I recently found a postcard franked with a 1-cent Franklin stamp on eBay with a Tau, Samoa Doane cancel. This postcard is the 9th Tau Doane postmarked item in my census and is labeled accordingly. This card is similar to most of the Tau Doane items in the census; it is addressed to Rock Falls, Illinois, and was postmarked on June 23, 1909. The stamp appears to be from the bottom of a sheet of Franklin stamps.
The updated census is below.
Here are some recent acquisitions of postal history destined for Africa. First off, this is my second cover to Cameroon, Africa. A first-class advertising envelope from Cincinnati, Ohio to Grand Batanga, Cameroon West Africa.
My next item is a picture postcard from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to a small village in German Southwest Africa (Ontjo). The postcard passed through the port town of Swakopmund where it received a transit postmark.
Finally, a lovely postcard from California to Mombasa, British East Africa (modern-day Kenya).
Here is a cool Caribbean destination postcard I recently found on eBay. Saba is a 13-square-kilometer island in the Lesser Antilles chain and was a part of the Dutch West Indies. The island is now a part of the Netherlands.
Here are four more international destinations added to the map. A couple of covers to the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Slovenia and Ukraine). A beautiful cover to Bluefields, Nicaragua, and a postcard to Liberia, Africa.
Here are the links on the destinations map.
Sagor, Austria (modern-day Slovenia)
To the western edge of Ukraine.
Mistakenly sent to Bluefields, West Virginia, and subsequently forwarded to Nicaragua.
Postcard to Cape Palmas, Liberia, West Africa.
Once again, Schuyler Rumsey is offering a Tau, American Samoa Doane item (Sale 94, lot 2227), a postcard franked with a 1-cent Franklin stamp (Scott #300) from the 2nd Bureau series. This postcard is the 8th Tau Doane postmarked item in my census and is labeled accordingly. Including this card, all but one of the items in the census was postmarked on June 23, 1909, and addressed by the same individual.
Census item Tau-8.
Here are my previous posts about the Tau Doane census.
I enjoy collecting postal history and various uses of the 2nd Bureau series of stamps. Used blocks off of cover are fun to hunt for, and I am always looking to upgrade. It is easy to find used multiples of four our more of denominations from 1c to 15c; however, the 50c and dollar stamps are difficult (and expensive) to acquire.
This is an update to my original post regarding the Doane hand cancel used at the Tau, Samoa post office.
In the latest Schuyler Rumsey auction (#92), lot number 2779 is a 1¢ entire with a 1¢ Jamestown commemorative stamp (#328) paying the domestic letter rate to Illinois. This the second recorded envelope with the Tau, Samoa Doane handstamp, and seventh in this census. All six previous examples of this postmark are from Jun 23, 1909, P.M, however, this cover is postmarked March 30, 6, A.M. I am not sure if the 6 is for 1906 or 6 A.M. This cover was also sent to Rock Island, Illinois the same destination as four of the recorded postcards (Tau-3, 4, 5, and 6).
A popular category of philatelic study is disaster mail. Mail interrupted or damaged by a disaster such as a flood, fire, ship or plane wreck, war, etc. Below is an envelope recovered from the shipwreck of the S.S. Dakota, a passenger and cargo steamship that traveled the Pacific. The Dakota wrecked when she struck a reef off the coast of Japan near Yokohama on March 3, 1907. The ship was close enough to shore to avoid any deaths, and the passengers and cargo, including mail, were evacuated before she sunk.
Ninety-four shipwrecked passengers were transported to a nearby lighthouse and hamlets in a sparsely populated area. Two days later, the steamer Hakuai Maru arrived to carry the passengers and ten bags of mail to Yokohama. The surviving mail was severely water damaged. The cover shown below was sent from Montana to a U.S. Army Transport ship (USAT Logan) stationed in Nagasaki, Japan, and was franked with five 2¢ Washington stamps, as evident from the ghostly red stain on the right side. Feb 10, 1907, Missoula & Hamilton R.P.O postmark would have tied the ten cents of postage, paying twice the UPU letter rate for up to one ounce.
Hamilton, Montana, advertising cover damaged in the wreck of S.S. Dakota.
Mail aboard the wrecked ship was salvaged and subsequently delivered. A makeshift postal label in Japanese and English applied to the top of the cover, explaining, “Soaked and damaged in the wreck of Dakota. — Tokio (sic) Post Office”
Tokio Post Office manuscript label explaining the damage.
The damaged cover was also resealed with Japanese official seal stamps.
The reverse of the cover with Japanese official seals.
This is one of my favorite pieces in my collection. Please share any other info about the S.S. Dakota or other disaster covers or cards.
More info on the wreck of S.S. Dakota can be found at Wikipedia and WreckSite.eu.
A postal treaty between the U.S. and Mexico was established in 1887. Similar to the postal agreement with Canada, mail was sent at the U.S. domestic rates instead of the international Univeral Postal Union (UPU) rates. The treaty remained in effect throughout the 2nd Bureau era of postage stamps. Shown below are a variety of uses to Mexico.
1st Class Mail
A postal treaty between the U.S. and Mexico provided mail services at a discounted rate. Four cents of postage paid twice the letter rate for up to two ounces for this cover sent from Michigan to Durango, Mexico.
First-class U.S. domestic letters were forwarded to Mexico at no additional charge due to the postal treaty.
Registered 1st Class Mail
A cover sent at the first-class 2¢ treaty rate with registry service (8¢) from Boulder, Colorado, to Mexico by way of the El Paso, Texas exchange office. A census maintained by the United States Stamp Society (USSS) lists 53 El Paso exchange labels recorded.
Twice the letter rate (4¢) for up to two ounces, plus an 8¢ fee for registry service on an advertising cover sent from Chicago to Mexico City. Handled in St Louis, Missouri, the cover received an exchange label before entering Mexico. There are 17 St Louis exchange labels recorded in the USSS census.
Postcard Rate
Instead of the UPU two-cents postcard rate, this card was sent for a penny due to the postal treaty.
I recently discovered a cover with the earliest documented use (EDU) of the 10-cents Webster stamp (Scott #307) on eBay. This is the second cover I found sent on March 7, 1903.
I previously found a remarkable registered cover to Hungary and had it certified by the American Philatelic Society (APS) as the new EDU, soundly besting the previous date by five days. Unfortunately, I had wrongly assumed the APS expertising department sent discoveries to the Scott Catalog editors. The wrong EDU date has remained in the catalog for the past eight years. The editors have now been contacted about both covers, and the earlier date should be reflected in the 2020 catalog.
Registered large envelope from Pittsburg, Pa. to Hungary by way of New York. Franked with a total of 48¢ paying the 8¢ registry fee plus eight times the UPU letter rate for less than four-ounces. The franking shows a mixed use of both 1st and 2nd Bureau stamps. Most 2nd Bureau stamp EDUs occur in early 1903.
The 10¢ Webster stamp paid the 8¢ registry fee plus 2¢ U.S./Canada treaty rate. The cover traveled from Springfield to Boston to Buffalo to Niagra Falls and finally St Catharines, Ontario in two days.
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