, Belgium, 20 Oct 1892

Here the reply half of a 5c + 5c domestic message-reply card was posted from Berlin, uprated to the 10c UPU rate with a 5-pf German definitive, and directed to Brussels, Belgium! Remarkably, no tax was charged. Reply cards were supposed to be franked only with postage of the country of origin, which was only valid to return the reply card to the country of origin.

Was this possibly a philatelic creation?

4. Luxembourg-Ville to Cologne-Ehrenfeld, Germany
in 1892

5-pf German definitive

5-centime Allegory domestic postal card (3rd series)

* Luxembourg-Ville, 21 Oct 1892

* Coln-Ehrenfeld, 22 Oct 1892

Here the uprating with a 5-pf German definitive to pay the UPU (and German treaty) rate is done in Luxembourg, but without the imposition of any tax, perhaps as a matter of convenience for the sender and acquiescence by the postal clerk.

A WWII Prisoner-of-war Camp in Moutfort?

2010-12-31T23:37:00.002+07:00

Moutfort

Moutfort (Luxembourgish: Mutfert; German: Mutfort) is a small village in the commune of Contern in southern Luxembourg. Was a prisoner-of-war camp located there during World War II? From the postcard shown below, apparently there was, but I can't find any documentation about the camp.

This postcard is addressed to "Camp Mutfort (Luxembourg)," is dated February 10, 1946, and was postmarked the next day, February 11th, at Kirchworbis, a Thuringian town in the district of Eichsfeld in Germany. It's nicely franked with a pair of the 8-pf definitive issued for the post-WWII occupation of Thuringia (Scott No. 16N5) .

The card recently turned up in a collection of lagerpost letters sent to Luxembourg addresses. I notice a couple vanity marks at the bottom right on the message side, so other collectors must have appreciated this card.

Does anyone know more about the detention of prisoners-of-war at Moutfort and the handling of their incoming and outgoing mail?

Diagonal Paperfold on a 1947 1.50F+50c Caritas!

2010-12-26T17:02:00.002+07:00

At Christmas, I enjoy revisiting my covers from the post-World War II era that are franked with the Caritas semi-postals, which appear in December each year. These stamps were mostly used during the Christmas & New Year's season. And until the 1986 issue, they were only valid for a short time, usually little longer than one year. As a consequence, correctly franked commercial uses are well worth pursuing.

The mixed franking seen on the cover shown above correctly pays the 3.50F 20g UPU letter rate from Luxembourg-Ville, January 9, 1948, to Zug, Switzerland. But what's that white line across the 1.50F+50c Lentz 1947 Caritas stamp? It's a paperfold, seldom encountered on any of the well executed Caritas sets of the late 1940s and early 1950s, and probably unique on cover.

So along with this engaging cover, I send Christmas greetings and New Year's wishes that you'll make many exciting philatelic discoveries in 2011!

April 10, 1931 -- Luxembourg's first airmail stamps used on a registered airmail letter to Liechtenstein on the first day of issue -- the beginning of two-country frankings?

2010-12-08T18:08:00.002+07:00

1. April 10, 1931 -- The beginning of two-country
airmail frankings?

On April 10, 1931, Luxembourg's attractive first airmail stamps appeared. They were intended primarily for use on the country's airpost, which traveled by rail for dispatch from airports in neighboring Germany, France, and Belgium. Direct airmail service from Luxembourg was not inaugurated until May 1, 1939. During this eight-year-21-day period, Luxembourg airmail covers bear two-country franking -- the surface rate was paid with Luxembourg franking and the proper airmail supplement was paid with stamps of the country of dispatch. But do not be confused -- these airmail stamps could be and often were also used for surface mail.
Basien and Hoffkamp, however, suggest that airmail service using two-country frankings was possible as early as 1929, although I don't ever recall seeing a pre-April 10, 1931 Luxembourg airmail cover. If such covers exist, they must be exceedingly rare. Who has an example?
In their rate book, Basien and Hoffkamp quote Post-Instruktion 980/63, which in turn refers to Rundschreiben Nr. 80 dated May 7, 1929, thus:

Die luxemburgischen Postämter können einfache und eingeschriebene Sendungen der Briefpost annehmen, welche der Absender per Luftpost schickne möchte. Diese Sendungen unterliegen, außer den gewöhnlichen Gebührensätzen, einem speziellen Luftpostzuschlag, der unterschiedlich ist, je nach Fluglinie und Flugstrecke.
Provisorisch wendet die luxemburgische Post auf den Flugpostsendungen den Zuschlag an, der von dem Land festgesetzt ist, an das die Sendung vermittelt wird. Das Postamt Luxemburg-Stadt dient als Austauschbüro. Nur dort wird der Zuschlag in Briefmarken des betreffenen Landes aufgeklebt.
Für Luftpostsendungen, die in einem anderen Postamt aufgegeben werden, muss man sich an flogende Richtlinien halten: Das Ausgangsbüro frankiert die Luftpostsendung gemäß dem normalen Tarif und schickt sie, zusammen mit einem formulaire de déboursé, enthaltend den Namen des Postamtes und der Aufschrift Avion an das Postamt Luxemburg-Stadt. Dieses Amt klebt den Aufkleber Avion und die entsprechenden ausländischen Briefmarken als Zuschlag auf die Sendung, für den Leitweg, den der Absender angegeben hat. Das Austauschbüro vermerkt den Zuschlagsbetrag in Luxemburger Franken auf dem formulaire de déboursé und schickt dieses dann zurück an das Ausgangspostamt. Dieses Büro erhebt den entsprechenden Betrag beim Absender der Sendung, verrechnet die Summe in Portomarken auf dem formulaire de déboursé und sendet dieses zurück an die Postdirektion. Folgende Angaben gelten als Richtinie für die Berechnung der Flugpostzuschläge:
Für die Lander Europas und Nordafrikas übersteigt der Zuschlag kaum 2.00 Fr.-Lux je 20 g.
Für die Flüge über Kairo nach Basra sind es etwa 3.00 Fr. je 20 g.
Für Nordamerika und Dakar etwa 4.50 Fr. je 20 g.
Für Südamerika (über Dakar) etwa 15.00 Fr. je 5 g.
Genauere Angaben können telephonisch beim Postamt Luxemburg-Stadt angefragt werden.

2. An unusual first day of issue use of
the first airmail stamps

Bernard Fetter sent the registered airmail cover shown above from Luxembourg-Ville on April 10, 1931, to Vaduz, Liechtenstein, franking the cover with a set of the four just-issued airmails. The cover is endorsed "Einschreiben: Mit Flugpost via Köln - Zürich - St. Gallen," and bears the following cancels:

Luxembourg-Ville, 2:00-3:00 p.m., 10 Apr 1931
Trier, Germany [b/s], 10:00-11:00 p.m., 10 Apr 1931
Köln, Germany Luftpostamt, 11 Apr 1931
Zürich, Switzerland Flugplatz Luftpost, 11 Apr 1931
Vaduz, Liechtenstein [b/s], 13 Apr 1931

A German 20 pf. airmail adhesive pays the supplement for airmail service from Köln to Switzerland.
The cover is unusual for two reasons. It does not bear the circular green cachet that was applied to the "official" first day covers for this issue. All of these show the Luxembourg-Ville cds with the time indicated as 8:00-9:00 a.m. This cover was posted later on the first day of issue. The Luxembourg-Ville cds shows the time as 2:00-3:00 p.m. The cover did not reach Trier, Germany until 10:00-11:00 p.m on April 10th.

3. The typical first day cover with the special green cachet postmarked 8:00-9:00 a.m.

A typical first day cover for the new airmail set is seen above. It shows the special circular green cachet reading:

"Poste Aerienne/ Luxembourg/10 Avril 1931"

Posted by Maury Swartz, the Luxembourg-Ville cds for April 10th shows the time as '8-9 M'. The Brussels oval cds indicates that the cover was received in Brussels at 3:00-4:00 [a.m.?], April 11, 1931. A Belgian 60c adhesive pays the airmail supplement for airmail service from Brussels to England. The PAR AVION etiquette differs from that seen on the first day cover to Liechtenstein.

4. Another 1931 two-country franking

Luxembourg-Ville, August 3, 1931 (11:oo a.m.-12 noon) to Langenforth by Hannover, routed to Cologne for airmail service "Via Köln-Hannover," with the Köln cds of the same date, 9:00-10:00 p.m., canceling the German 10 pf. airmail adhesive that pays for the airmail service from Köln to Hannover.

Sole use of the 87½-centime surcharge on the one-franc Marie Adélaïde definitive

2010-11-13T15:31:00.002+07:00

Why do we see so many covers—all philatelic creations—franked with the 30c Marie Adélaïde definitive surcharged to 17½c in combination with the one-franc surcharged to 87½c? There was no one-franc-five-centime rate, yet dealers often put optimistically high prices on these plentiful philatelic souvenirs.
The explanation is straight forward, and nicely explained in Hans von Rudolphi’s scholarly tome — Handbuch der Briefmarken-kunde: Lieferung 16/17 - Luxemburg, published in 1944. Here is a summary.
In July 1916, two new rates to Germany took effect: a 17½c letter rate and an 87½c rate for parcels weighing up to 5 kg. But to pay the latter rate, the 87½c William IV definitive (issued 6 Jun 1908) was no longer available. This stamp had been surcharged to 62½c on 29 Feb 1912. So to meet the immediate need for an 87½c stamp, Luxembourg on 14 Aug 1916 released the one-franc Marie Adélaïde definitive surcharged to 87½c (the 30c stamp was surcharged to 17½c to pay the new letter rate).
The 17½c and 87½c Marie Adélaïde definitives did not appear until 1 Mar 1917. Thus, the most interesting sole uses of the 17½c and 87½c surcharges are on letters and parcels sent to Germany between 14 Aug 1916 and 1 Mar 1917. And the most challenging use of the two by far is a proper sole use of the 87½c surcharge since very few parcel cards were saved.

The parcel card seen here is illustrative. It shows a proper sole use of the 87½c surcharge with the stamp paying the postage from Luxembourg-Limpertsberg, 2 Nov 1916, for a 950g parcel sent to Herne in Westfalia, Germany. The back shows the Luxembourg-Gare transit, 3 Nov 1916, the Trier, Germany entry transit, 3 Nov 1916, and the Herne cds of 6 Nov 1916 documents the arrival of the parcel.

Sole use of the 17½c surcharge

Echternach II, 21 Sep 1916 to Trier, Germany

Typical Souvenir Cover Using the
17½c and 87½c Surcharges in Combination

Luxembourg-Ville IV to Berlin, 2 Oct 1916

An unreported 'Mondorf-les-bains' single line mark!

2010-11-13T13:20:00.002+07:00

Today I was studying a group of covers franked with the 1916-1924 surcharges. And it's when you study material you've acquired, perhaps long ago, that you often make new discoveries.

Here is a cover that initially interested me because the 17½c 20g letter rate and 25c registry fee to Germany were paid entirely with 1916-1924 surcharges. But then I noticed something I hadn't seen before -- a curious single line strike reading 'Mondorf-les-bains' next to the registry mark. There was also the Mondorf-les-Bains cds of December 1, 1919 (and a Luxembourg-Ville transit backstamp of the same date). So what purpose did the single line mark (with "Bains" strangely spelled with a lower-case "b") serve?

The strike remains a mystery for me. Two numbers are written on the cover. 'No. 4' appears in black ink above the single line mark. And above the registry mark in purple pencil '574' is written, which I assume is the registration number.

Also, the cover is addressed to a philatelic organization (I think) in Ludwigslust (Mecklenburg), Germany. Did the sender apply the single line mark before registering the cover? And if so, why?

I occasionally see stamps canceled with a single-line device, presumably because the proper canceler was unavailable, but here the device was not used to cancel the stamps.

Got any clues?

The 1903 Diedenhofen-Mondorf railway revenue stamps

2010-10-25T19:20:00.002+07:00

The Alsace-Lorraine (in German: Elsaß-Lothringen) was a territory created by the German empire in 1871, after the annexation of most of the Alsace and the Moselle region of the Lorraine in the Franco-Prussian War as part of the Treaty of Frankfurt. French troops entered the Alsace-Lorraine in November 1918 at the end of World War I, with the territory reverting back to France under the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

In 1870, at the beginning of the German annexation, a set of postage stamps was issued for the Alsace-Lorraine. But on January 1, 1872, these stamps were replaced by stamps of the German empire.

However revenue stamps for the Alsace-Lorraine continued to be issued throughout the annexation, including those to tax railway carriage of goods contracts (in French: Lettres de Voitures).

Of particular interest for Luxembourgian philately are the four revenue stamps issued in 1903 for use in connection with goods transported on the branch railway line [or Nebenbahn] from Diedenhofen (today: Thionville) in the Alsace to Mondorf-les-Bains in Luxembourg. They are shown below:

The design is the same as that used for the main German railway in the territory -- the Reichs-Eisenbahnen in Elsass-Lothringen. The text reads:

"Nebenb. Dieden-/hofen-Mondorf."

The stamps are typically found perforated on some sides and rouletted on others. The Yvert & Tellier Catalogue des Timbres Fiscaux et Socio-Postaux de France says the stamps rouletted on all four sides are scarce.

Similar revenue stamps were issued in 1905 for the branch line connecting the Alsatian towns of Rosheim and St. Nabor.

Who has seen examples on documents? Canceled examples of the 30 Pf. and 40 Pf. and a 1915 Frachtbrief from the line can be seen on this wonderful website: http://www.rail.lu/lignesfr/lignethionvillemondorf.html

Your Luxembourg railway cancel collection won't be complete without the Diedenhofen-Mondorf railway cancel on a loose stamp or document!

Mail to Louis Aston Knight's widow in 1949

2010-10-24T12:58:00.002+07:00

Louis Aston Knight (1873–1948) was a French-born American artist noted for his landscape paintings. One of his paintings, The Afterglow, was purchased by U.S. President Warren G. Harding in 1922 to hang in the White House.
In early 1907, Knight met Caroline Ridgeway Brewster (1882-1959), a distant cousin from Rochester, New York, while she was traveling through Europe with her mother. Knight returned to America with Caroline in October; they married in Raritan, New Jersey. The couple settled in Paris, but lived in New York during WWI, moving back again to the United States in 1940 after the occupation of France, where they remained until their deaths.
This letter from the United States Foreign Service in Luxembourg-Ville postmarked November 30, 1949, was sent to Louis Aston Knight's widow in New York City the year after his death. The address -- 114 East 84th Street -- is an eight-floor apartment building built in 1915.

The 4F, 20-gram letter rate and 3F airmail supplement are nicely paid by the 7F 1948 Tourist View sole franking.
A thousand years from now, covers like this will be remembered as relics of the pre-electronic mail era. So you'd better save 'em now!

If only it were still on cover ...

2010-10-05T19:10:00.002+07:00

2½-fr William IV
Official

9 May 1912Colmar-Berg
Bridge & Bar cds

Grand Ducal Chateau at Colmar-Berg

Fine used stamps evoke fantasies of the covers from which they were removed. That's especially true when the cancel is that of Colmar-Berg, where much mail from the royals originated!

The high denomination official stamp shown above might have franked a money letter sent back to Hohenberg in Bavaria, seat of the Nassau-Weilberg dynasty (such as the one shown below). Of course, we'll never know for sure.

8175-Fr Money Letter

10c, 12½c, 62½c & 2½ Fr

Marie-Adélaïde Officials

Colmar-Berg, 6 Jan 1917, to Wiesbaden, 8 Jan 1917
Censored in Trier

From the Secretariat of
Grand Duchess Marie-Adélaïde

Correctly rated, thus:

Postage (20 g-250 g letter to Germany) = 30c

Registry fee = 25c

Money Letter fee (10c/300-fr) = 2.80 Fr

Total: 3.35 Fr

Domestic Use of PC2 in 1891 -- a homely gem!

2010-09-26T13:57:00.002+07:00

The first six-centime Arms postal card was issued in a quantity of only 3,000 on June 16, 1874, to pay the 6c German treaty rate. Used examples are scarce, the entire printing having sold out in only two months. It's so scarce in fact that in 50 years of collecting, I had only acquired two used examples until the remarkable card shown below surfaced in a bourse dealer's acquisitions. And I don't recall seeing a used PC2 in the François Kaufmann collection when it was exhibited at Finland's FIP postal stationery exhibition in the 1980s.

Here we see this homely gem, printed locally by Pierre Bruck with a basic printing press, used domestically nearly 17 years after issuance. This was well into the period when Luxembourgers were using the high-quality Allegory postal cards printed in Holland in large quantities by Enschedé using then state-of-the-art printing technology.

The three double-circle cancels show the card postmarked at Clervaux 1:00-2:00 p.m. on Friday, February 27, 1891, received in transit at Diekirch 7:00-8:00 p.m. the same day, reaching its destination of Vianden at 9:00-10:00 a.m. the next day.

Some of my philatelic friends in Luxembourg opine that out-of-period uses of the postal stationery were the work of collectors. This and others in my collection suggest that that was often not the case. The frugal Luxembourgers of this era weren't about to waste six centimes when an old forgotten card turned up. By 1891, the German treaty rate was ten not six centimes, but the domestic postal card rate remained at 5 centimes and the first-issue cards were still valid (they weren't demonitized until December 31, 1905). So the writer lost only one centime when he used this 6c card to send his message across the Luxembourg Ardennes from Clervaux to Vianden!

'Service Public' labels & The Postal Typewriter

2010-09-25T17:04:00.003+07:00

I was intrigued by this William IV official cover for two reasons. First, it features an uncommon postal label; second, the addressee — ‘The Postal Typewriter’ — is unusual.

The cover was sent from Luxembourg-Gare, 11 June 1910, by the Grand Ducal Laboratoire Pratique de Bactériologie to 'The Postal Typewriter' in London, England. The London oval backstamp dated 12 June 1910 and the laboratory's seal are seen on the back. The 65-centime official franking pays the UPU registry fee (25c) and postage (40c for a second-step, 20-40 g letter).

1. The Service Public label

From my philatelic colleagues in Luxembourg, I've learned that during this era government agencies could instruct the post office to frank their official mail with official stamps. This was done by use of purple Service Public labels, which mandate in French:

Affranchir au moyen de

Timbres Officiels

Administration des Postes!

Or, I'm told, sometimes 'S.P.' was simply written on the envelope, and official stamps would be pasted over the handwritten instruction.

Here's another example of the Service Public label used by the laboratory, now with its name in the cachet in German -- the Bakteriologisches Staatslaboratorium:

Properly pasted over the Service Public label, official stamps pay the registry fee (1.50 F) and postage (4.00 F) on a heavy, oversized (100-120 g) cover from Luxembourg-Gare, 4 April 1928, to Berlin, backstamped at Berlin-Schmargendorf on 6 April 1928.

2. 'The Postal Typewriter'

A postal historian can never be too curious. Thanks to Google and Bing, I now know that classic typewriters are just as collectable as classic stamps.

One website —The Classic Typewriter Page here — provides this account of the Postal Typewriter (and the photo shown above):

The Postal was an appealing portable typewriter that used an interchangeable hard-rubber typewheel and a three-bank keyboard with double shift. The Postal was invented by William P. Quentell and Franklin Judge. It was introduced in 1902 by the Postal Typewriter Company, based first in New York and then (1904) in Norwalk, Connecticut. It was made until 1908 or shortly thereafter.
The Postal originally sold for $25 ($27.50 with a veneered oak case) -- a nice price compared to the "standard" machines, which cost $100. The company boasted that theirs was "the only low-priced Typewriter combining Universal Keyboard, Powerful Manifolding and Mimeograph Stencil Cutting." With features such as these, the Postal enjoyed some popularity; the company employed 2,000 salesmen in the U.S., and the typewriter was exported to Great Britain, Germany, Austria, France, and even Russia.

And a news article from Norwalk, Connecticut, where the Postal Typewriters were manufactured, comments on a classic Postal Typewriter recently donated to the city's museum:

In the early 1900s, when the phone was not ubiquitous and telegraphs were inconveniently located outside the home, the mail, or the post, was convenient because messages were delivered three times a day. . . . With a Postal Typewriter, people could write a quick letter -- a post card -- and have it delivered by the day's end. . . .

Perhaps that's why Luxembourg's bacteriology laboratory was writing in 1910 to The Postal Typewriter. Their letter was addressed in long hand. I wonder if they later purchased a Postal Typewriter. Covers in subsequent years might reveal the answer. However, the laboratory's label shown below -- posted 12 May 1919 to Brussels with combination official franking totaling 1.40 F postage and registry fee -- is hand addressed!

Elegant ephemera

2010-09-20T20:21:00.001+07:00

Here is the lovely embossed slate blue seal of C. Pasquali, Luxembourg, personalizing an unusual herring-bone-design envelope.

Elegant ephemera such as this is scarce but often little appreciated and seldom collected. Yet the unmistakable beauty of this eminently collectible seal deserves to be preserved in a postal history collection for others to enjoy. Imagine the thoughtfulness that went into its design.

C. Pasquali's envelope exudes its own grace, nicely postmarked Luxembourg-Gare, 4 Jan 1923, with 20c and 30c G.D. Charlotte I definitives paying the 50-centime 20g UPU letter rate to Firenze, Italy. It's definitely a keeper!

Commercial First Day Use to Brazil of the 1953 Royal Marriage commemoratives

2010-09-09T21:17:00.001+07:00

Luxembourg-Telegraphes [b], 7:00 p.m., 1 Apr 1953,
the First Day of Issue!

During the decade after World War II, Luxembourg followed a conservative new issue policy, limiting the number of commemoratives issued and choosing carefully the subjects commemorated. Except for the annual Caritas and other semi-postal or philatelically inspired issues, we have only the following:

24 Oct 1947 - General Patton set (4)
5 Aug 1948 - Tourist views (4)
6 Oct 1949 - UPU 75th Anniversary (4)
25 Oct 1951 - Europa precursors (6)
20 Aug 1952 - Olympic sports (6)
1 Apr 1953 - Royal Marriage (6)

Finding commercial uses of each of these 30 stamps is a challenge worth undertaking. Covers exist, but considerable perseverance is necessary to unearth them, with the lowest and highest denominations sometimes proving the most challenging to find.

Because I especially enjoy the attractive 1953 Royal Marriage issue, over the years I've filled an album with uses of this issue on cover, but none is quite as charming as the recently-acquired commercial cover shown here. Posted early on the evening of 1 Apr 1953 at the Luxembourg-Telegraphes window of the main post office, the cover, which is from the ARBED's central administration, was sent by registered airmail to an ARBED affiliate, the Companhia Siderugica Belgo-Mineira S.A., in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Assuming a 10-15 g letter, the rate would be:

4 F - UPU 20 g letter

4 F - UPU registry fee

24F - Airmail supplement (8 F/5 g = 24 F)

That's a total rate of 32 F. The three 9 F and two 3 F Marriage stamps makeup a convenience franking of 33 F. (The absence of a 1 F denomination in the Marriage set probably explains the overfranking.)

I occasionally see commercial mail from the ARBED to its Brazilian affiliate, correctly rated with attractive commemorative franking. Here is an ARBED cover that provides the added pleasure of first day commemorative use plus a cancel we don't often see used on letters.

Redirected Royal Mail to Grenville Clark in 1954

2010-09-07T20:23:00.001+07:00

Grenville Clark (1882-1967) was a distinguished American corporate lawyer remembered for his efforts to promote world peace through world law. In 1985, the 39c denomination of the Great American series was issued in his honor [Scott #1867 seen above].

The interesting cover below was sent to Clark in Dublin, New Hampshire, where he resided, by Grand Duchess Charlotte's staff, but was initially directed to Dublin, Ireland, as no destination country was indicated in the typed address. Dublin, Ireland is much better known than its namesake in the United States state of New Hampshire.

The postal clerk's pencil notation reads:

Insufficient address - not known Dublin Eire /s/

And the clerk added "USA" to the address, along with blue crayon X's, redirecting the cover to Dublin, New Hampshire, USA.

This cover initially appealed to me as an unusual example of redirected official mail, having been missent to Ireland. But it is interesting from several additional perspectives as well. Apart from having been sent to a famous person, it's a nice sole use of the 4 F Royal Marriage issue, with the attractive blue commemorative paying the 20 g UPU surface letter rate that was in effect from 1 Jan 1949 to 15 Jul 1958. Likewise, the machine slogan cancel dated 9 Jan 1954, urging use of the annual charities semipostals, is certainly collectible. More significantly however, this is mail from the Royal household, as shown by the corner card reading Département du Grand Maréchal de la Cour and the purple straight-line auxiliary mark indicating SERVICE DE LA GRANDE-DUCHESSE.

Yes, this engaging postal history cover shows minor damage, but the sale price on eBay was only $2.58. Y0u never know when another bargain like this might up on the world's biggest flea market!

We could use a few more Grenville Clarks these days, as philately ebbs and the world becomes increasingly chaotic. I could say more, but this is a philatelic blog.

The sad plight of stamps in the postal history era

2010-08-21T15:46:00.001+07:00

Here are two lovely William IV stamps: the 2½ F with the cds of Colmar-Berg, 6 May 1913, and the 5 F official, with the cds of Luxembourg-Gare. Both carry hefty catalog values in Scott and Prifix:

	Scott 2009 Classic	Prifix 1997
2½ F Wm IV	$ 91.50	€ 100
5 F Wm IV official	$ 47.50	€ 60

As a juvenile collector in the 1950s, I built a worldwide collection with penny approvals. It was many years later before I could acquire gems like these. And then, they were not acquired for pennies!

But today you can buy stamps like this for little more than I paid for penny approvals in 1955. These two stamps — offered as "Luxembourg Mi 82-3 used stamps CDS cat 165 euro" — sold for $20.50 (plus $1.28 shipping) after drawing two bids on eBay on August 1, 2010. In 1955 dollars, that would have been $2.56 (plus 16c postage). And whether in 1955 or 2010 dollars, that is little more than chump change for these two scarce stamps.

Granted, the 2½ F might not be as scarce as its catalog value suggests, but with the Colmar-Berg cancel it holds its own in my collection of bridge & bar cancels, some of which are shown below. And my experience has been that the used 5 F official is considerably scarcer than the used 2½ F definitive, catalog values to the contrary notwithstanding.

Results such as this are commonplace on eBay. So when reading catalog values for most 20th century Luxembourg stamps, just move the decimal point one place to the left. The prices will then be a lot closer to actual market value, given the increasing amount of material entering the market and the paucity of collectors who still collect 20th century stamps.

Colmar-Berg
Bridge-and-Bar cancels
FSPL Type 33

'Via Marseille' & 'Via Troisvierges' to Diekirch

2010-08-15T17:20:00.001+07:00

Incoming international mail to Luxembourg almost always transited Luxembourg-Gare or Luxembourg-Ville for delivery to outlying towns. But here is an exception.

This well-preserved UPU postal card emanated from Weltevreden in the then-Netherlands East Indies, January 18, 1888, addressed to Diekirch. The Dutch rectangular auxiliary marking reads 'NED: INDI/VIA MARSEILLE,' so we know that the European port of entry was Marseille. But the incoming postmark on the morning [10:00 to 11:00 a.m.] of February 22, 1888, is that of Troisvierges! The postmark of Diekirch [7:00-8:00 p.m.] shows that the card arrived later the same day.

We will never know why this card managed to travel from the south of France by rail through Luxembourg-Ville (and presumably past Diekirch) to Troisvierges in the far north, only to be routed back to Diekirch in central Luxembourg for delivery.

Ah ... if postal cards could talk, what a delightful story many of them could tell!

Well, they can sort of "talk." Take a look at the cross-writing on the back of this card.

See also: Outbound mail to Sumatra (1901) & Java (1924) (posted July 5, 2009).

Luxembourg's use of official seals to repair damaged incoming and outgoing mail

2010-04-25T15:08:00.001+07:00

To my knowledge, almost nothing has been written about the official seals used by the Luxembourg postal service to officially seal or reseal damaged incoming or outgoing mail. This is surprising as postal historians have recently shown a keen interest in this aspect of postal history.

The fine website Officially Sealed Mails of the World at www.poseal.com is devoted to documenting and displaying worldwide official postal seals. According to the website author, Todd A. Hirn, "The earliest recorded on-cover use of an official seal was in Italy in 1864." He says that official seals have been recorded from some 185 countries. However, he notes that few countries continue to use post office seals today. Most postal authorities now use special tape to repair damaged mail, or they enclose badly damaged items in plastic 'body' bags.

Surely the readers of this blog can help me document the official seals that the Luxembourg post has used.

Here are three examples of such mail. These imperforate translucent glassine seals were used to repair damaged mail. They are easily differentiated by their fancy corner ornaments, the text and text font. (I classify them separately from the attractive small embossed seals that the Luxembourg post and many other government agencies once used to "seal" their outgoing mail.)

1921 twice resealed registered letter
Brod, Yugoslavia to Berbourg, Luxembourg

Corner ornament

Registered letter from Brod, Yugoslavia [today: Croatia] posted October 18, 1921, to Berbourg, Luxembourg [misspelled: 'Bernburg Luxenburg'], franked with six 25-para King Alexander definitives and a 1-dinar King Peter definitive (Scott No. 6 and 10, respectively).

The letter was initially routed to Dresden, Germany [cds 21 Oct 1921], where it was opened for inspection under the German currency control laws and officially resealed.

Due to the misspelling of Berbourg, the letter was missent from Dresden to Bernburg, Germany [on the back: Bernburg cds 14 Nov and 15 Nov 1921].

The letter was then redirected to Luxembourg-Ville [cds illegible]. As it was extensively damaged, it was officially resealed before being sent on to its destination in Berbourg [post: Wecker cds, 17 Nov 1921].

The official seals read:

ADMINISTRATION /DES POSTES ET DES/TELEGRAPHES/LUXEMBOURG

1933 underpaid letter from
Lisbenge, Belgian Congo
to Luxembourg-Ville

Corner ornament

Letter from Libenge, Belgian Congo [today: Democratic Republic of the Congo] posted 29 Sep 1933 to Luxembourg-Ville. The 1.25 F Belgian Congo pictorial only paid the treaty rate to Luxembourg for a 20-gram surface letter. An additional 75c postage was required for second-step (20-40 gram) letters, as apparently was the case here. The 75c deficiency was doubled upon receipt in Luxembourg-Ville, 8 Nov 1933.

Arriving badly damaged, the letter was resealed with two official postal seals. They read:

ADMINISTRATION/ des POSTES et des/TELEGRAPHES/LUXEMBOURG

1936 letter from
Luxembourg-Ville to Berlin, Germany
damaged by the machine canceller

Corner ornament

Meter mail machine cancelled at Luxembourg-Ville, 2 Apr 1936, posted to Berlin, Germany. The postal clerk's pencil notation in French on the back reads "damaged by the machine canceller."

The meter franking of 2.75 F pays the treaty rate to Germany for a third-step, 40-60 gram letter. The thickness of this heavy letter probably was the cause of the damage from the machine canceller.

The letter has been repaired with an official seal that reads:

POSTES,/ TELEGRAPHES/ et TELEPHONES/ LUXEMBOURG

Double Overprint on 2c Écusson Official (unlisted in Prifix)

2010-04-14T12:36:00.001+07:00

Prifix 97
Double Overprint

Prifix lists only the 4c Écusson official with a double overprint (Prifix 98a). But here also is the 2c Écusson official with a double overprint!

I was pleasantly surprised to find this double overprint in a box of Luxembourg stamps on old printed album pages. I had cannibalized these album pages years ago, taking out the used stamps, especially those with interesting cancels, to be soaked and sorted. Now, years later, I've finally gotten around to removing the mint stamps. This unexpected discovery made my long delayed effort seem worthwhile!

Has anyone else found this stamp with a double overprint?

Postcards that had to pay the foreign letter rate!

2010-04-08T12:22:00.004+07:00

From 1902 to 1907, certain postcards had to be franked at the foreign letter rate. The picture postcard shown above illustrates this fact. I doubt that many postal historians could correctly explain the rationale for the regulation.

The postcard was sent on August 28,1905, from Luxembourg-Ville to Havelange, Belgium. It was franked with a pair of the five-centime Adolphe definitive correctly paying the ten-centime UPU postcard rate. But nonetheless it was taxed 20 centimes on August 29th upon arrival in Havelange. Why?

The explanation is quite simple. This postcard has a divided back, with the right side reserved for the address and the left side for a message. Such divided-back postcards were invented in 1901 by a Germany printer named Hartmann. Before the advent of divided-back postcards, so-called undivided-back postcards reserved an entire side of the postcard for the address with the message restricted to the other side.

Divided-back postcards began appearing in 1902 in England, in 1903 in France, in 1904 in Norway and Russia, in 1905 in Sweden and Germany, and as you can see from the example above, in Luxembourg as well. Within domestic mails, they were accepted just like normal (undivided-back) postcards. However, under the Universal Postal Union (UPU) regulations, they were not allowed as international postcards at the postcard rate. Instead, these divided-back postcards were charged the foreign letter rate until new regulations were adopted by the 1906 Rome UPU Congress effective October 1, 1907, that treated divided-back and undivided-back postcards equally.

The letter rate from Luxembourg to Belgium in 1905 was 20 centimes. Thus, this divided-back postcard was correctly handstamped "T" [taxe] and marked "2" in blue crayon [for two gold centimes], indicating the ten-centime letter-rate deficiency, which was doubled and collected from the recipient at Havelange! (Prior to October 1, 1907, the deficiency rather than the amount due was indicated.)

Thanks to the Internet, these days it's easy to acquire scarce Luxembourg stamps and covers if your bank account is sufficiently large. But you can't buy the philatelic knowledge required to appreciate postal history gems like this postcard. That takes dedicated research!

Who has a divided-back postcard posted from Luxembourg during the period from 1902 to October 1, 1907, that is properly franked at the foreign letter rate to the country of destination? I'm still looking for that gem!

Here's another example!

Divided back postcard sent from Luxembourg-Ville, 7 Jul 1905, franked at the 10c UPU rate for undivided back postcards. At the New York exchange office, 8 Aug 1905, taxed six US cents (= 30 centimes) = double the 15-centime deficiency, the UPU letter rate from Luxembourg to the United States then being 25 centimes. Troy, New York machine cancel, 9 Aug 1905, for delivery to Lansingburg, New York.

Ch. Bernhoeft Serie 1905
Luxembourg - Pont du Chateau et rochers du Bock.

The first Caritas Issue -- December 21, 1925

2010-03-18T20:16:00.001+07:00

First Day Cover
December 21, 1925
Luxembourg-Ville IV to La Louvière, Belgium

In 1925, the Luxembourg postal administration decided to issue a set of semi-postal stamps each year during the Christmas season with the surtax going to charitable organizations. The first such "Caritas" issue appeared on December 21, 1925, and remained on sale only until January 15, 1926. A surtax of five centimes was added to each of the three lower denominations; ten centimes to the one-franc denomination. The Ligue contre la Tuberculose was the beneficiary.

The stamps were valid until June 30, 1926, after which unsold stocks were destroyed. Ben Hamilton, Jr., writing in the July 1, 1933 issue of Weekly Philatelic Gossip, provides these statistics:

	Issued	Sold	Destroyed
5c	500,000	326,618	173,382
30c	300,000	215,834	84,166
50c	200,000	195,731	4,269
1 F	200,000	184,108	15,892

Prifix lists 10 varieties. Check your stock! You might find some hidden treasures!

Some Town Cancels

Bettembourg Luxembourg-Gare Mersch
2 Jan 1926 Jan 1926 Jan 1926

Schifflange Vianden
2 Jan 1926 30 Dec 1925

Luxembourg-ville Remich Troisv-Luxbg TPO
19 Feb 1926 5 Jan 1926 ?

Esch-sur-Alzette
1926

Esch-sur-Alzette Kayl
10 Feb 1926 31 Dec 1925

New Year's Visiting Card
(5c domestic printed matter rate)

Luxembourg-Ville, December 31, 1925 to Remich

Letter to the French Army stationed at Trier, Germany
(50c letter rate to Germany)

Luxembourg-Gare B, January 4th, to French Army S.P. 22, January 5, 1926

COD use of the set to Belgium

Luxembourg-Ville IV to Couvin, Belgium
January 15, 1926
[front]

2.35 F total franking

0.60 F

20-40 g letter to Belgium

1.00 F

Registry fee

0.75 F

Minimum COD fee

Multiple of 50 (lower half)

Variety: Top right corner of "M" slopes (3d stamp, bottom row -Pos. 93)

Prifix 160a

Variety: "r" of "Fr" broken (first stamp of the sheet - Pos. 1)

Prifix 163a

Giving the early postage dues their do

2010-02-28T11:48:00.001+07:00

25c First Issue Postage Due
Imperforate strip of three
Mounted on black paper on card

Prifix 2007 notes that Luxembourg's first seven postage dues, issued in 1907, exist imperforate on satin paper (non dent. sur papier satiné) and are very rare.

Here is an example of this rarity, which Prifix does not price. I don't recall seeing other examples on the auction market or otherwise over the past fifty years. So, indeed, as Prifix says, they must be très rares. Who has seen the other six denominations imperforate or knows more about their history?

The 1922 Second Issue Dues
P. 13.5 horizontally

13 holes

12 holes

Luxembourg's second issue postage dues are listed in catalogs such as Scott as p. 12.5. However, Prifix indicates that five of the first seven second issue dues (the 5c, 10c, 20c, 30c and 50c) are also known p. 13.5 x 12.5, as are the 35c and 70c of the later-issued supplementary denominations.

So I checked several hundred examples of each of these denominations. Indeed, about every 50th to 100th example measured p. 13.5 horizontally. And, unlike the p. 12.5 examples, the vertical perforations consistently measured 12.75 (not 12.5, as listed in Prifix).

P. 13.5 x 12.75

Now to check my covers for this scarce perforation (no, I don't have hundreds of these stamps on cover!).

Grand Duke Adolphe Postal Card sent to the King of Siam's Royal Jeweler in 1906!

2010-02-27T11:49:00.001+07:00

Reply card from the Grand Duke Adolphe message-reply card (1st issue) used as a message card from Luxembourg-Ville, July 7, 1906, to F. Grahlert & Company in Bangkok, Siam, received August 8,1906.

F. Grahlert was the jeweler to His Majesty, King Chulalornkorn.

F. Grahlert's shop in Bangkok in the early 1900s

Arnold Wright and Oliver T. Breakspear, writing in Twentieth Century Impressions of Siam (Bangkok, 1908; republished by White Lotus Press, Chiang Mai, 2003), provide this description of F. Grahlert & Co., Jewellers, at p. 275:

Mr. F. Grahlert came to Bangkok some eighteen years ago as jeweller to his Majesty the King. A few years later he started business on his own account, his shop, which is in close proximity to the royal palaces, being the first of its kind opened in the city. He still enjoys the patronage of his Majesty the King, for the firm are jewellers to the Court by special appointment, and are constantly being entrusted with the execution of important commissions by their Majesties the King and Queen of Siam and his Royal Highness the Crown Prince. The company employs upwards of fifty native craftsmen, who are highly skilled in the art of fashioning gold and silver into articles of most artistic and delicate design, and their work very justly and naturally is held in the highest favour. The firm's premises would well repay an inspection; their stock is a large and varied one, and is effectively and tastefully displayed. Whether the articles are of Oriental or European design, their quality can be guaranteed.

Heligoland to Luxembourg in 1903

2010-02-21T20:40:00.002+07:00

Heligoland, May 31, 1903, to Luxembourg-Ville, June 2, 1903

Great Britain returned Heligoland to Germany on August 10, 1890, as part of a treaty signed on July 1, 1890, settling territorial claims in Africa.

The tiny North Sea island's stamps were then superseded by those of the German Empire. The picture postcard shown here from 1903 is franked with a 3 pfg. Germania definitive, which pays the printed matter rate to Luxembourg.

Picture postcard printed in Hamburg by M. Glückstadt & Münden

Kaiserstrasse, Heligoland at the turn of the 19th century

Heligoland in 2010

An Un Pranc Prank

2010-02-14T18:16:00.001+07:00

Prifix 34

In 1879, the old 37 1/2c green definitive was reprinted in bistre brown (as seen above) solely for the purpose of being surcharged Un Franc. This saved the expense of having one-franc clichés prepared, as there was no longer any postal need for the 37 1/2c denomination. Some unsurcharged sheets of the 37 1/2c bistre brown found their way into the collectors' market. As such, it is an unissued stamp, being neither a proof nor an error.

Prifix 36

On the 37 1/2c stamp surcharged Un Franc is found the 'Un Pranc' error. It is considered to be one of the great rarities of Luxembourg philately, cataloging 6500 Euros mint and 7500 Euros used in Prifix 2007.

The Un Franc surcharge is believed to have been set up in a form of 50 with 5 rows of 10. The Un Pranc error occurs in positions 26 and 76 in the sheet of 100. As a quantity of 104,200 was printed, 2084 Un Pranc errors once existed. However, the Luxembourg postal authorities noticed the error very soon, after only a few sheets had been distributed. They suspended sale of the surcharged stamps, recalled all of the sheets, and removed and destroyed the errors. C S Holder FRPSL writing in Luxembourg Postal History: An Introduction speculates that "perhaps less than 20 examples were actually used."

Prifix 36a Un Pranc error (forgery)

The forgery shown here came from an accumulation of classics that I was recently checking for forgeries. I realized that it would have been very unlikely for an Un Pranc error -- released on or shortly after August 16, 1879 -- to have been used on mail canceled at Grevenmacher in 1880. And upon closer examination, the stamp is not from position 26 or 76 of the 37 1/2c printing, conclusively disqualifying the surcharge as authentic.

The characteristics of positions 26 and 76 in the 100-stamp setting are described in René Muller's 2004 book Études sur les Timbres-Poste du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg. An authentic Un Pranc error from the Luxembourg P&T Museum collection is shown in Robert Danzer's article, "The Story of the 'Un Pranc' Error of 1879" (Castellum, Vol. 3, No. 2 [September 1999]). Danzer mistakenly refers to the two key positions as "27" and "77."

So then how did this damaged one-franc stamp postmarked at Grevenmacher come to have what is a very genuine-appearing 'Un Pranc' surcharge? I believe you will see answer below:

Notice how the top arm of the 'P' has a sharp point on the right hand side. The 'F' of 'Franc' on a genuine surcharge appears to have been changed into a 'P'.

Beware of such philatelic pranks!

Ephemera Luxembourgensia

2010-02-06T19:30:00.001+07:00

Flags of All Nations Series

Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company
Successor to H. Ellis & Company
Factory No. 25 - 2nd District Virginia

Chocolat Pupier

'The Mail in Luxemburg'
F. Widlar Company
Cleveland, Ohio

Egyptienne Straights Cigarettes flag
Factory No. 2159, 3rd Dist. New York

From about 1912 to 1915, silk (or satin) flags were inserted in cigar and cigarette packs. They were supposedly aimed at women smokers who used the flags to make bedspreads, quilts, wall hangings, table covers, and even robes and other clothing.

The 1935 10F & 20F denominations on one cover!

2010-01-31T10:50:00.001+07:00

Here is a cover I acquired recently in an auction in New Zealand nicely franked with the three high-value denominations that appeared in 1935: the 10F+(10F) and 20F+(20F) Intellectuals and the 10F View of Vianden pictorial. Posted from the government's Postes et Télégraphes Office on March 7, 1936, to Erkelenz, Germany (near Cologne) where it was received the next day, the stamps would overfrank a 20 g registered letter to Germany in 1936 by 27F.

This is obviously a collector-created (or collector-requested) cover, but it is satisfying nonetheless, as I have yet to find a 10F or 20F Intellectual on an insured money letter or a parcel coupon for shipment of a sack of potatoes. Frankly, I doubt that either exists, but you never really know for sure. Prifix 2007 values covers of the 10F and 20F at 1750 and 2500 Euros, respectively.

As I explain here, the 15-stamp Intellectuals set was primarily sold to collectors to raise money to assist refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. Only 9,582 sets of these pricey semi-postals were issued. They were sold for double face value and remained on sale for just one year. And their postal validity was short-lived: March 1, 1935 to December 31, 1936. Scott refused to include them in their catalogs for many years, not relenting until their availability for postal use had been convincingly demonstrated.

The View of Vianden pictorial appeared on November 15, 1935, and was valid until the German occupation Hindenberg overprints appeared on October 1, 1940. Prifix 2007 values this stamp on cover as worth only 65 Euros. I would suggest that this figure is unjustifiably low. If you have a couple covers franked with this stamp, you are fortunate!

In addition to preparing first day covers of the Intelletuals, Maury Swartz used all of the Intellectuals on a series of mailings in 1935 to a Rev. Chaplain Hensgen in Luxembourg-Grund (Rev. Hensgen probably was the prison chaplain at the national prison in Luxembourg-Grund). Fred Wilmar, a collector in Moraga, California, was quite proud of these covers. In the 1970s when he sold the covers in a Richard Wolffers auction, I was pleased to add them to my semi-postal collection. Here are the 10F and 20F covers and the equally scarce (in my view) 10F Vianden:

Kayl to Luxembourg-Grund
August 9, 1935

Kayl to Luxembourg-Grund
September 30, 1935

Luxembourg-Ville to West Orange, New Jersey, USA
October 31, 1936, received November 10, 1936

A cover's remarkable 19,751 km. journey from Vienna (Wien), Austria to Diekirch!

2010-01-24T15:47:00.001+07:00

(1)

Vienna (Wien), Austria
May 25, 1922

(2)

Vienna to Hong Kong
July 1, 1922

Distance: Vienna to Hong Kong = 8738 km. (5430 miles)

(3)

Hong Kong to Port Tawfik & Port Said, Egypt

July 31, 1922

Distance: 8014 km. (4980 miles)

(4)

Port Said, Egypt to Diekirch [b/s]

August 11, 1922

Distance: 2999 km. (1864 miles)

Direct route: 767 km. (476 miles)

This route: 19,751 km. (12,274 miles)

Perhaps the Vienna mail clerk had enjoyed excessive libations at lunch before routing this letter -- which is clearly addressed to Diekirch, Luxemburg -- to Hong Kong.

Sole uses of the 5-centime 1907 postage due stamp

2010-01-02T17:14:00.001+07:00

Luxembourg's first postage due stamps appeared on June 15, 1907, when seven denominations ranging from five centimes to one franc were issued. They remained valid until October 1, 1940, although a new design appeared in 1922, again with seven denominations; six additional denominations featuring the new design were added between 1928 and 1935.

Sole uses of each of the seven denominations comprising the 1907 postage due issue are scarce. How many do you have in your collection? What possibilities do they show?

Until 1 October 1907, the country of origin marked the short-paid amount in gold centimes on the card or letter. After that date, the UPU regulations specified that the mail item should be marked (still in gold centimes) with the amount to be collected (which was often, but not always, double the shortage). But in Luxembourg, short-paid amounts less than five centimes seem always to have been rounded up to that amount.

Here's a look at four sole-use possibilities for the lowest denomination of Luxembourg's first postage due stamps -- the 5-centime.

(i) Shortpaid incoming picture postcard from Belgium

Picture postcards with five words or less of handwriting, such as the one seen here bringing wintry holiday cheer from Brussels, Belgium, could be sent at the 5-centime printed matter rate under the preferential postal treaty between Belgium and Luxembourg. However, this postcard, posted December 26, 1909, was only franked with a Belgian one-centime definitive -- thus, marked "T" (as deficient four centimes, but the deficiency is not indicated).

Sent to Keispelt [post: Kehlen], with the 4-centime deficiency paid the next day at Kehlen [T-32 cds] with a 5-centime postage due stamp. The deficiency apparently was either not doubled or was rounded down from 8 centimes to 5 centimes.

(ii) Shortpaid incoming printed matter from Belgium sent under cross-band

Under the preferential postal treaty between Belgium and Luxembourg, printed matter weighing up to 50 g could be sent under cross-band for two centimes. Here, however, on April 9, 1913, the Peruwelz, Belgium sender posted the cross-banded printed matter franked with only a one-centime Belgian definitive -- thus, marked "T" (as deficient one-centime).

From the blue crayon marks, we see that the postal clerk has doubled the one-centime deficiency ['002'], then apparently rounded it up to five centimes ['5'], that being essentially a default minimum charge, as no smaller denomination postage due stamp existed. The 5-centime postage due stamp was canceled at Luxembourg-Ville on April 10, 1913.

(iii) World War I stampless German Fieldpost

During the World War I occupation, German fieldpost was sent stampless with the recipient paying the applicable Luxembourg domestic postal rate. Thus, fieldpost postcards were charged the actual domestic postcard rate of five centimes as postage due.

The example shown here was posted December 21, 1915, to Wiltz from the 56th Infantry Division, K. D. Feldpostexp. Censored in Trier, it reached Wiltz on December 28, 1915 (Wiltz T-33 cds). The five-centime postage due stamp is cancelled on the same day with the Wiltz II T-33 cds.

This I believe is the most common sole use of the first 5-centime postage due stamp.

(iv) Shortpaid domestic picture postcard

From July 1, 1918 to April 12, 1920, Luxembourg's domestic postcard rate was 7 1/2 centimes. The picture postcard seen here from Dommeldange addressed to Schifflange was posted January 6, 1920, franked only with a 2 1/2-centime and 4-centime Arms definitive -- thus, marked "T" (as deficient one-centime, but the deficiency is not indicated). The 5-centime postage due stamp postmarked at Schifflange, January 7, 1920, shows payment of the de facto five-centime minimum charge.

A spectacular double-censored 1945 Allied Nations semi-postal cover to Sweden!

2009-12-24T21:31:00.001+07:00

The four-value semi-postal set thanking the Allied Nations for liberating the Grand Duchy appeared on March 1, 1945, and remained valid until June 1, 1946. First day covers are plentiful, but despite the lengthy period of validity, we seldom see any other uses of these stamps. Perhaps the 11.50 F supplement that was added to the 8.50 F face value of the set was a deterrent during the frugality that characterized post-World War II reconstruction. But here's an exception.

On March 12, 2006, I posted another exception, an O.A.T. cover that you can see here, which was posted October 19, 1945 to New York City.

This double-censored, registered, special delivery cover was posted by the Echternach postmaster, August 10, 1945, to his counterpart in Avesta, Sweden.

On the front, we see the red German occupation registry label still in use. And on the back we see the pre-World War II Luxembourg-Ville bridge cancel dated August 11, 1945, and the Avesta receiver dated 43 days later, September 22, 1945. From Avesta, the cover was forwarded to Krylbo, a nearby train station. In both Luxembourg and Sweden, the censors opened and resealed the cover.

Curiously, applying the pre-October 1, 1945 UPU postal rates, the 10.45 F franking (the 8.50 F set plus 1.25 F and 70c definitives)appears to leave the cover underpaid by 5c (perhaps the sender did not want to destroy the six-stamp arrangement he had created?):

2.50 F 20 g UPU letter

3.00 F Registry fee
5.00 F Special delivery fee

The contents are also interesting. They include the August 10, 1945 letter from the Echternach postmaster to his Swedish counterpart that accompanied the cover, and a Swedish registry receipt postmarked at Avesta, July 7, 1945. Presumably the receipt was saved by the addressee for what undoubtedly was his letter to the Echternach postmaster requesting the cover.

Luxembourg stamp dealer J-G. Paquelet writes to a Canadian counterpart in 1898

2009-12-21T18:07:00.001+07:00

Stamp dealers used to exchange stamps by the hundreds and thousands. Here's a letter written in English by J. G. Paquelet at the turn of the century to a dealer in Canada:

Luxemburg June 6th '98

Dear Sir

Your price list July in hand. Please send me 1000 or 2000 Canadian stamps, 10 to 20 varieties equally mixed and you will receive 1000 or 2000 Luxemburg stamps in same mixture. All stamps in good condition.

I should be glad to have 500 to 1000 South and Central America and Newfoundland in exchange for better values of Luxemburg.

Yours very truly

J. G. Paquelet

Comptoir de Timbres to Luxembourg

Luxembourg-Ville, June 6, 1898 to London, Ontario, Canada,
received June 18, 1898.

And here's his 1898 buying list, which he sent worldwide (and in this instance, 10 days after sending a card to A. F. Wicks, Esq. in Canada).

You'll notice he was offering 1000 "Cartes postales usées, 5 valeurs, le 100, 1 fr. 75; le 1000, 12 fr." I'll take 10,000!

Luxembourg-Ville, June 16, 1898 to Colchester, England,
sent at the five-centime UPU printed matter rate

The five Grand Duke Adolphe Reply Cards

2009-12-19T23:10:00.001+07:00

Introduction

For postal stationery enthusiasts, properly returned reply cards present significant challenges. There just aren't many available. So over the past 50 or so years, I've diligently pursued acquiring them whenever they've come on the market.

At an FIAP show in Seoul, Korea earlier this year, I noticed a Nicaraguan postal stationery exhibit in the court of honor. Guess what -- none of the double cards was shown returned from abroad. This has motivated me to share some of the scarce Luxembourg reply cards in my collection, hoping philatelic jurists will recognize the challenge acquiring these cards presents. Many of the great Luxembourg stationery collections (including that of Costerus) have lacked uses of the reply cards.

Let's start with the Grand Duke Adolphe postal stationery that appeared between 1895 and 1906. You'd think reply cards from this era would be plentiful. Yet they're not, and those that appeared in 1906 as part of the third G.D. Adolphe stationery issue are among the scarcest in my collection.

The Three G. D. Adolphe Postal Stationery Issues

The first G.D. Adolphe stationery issue appeared on May 4, 1895, consisting of 5-centime and 10-centime single and double cards with the abbreviation “N.B.” (Latin: nota bene) printed in the bottom left margin along with instructions in French and German specifying that the front of the card is reserved exclusively for the address.

In 1903, a second Adolphe stationery issue appeared, this time just with 5-centime single and double cards. The "N.B." notation of the first issue is absent.

Last, in 1906 a third Adolphe issue appeared with 5-centime and
10-centime single and double cards that show two lines for the sender's address at the left front margin.

The G.D. Adolphe stationery was superseded on July 25, 1907, by the first Écusson issue.

Postal Card Rates: 1895 - 1909

The 5-centime card paid the domestic postal card rate and the UPU printed matter rate; the 10-centime paid the UPU postal card rate, the treaty postal card rates to Belgium and France, and until October 1, 1902, the treaty postal card rate to Germany. On that date, the German treaty rate was reduced to 5 centimes. On October 1, 1907, the German treaty rate was again set at 10 centimes until the rate increases of May 10, 1920.

Luxembourg demonized the G.D. Adolphe definitives as of January 1, 1909. Presumably the demonitization applied to the stationery as well.

(a) 5c+5c Reply Card -- First Adolphe Stationery Issue (1895)

Uprated with a French 5-centime adhesive and returned from Tours-Gare to Luxembourg-Ville in 1898 at the French treaty and UPU postcard rate!

Tours-Gare, France, March 18, 1898, to Luxembourg-Ville
stamp dealer, J. G. Paquelet, received March 19, 1898

Returned from Luxembourg-Ville to Kayl in 1900

(a round trip in just six hours!)

Message Card - Kayl, September 24, 1900 (7-8 a.m.)

Transit Luxembourg-Gare (8-9 a.m.)

Received Luxembourg-Ville (10-11 a.m.)

Luxembourg-Ville, September 24, 1900 (12-1 p.m.), to Kayl

Returned from Wiltz to Diekirch in 1901

Incoming cancel: Wiltz, February 21, 1901

Wiltz to Diekirch, February 25, 1901

Returned from the Luxembourg-Ulflingen TPO
to Diekirch in 1901

Luxembourg-Ulflingen TPO to Diekirch, August 28, 1901

Returned from Clervaux to Luxembourg-Ville in 1903

Clervaux, June 21, 1903

Incoming transit cancel: Luxembourg-Gare, June 16, 1903

Previously posted

Uprated and returned from Tunis, Tunisia to Diekirch, March 8, 1896, here.

Uprated and returned from 's-Gravenhage, Holland to Larochette, July 27, 1901, here.

(b) 10c+10c Reply Card -- First Adolphe Stationery Issue

Returned from Neufchateau, Belgium in 1897

Incoming cancel (May 4, 1897)

Neaufchateau, Belgium, May 17, 1897, to Luxembourg-Ville

Returned from Arlon, Belgium in 1897

Incoming cancel (May 20, 1897)

Arlon, Belgium, May 20, 1897, to Luxembourg-Ville

Returned from Paris, France in 1899

Paris, France, August 16, 1899, to Luxembourg-Ville

Returned from Magdeburg-Sudenburg, Germany in 1900

Magdeburg-Sudenburg, July 16, 1900, to Luxembourg-Ville

Returned from Metz, [then in] Germany in 1900

Metz, Germany, August 4, 1900, to Luxembourg-Gare

Returned from Wien, Austria in 1901

Wien, August 31, 1901, to Luxembourg-Gare

Returned from Trier, Germany in 1902

Trier, Germany, August 30, 1902, to Luxembourg-Ville

Returned from Blankenberghe, Holland in 1905

Blankenberghe, Holland, August 12, 1905, to Luxembourg-Ville

Returned from Rome, Italy in 1906

Rome, September 25, 1906, to Welcheid
(Post: Ettelbruck, September 27, 1906)

Returned from Einsiedeln, Switzerland in 1906

Einsiedeln, Switzerland, December 21, 1906, to Obermartelingen (Post: Perle, December 23, 1906)

Returned from St. Gilles, Belgium in 1908

(Very late use)

St. Gilles (Ch. de Charleroi), Belgium, July 21, 1908,
to Luxembourg-Ville, July 22, 1908

Previously posted

Returned from Ragaz, Switzerland to Hamburg, Germany, May 31, 1900, here.

(c) 5c+5c Reply Card -- Second Adolphe Stationery Issue (1903)

Returned from Mulhausen [then in the German Alsace-Lorraine] to Luxembourg-Ville in 1905 at the
5-centime German treaty rate effective in 1902

Mulhouse, December 9, 1905, to Luxembourg-Ville

Returned from Clervaux to Mersch in 1907

Clervaux, February 16, 1907, to Mersch

Previously posted

Uprated and returned from Leipzig, Germany to Trier, Germany, May 26, 1904, here.

(d) 5c+5c Reply Card -- Third Adolphe Stationery Issue (1906)

Used from Diekirch to Strasbourg, [then in the German Alsace-Lorraine], in 1909

This very scarce reply card was apparently used as a message card from Diekirch, January 11, 1909, eleven days after the demonitization of the G.D. Adolphe definitives. It is the only used example I've seen. There was none in the Costerus collection.

(d) 10c+10c Reply Card -- Third Adolphe Stationery Issue (1906)

Returned from Longwy-Bas, France,
to Luxembourg-Ville in 1908

A proper use of this very scarce card from Longwy-Bas, July 18, 1908, to Luxembourg-Ville. This is the only example of this reply card that I've seen. There was none in the Costerus collection.

Conclusion

The first G.D. Adolphe issue was used for almost a decade. Despite the long usage period, the reply cards are uncommon; however, the diligent collector will almost certainly eventually acquire them.

However, the second issue is scarce, and the third issue very scarce, making the acquisition of proper uses of these three cards problematic. We do not even know the quantities printed, exact dates of issue, or extent of distribution of these two issues. The third issue was short-lived, appearing about a year prior to the appearance of the first Écusson issue on July 25, 1907. Consider yourself privileged if you have examples of one or more of these reply cards in your collection!

The message cards from these five double cards are less scarce. Apparently, the reply card often was not used, and very few of those that were used may have been saved.

Another 5-franc Three Towers official sole franking

2009-12-16T18:47:00.001+07:00

On December 13, 2008, I posted a registered COD cover to Belgium with the 5-franc Three Towers official nicely (and exactly) paying the postage and fees.

Recently, I was pleased to find the 5-franc Three Towers stamp overprinted officiel used as a convenience sole franking paying the 4.20-franc postage and special delivery [EXPRÈS] fee on a cover from the Luxembourg Commissariat Général for the Grande Saison Internationale de l’Eau à Liége en 1939. Sent from Luxembourg-Ville to the Commissaire Général adjoint de l'Exposition de l'Eau in Liege, Belgium, March 11, 1940 (11:00-12:00 a.m.), the cover was received at Liége, 8:0o-9:00 p.m. later that day for special delivery to the addressee.

First 10c G.D. Adolphe Reply Card used from Switzerland to Germany!

2009-11-28T16:25:00.001+07:00

In my collection of Grand Duke Adolphe postal stationery is this curiosity -- the 10c reply card from the first G.D. Adolphe message-reply card issue used from the resort town of Ragaz, Switzerland, to Hamburg, Germany, May 31, 1900. The oval chop is that of the Hotel National Restauration S. Banz in Ragaz. There are three June 2nd Hamburg receiving cancels.

Of course under UPU regulations, the 10c Luxembourg stamp imprint was only valid for return postage to Luxembourg, but the card was not taxed. The poorly struck rectangular auxiliary mark seems to concern finding the delivery address in Hamburg, although I'm unsure of its significance. Comments?

Second 5c G.D. Adolphe Reply Card used
within Germany

Sometimes lightening strikes twice.

After posting the unusual use of the 10c Luxembourg reply card shown above, I discovered the card shown below in the bourse of the fine Exposition Philatélique Internationale 'MonacoPhil 2009,' held in the Principality from December 4th to 6th.

The 5c Luxembourg reply card was posted from Leipzig, Germany, May 26, 1904, to Trier, Germany (just a few kilometers from the Luxembourg border), where it was received the next day. No penalty was charged for use within Germany, perhaps because the Luxembourg-German treaty rate in 1904 was five centimes.

I would like to find a citation to the UPU rule that provided that reply cards could only be returned to their country of origin. Who can help? Even better would be an example taxed for return to a country other than that of origin. But would the rule even apply to cards used in a country that had a treaty rate with the country of origin? Here the blue underscoring of 'Réponse. - Antwort' and the stamp in blue crayon suggests that the German postal clerk was aware of and accepted the use of the Luxembourg reply card within Germany.

First G.D. Adolphe 5c+5c Message-Reply card transits the three BENELUX countries in 1901

2009-11-22T15:23:00.001+07:00

Message card

* Luxembourg-Gare, July 21, 1901

* 's-Gravenhage [La Haye], Holland, July 22nd [majuscule D.114]

Reply card

* 's-Gravenhage, Holland, July 27th

* Luxembourg-Gare, July 29th, 7-8 a.m.

* Larochette, July 29th, 2-3 p.m. (incoming)

* Larochette, July 29th, 3-4 p.m. (outgoing)

* Brussels, Belgium [arrivée & majuscule '27']

Message

Wiltz to the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek in 1896

2009-11-20T14:42:00.001+07:00

5c+5c first G.D. Adolphe Message-Reply card (uprated)

Wiltz, September 28, 1896, transit Luxembourg-Gare the same day and Pretoria, October 24th, received at Waterval-Boven, Z.A.R.
[Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek], October 25, 1896.

During the South African gold rush era, Transvaal was known as the South African Republic or Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek until 1877 and again from 1884 until 1900 when it was annexed to Great Britain as The Transvaal.

Diekirch - Algeria - Tunisia - Diekirch in 1896

2009-11-19T19:20:00.001+07:00

First Adolphe 5c+5c Message-Reply Card uprated to 10c+10c with the message card posted from Diekirch, March 8, 1896, to Tunis, Tunisia, transit Oran, Algeria, received at Tunis, March 17th.

Reply card returned from Tunis, March 18th, received back at Diekirch, March 22, 1896.

A very rare unsevered pair used to and from Tunisia!

An unusual mixed franking in 1886

2009-11-19T15:46:00.001+07:00

Luxembourg-Gare, August 13, 1886

The last of the twelve 19th century Coat of Arms postal card issues appeared in 1880. They were the first cards to be mass produced and were done by Enschedé in Holland. By 1882, they had sold out and were replaced by Enschedé's printing of the first Allegory cards.

Thus, its very unusual to see this five-centime 1880 Coat of Arms postal card used in 1886, uprated with a partially decapitated five-centime Allegory definitive.

Luxembourg-Gare, August 13, 1886, to Lambusart (part of Fleurus), Belgium, in the Charleroi District of Hainaut province, with the Fleurus receiver, August 14th, seen on the front.

Exprès to the Château de Roth ‘par Vianden’ in 1902

2009-11-15T18:52:00.001+07:00

Among my favorite uses of the five-centime first Grand Duke Adolphe postal stationery issue is this fine example sent by special delivery (Exprès) and routed 'par Vianden' to the Château de Roth, located a couple kilometers south of Vianden on the German side of the Our River across from Bettel.

Posted on the Luxemburg-Ulflingen TPO early in the morning on July 26, 1902, it transits Vianden at 9-10 a.m. [large double circle date stamp]. The 10c and 25c Adolphe definitives uprate the 5c postal card to 40c to pay the 30c special delivery fee and the 10c postcard rate to Germany.

Who says postal stationery is boring?

Hawaii to Luxembourg in 1907 -A lovely early chrome postcard with undivided back

2009-11-14T16:56:00.001+07:00

An early color chrome postcard printed in Germany with undivided back, published by Wall, Nichols & Co., Ltd., Honolulu as their No. 12, featuring 'Canoe Surf Riding, Honolulu, T. H.,' (note the female passenger in the canoe in the forefront holding on to her hat!).

The card is dated and was posted from Honolulu, June 21, 1907 [flag cancel], to Luxembourg-Ville, received July 11, 1907, properly franked with the 2c Washington shield definitive. In the background you see a very unspoiled Diamond Head with pine trees lining the beach. Those were the days!

Taxed wrappers - incoming & domestic

2009-11-07T12:27:00.001+07:00

Incoming One-centime French Wrapper from Villeurbanne, France
Underpaid 4 centimes ['0,04' in manuscript]

The deficiency was (apparently) doubled and rounded up to ten centimes ['10' blue crayon]. Backstamped Luxembourg, October 5, 1886.

Journal La Meuse posted October 1, 1959, to the eminent postal historian, Francis Rhein, at the 40-centime [50-100 g] magazine rate, for delivery from Poste Restante, backstamped Luxembourg-Ville, October 1st, with the 1-franc Poste Restante fee paid on October 2nd with a postage due label.

Unlike letters, the early wrapper mail was usually not backstamped.

Strassen-Bertrange single circle cancel [T. 31]

2009-11-07T11:43:00.001+07:00

Strassen-Bertrange, March 21, 1886

Rare cancels can still be found in mundane places, not just in major auctions. And this green Strassen-Bertrange single circle cancel is proof that rare cancels still lurk on old printed album pages. It appeared recently on eBay amidst two pages of mostly damaged, repaired, forged, or otherwise worthless 19th century stamps. I was glad to add it to my Type 31 single-circle cancel collection as the page reserved for Strassen-Bertrange was empty despite many years of searching!

The FSPL cancel catalog indicates that this cancel was used from 1878 to April 1906, and that it is known in green, blue and black. I'd sure like to find it on cover! Got any duplicates to trade for other rarities?

A 25c UPU letter masquerading as a 10c postcard in 1901!

2009-11-01T19:17:00.001+07:00

Here is a delightful Swiss UPU formula postcard with a miniature envelope affixed to the message side, replete with a heart, four-leaf clover, mushroom, and an elf announcing:

Ein Brieflein bring ich Dir / Drum freue Dich mit mir!

The 'postcard' was posted at Larochette in the Grand Duchy, November 25, 1901, to Esnes (Meuse) in the French Lorraine near Verdun, with a 10c Adolphe definitive paying the ten-centime UPU postcard rate. But because the card carried the Lilliputian envelope and its contents, it was not accepted at the UPU postcard rate.

In Luxembourg or, more likely, in transit on the Longwy a Charleville Railway Post Office a tax mark [‘T’ in a triangle] and a rectangular boxed ‘Affranchissement Insuffisant’ auxiliary mark were applied.

The miniature envelope itself bears the Gare de Longwy [?] backstamp of November 26th! And on the address side, a pair of
10-centime French postage due labels postmarked Esnes, Meuse, November 26th, documents payment of the tax.

But how was the penalty calculated? The UPU 15-g letter rate was 25c. Doubling the 15c deficiency would result in a tax of 30c. Perhaps the 10c paid by the sender was deducted from the 30c figure? Suggestions?

Oh, and here’s the letter that was in the little envelope!

The Intellectuals Autographed by Albert Einstein

2009-10-25T14:34:00.001+07:00

1947 Portrait by Philippe Halsman

Gimbel's Intellectuals display page autographed by Albert Einstein

Background

Back in the 1980s, the late eminent Luxembourg specialist and postal historian, Robert Danzer, used to drop by my office when he came from New York City to the San Francisco Bay Area to visit his son in Carmel. He enjoyed regaling about obscure aspects of Luxembourgian philately while sipping a premier California cabernet sauvignon at lunch (usually at my expense). On one of these occasions, he mentioned that he had heard that Albert Einstein had autographed album pages on which the Intellectuals series had been mounted. He was quite excited about his efforts to locate such an album page, although as far as I know he never succeeded. But this link between the Intellectuals series, which was primarily issued to raise funds to assist Jewish professionals fleeing Germany, and Albert Einstein stuck in my memory. Someday, somewhere I thought, maybe I'll find what had eluded my devoted philatelic friend, Bob Danzer.

So you can imagine my joy in 2008 when, while surfing eBay, I noticed a Gimbels Stamp Dept. album page on which a mint set of the Intellectuals was mounted with ... yes ... Einstein's autograph in the upper left, just as Bob Danzer had described it! My only disappointment was that the album page had been defaced by someone noting the Scott catalog numbers of the stamps in ballpoint pen, apparently oblivious to the authentic Einstein autograph on the page. Wonder of wonders!

The text at the top and bottom of the album page corresponds to Gimbels' reference in a 1935 news release captioned 'Regarding the Luxemburg Stamps to Aid the Refugee Intellectuals,' which states that:

[t]he Government of Luxemburg in collaboration with the International Committee to secure Employment for Refugee Professional Workers, has issued on May 1, 1935, a special series of stamps that is selling officially at double their face value. The nominal value, of course, goes to the Luxemburg Government. The excess value goes to the International Committee, to aid its efforts to help the Refugee Professionals. The Committee is now helping thousands of these men and women, in all parts of the world regardless of their nationality, creed or political faith. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, journalists, chemists, engineers, artists -- professionals pictured "in action" on this unique series of stamps. Luxemburg, through the Committee, has appointed GIMBELS sole agent for these stamps in the United States.

Gimbels Famous Stamp Section, the largest of any American department store, appreciates the honor of this appointment. As in the case of a similar appointment to handle the Byrd Antarctic Stamps and Covers, we will show our appreciation by co-operating wholeheartedly and BY SELLING THESE STAMPS AT COST, without any profit whatsoever, at Gimbels Stamp Dept., 33rd St. & B'way, N.Y.C.

[The news release then lists 14 prominent members of the Committee.]

The complete set consists of 15 values from 5 centimes to 20 Fr. at $3.94. There may also be purchased shorter sets, as: 13 values from 5c to 5 Fr. at $1.38 [or] 10 values from 5 to Fr. 1.75 at 53c.

Source: Henry Friedlander, Archives of the Holocaust, Vol. 7 (Taylor & Francis, 1990) ISBN: 082405489X; 9780824054892.

And in an autograph auction on the web, I noticed a small envelope (shown below) bearing the 5c and 50c Intellectuals signed in the lower right "Allo Achtung! Albert Einstein." The auction description notes that

the remainder of [the] envelope bears a pencil-written statement of provenance stating, "Prof. Albert Einstein arrived from Bermuda and autographed Luxembourg Charity Stamps at Gimbels Stamp Dept."

Indeed, Einstein's biographer, Walter Isaacson, writes at p. 437 of Einstein: His Life and Universe that:

Now that [Einstein and his wife] had decided to stay in the United States, it made sense for Einstein to seek citizenship. When Einstein visited the White House, President Roosevelt had suggested that he should accept the offer of some congressmen to have a special bill passed on his behalf, but Einstein instead decided to go through the normal procedures. That meant leaving the country, so that he -- and Elsa, Margot, and Helen Dukas -- could come in not as visitors but as people seeking citizenship. So in May 1935 they all sailed on the Queen Mary to Bermuda for a few days to satisfy these formalities.

Luxembourg issued the Intellectuals series on May 1, 1935. And to Gimbels' credit, they persuaded Albert Einstein to autograph their promotional album page featuring the stamps upon his return from Bermuda that month.

Fortunately this example of Gimbels' album page with Einstein's autograph has been preserved, confirming Bob Danzer's belief back in the 1980s that such existed somewhere.

Bob, I'd be glad to buy another bottle of that expensive cabernet you liked if only you could be here to enjoy it and this postal history treasure with me!

Redirected Cross-border Mail Incoming to the American Embassy in Luxembourg in 1958

2009-10-19T20:15:00.001+07:00

Seemingly ugly covers sometimes sit around for years waiting for attention. This legal size commercial cover with its vertical creases and staple holes is a good example. It had spent 15 or 20 years in a box of covers that I've never really liked, well ... it had been a cover I never really liked until I took a closer look at it tonight. You'll see that this cover actually is a fine example of redirected cross-border mail incoming to Luxembourg.

It was originally posted on March 5, 1958, within Washington, D.C., at the 3c United States domestic letter rate as shown by the red Pitney Bowes meter mark. Then it was redirected the next day to the "Amer[ican] Embassy / Luxembourg, G.D." as seen by the pencil notation on the front and the March 6th Washington, D.C. machine cancel on the back.

The New York Exchange Office taxed the letter 15 gold centimes (equal to US 5c). Why? Because the surface rate to Europe at the time was 8c per oz. Only the 5c difference between the foreign surface rate and domestic letter rate was charged in accordance with the UPU rule for redirected mail at the time, which I explained in my December 13, 2008 blog entry:

If the first dispatch had been fully prepaid and the charge for the further dispatch had not been paid prior to the redirecting, then the difference between the amount of postage already paid and that which would have been required if the article had been originally dispatched to the new destination was charged to the addressee.

There was no penalty for cross-border forwarding. Thus, the 15 gold centimes tax was converted to 2.50 F in Luxembourg, with the postage due paid with 2.50 F of Luxembourg postage due stamps cancelled Luxembourg-Ville, March 18, 1958.

The addresse, William Harold Christensen (1909-2000), was the American chargé d’affaires ad interim in Luxembourg at the time. A career diplomat, he had served as vice consul in Barbados and consul in Martinque and later served as the chargé d’affaires ad interim in Trinidad and Tobago.

It's time to relocate this cover to my redirected mail album. It's not that ugly after all!

Another recent example - Domestic Postal Card
Redirected to Belgium

Fifteen-centime postal card paying the 15c domestic postal card rate from Pétange to Luxembourg-Gare, March 17, 1925, addressed to a guest at the Hotel Clesse near the railway station. Forwarded to Bruxelles, Belgium, with 5c postage due charged the next day in Bruxelles for the difference between Luxembourg's 15c domestic postal card rate and its 20c rate for postal cards to Belgium.

An essay for the 1946 Dudelange souvenir sheet

2009-10-08T21:28:00.001+07:00

Unlisted Essay

For the national stamp show held at Dudelange, July 28-29, 1946, Luxembourg issued a beautiful semi-postal souvenir sheet featuring a 50-franc engraved stamp designed by August Trémont. The stamp depicts the old forge at the Dudelange iron works in the iron mining region of southern Luxembourg. The sheet was sold for 55 francs, with the supplement defraying the show expenses. A quantity of 74,729 sheets was issued. They were valid as postage until
January 1, 1947.

The unlisted imperforate essay above is gummed and identical in size and design to the issued stamp except for these differences:

the '50 F' denomination appears at the upper right rather than the lower left;
the tablet inscription reading 'ANCIEN LAMINOIR - DUDELANGE' [Old Mill - Dudelange] at the top whereas it appears on the stamp in smaller font without a tablet background;
LUXEMBOURG is in a bolder, larger font;
there is no outer border line under LUXEMBOURG;
at the bottom on the issued stamp is the designer's name
[A. Tremont] and printer [Courvoisier S.A.]; and
the color of the essay is a deeper blue.
the essay is imperforate; the stamp is p. 11.5.

1946 Dudelange Souvenir Sheet

First Day Cover

Dudelange show cancel and registry label,
backstamped at Kayl, July 30, 1946

Who can tell me more about the origins of this recently discovered essay? The essay appears in a beautiful one-frame exhibit devoted to the 1946 Dudelange Stamp Show. It is online at the fine website of the Cercle Phila Dudelange: http://www.phila-dudelange.lu/

Uses of the 1-franc Caritas: 1930 - 1939

2009-10-07T18:29:00.001+07:00

Each of the ten Caritas semi-postal sets issued between 1930 and 1939 contained a one-franc denomination. What common rates did this denomination serve? From December 1, 1929 to October 1, 1940, only two:

(i) the 1-franc UPU post and postal card rate; and

(ii) the 1-franc second step postage rate for UPU surface
letters weighing from 20 to 40 grams.

Although philatelic uses of these Caritas semi-postal issues abound, finding a cover or card with any of the 1-franc denominations used to pay either of these two postal rates is very challenging. Here is the only example in my extensive Luxembourg semi-postal collection!

20-40 g UPU registered letter
Luxembourg-Ville, January 9, 1931, to Lucerne, Switzerland

1.75 F postage + 1.75 F registry fee + 1 F second step postage

Postage due paid at Kytlice, Czechoslovakia in 1934

2009-09-25T18:45:00.001+07:00

In 1934, the tiny village of Kytlice [Kittlitz] was part of Czechoslovakia, situated in a northern extremity of Bohemia just above Novy Bor, an area closely bordered on three sides by German Saxony. Four years later, this area would be incorporated into Germany as part of the Sudentenland. Today it is part of the Czech Republic.

The commercial postcard shown here was posted from Luxembourg-Ville on June 23, 1934, at the 75c German treaty rate. Apparently a Luxembourg postal clerk noticed that the destination (Kittlitz/Böhmen) was outside of Germany and France, both of which then enjoyed a 75c preferential postal card tariff, so the clerk marked the card "T' [taxe], indicating that postage due was to be collected from the recipient. The amount due is noted in manuscript as "10 cts or" [meaning 10 gold centimes, the equivalent of 50 Luxembourg centimes], representing doubling of the 25c deficiency from the
one-franc UPU postcard rate.

At Kytlice a Czechoslovakian postal clerk has documented payment of the postage due with a 50 haleru postage due label canceled by the Kytlice /Kittlitz cds on June 27, 1934.

When Kytlice and the rest of the Sudetenland were absorbed into the Third Reich in October 1938, they also came under the 75c preferential tariff with Germany. It would be great to have an example showing the reduced postcard rate.

Princess Marie-Gabrielle semi-postals pay the new 1.25 F Letter Rate to France in 1930

2009-09-12T21:00:00.001+07:00

On December 1, 1929, the treaty rate for 20 g letters to France was increased to 1.25 F. This rate remained in effect until the German occupation rates took effect on October 1, 1940.

Here the rate is paid by a combination of the 1929 Princess Marie-Gabrielle Caritas semi-postals. The unusual franking comprises the 75c, 35c, and two 10c stamps from the set, overpaying the rate by 5c. Issued on December 14, 1929, these were the first stamps to appear after the 1.25 F rate took effect.

This commercial cover was posted from Luxembourg-Gare [B], January 8, 1930, to St. Étienne de Rouvray near Rouen in the Seine Maritime Department. Non-philatelic uses of the Caritas semi-postals are always difficult to find, especially so for this issue.

Single-circle Cancel Trifectas

2009-09-07T20:55:00.001+07:00

The postal stationery of the 1880s provides a fertile source of 5c domestic postal cards bearing three different single circle cancels, nicely documenting the routes that provided efficient delivery of domestic mail in the Grand Duchy during this era.

Here are a few lovely examples (with more to be added):

Boulaide → Wiltz → Dommeldingen
October 30-31, 1884

Reply card of a 5c+5c Allegory I message-reply card
with printed front and back.

Weiswampach → Troisvierges → Diekirch
December 15, 1884
5c Allegory I postal card

Bettborn → Ettelbruck → [Luxembourg-Gare] →Cap
May 24-25, 1884
5c Allegory I postal card

Esch-sur-Sure → Ettelbruck → Diekirch
December 20, 1884
5c Allegory I postal card

Outbound to Corfu in 1885 via Wien & Trieste

2009-08-30T15:29:00.001+07:00

Corfu harbor in 1890

Wiltz, March 29, 1885, transit Rosenheim, March 30th,
to Corfu [Greece]

'Niedersgegen (via Diekirch & Vianden)'

2009-08-30T13:20:00.001+07:00

Uses of Luxembourg's first Allegory issue postal stationery are plentiful, providing a fertile source of interesting cancels that document the mail delivery routes in the 1880s. Thus, I was especially pleased to find this 10c message card from the 10c+10c first Allegory double card, which was posted by J. M. August Fischer of Wiltz on the Luxembourg to Ulflingen railway on June 9, 1886, and routed "via Diekich Vianden" to Niedersgegen. The Diekich and Vianden transit cancels later that day document that the Luxembourg postal service complied with the requested routing.

But ... where's Niedersgegen? Certainly not in the Grand Duchy, as the sender paid the 10c foreign postal card rate.

Ah ... there it is, a tiny German hamlet just south of Körperich and Seimerich, a few kilometers across the Luxembourg-German border and not far from the border crossing at Vianden. So, indeed, the routing "via Diekirch [&] Vianden" was appropriate! It's a very nice card.

‘par Diekirch’

Clervaux → Diekirch → Vianden → Obersgegen
November 10-11, 1884

Another example -- here a 10c Allegory I UPU postal card sent to the Bouvier family with the receiving mark of Obersgegen, Germany, for delivery to Niedersgegen just down the road a few kilometers.

0.60 F	20-40 g letter to Belgium
1.00 F	Registry fee
0.75 F	Minimum COD fee