Postmark Calendar

It's really nice to see so many entries today - I wonder if it is a record. Not bad for a thread that will turn five years old this year. (Maybe we should have an online party when August 10 rolls around.)

I will add two modern items to today's bumper crop. The first is a package from St. Petersburg, with lots of Kremlin stamps. For some reason I love those.



And this meter from Portland, also from last year.

Sent from Christkindl, Austria Jan 5, 1976.   Steyr, Austria is only a few kilometers away. 

A January 7 cover from Coesfeld, Germany with a forget-me-not flower cancel asking us to not forget to include the postal code in the return address.
 
Letter was sent to Austria without mentioning Austria, though the postal code seemed to be enough for the post office.




Though cancelled in Coesfeld, the return address on the back indicated Billerbeck, a neighboring village, so I posted a view of Billerbeck.

8th January (1938)

Canada, Scott #223, 10-cent carmine rose commemorative honoring the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), postmarked on this date in 1938 (80 years ago today) in Duncan, British Columbia.  I acquired this beautifully-cancelled stamp from firstfrog2013 in the TSF Donation Auction last year. Thanks, Frog!

From Wikipedia:  "Duncan (pop. 4,944) is a city on southern Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. It is the smallest city by area (2.07 square km, 0.8 square miles) in the nation. Although the City of Duncan has a population of just under 5000, it serves the Cowichan Valley which has a population of approximately 80,000, many of whom live in North Cowichan contiguous with Duncan. This gives Duncan a much larger 'greater' population than that contained within the city limits. People in areas of North Cowichan bordering on Duncan usually use 'Duncan' as their mailing city."

Duncan is also known as the "City of Totems" with some examples shown in the photo below.

As I write this, it is slightly above freezing in Eastern Maine. Probably at that temperature Mainers are in shorts and Hawaiian shirts.
Last year one such rugged Mainer trudged through winter conditions to send me this:

January 10

This 90 peso olive bister, perf. 13.5 stamp featuring Guillermo Brown (Scott 828; 1997) was postmarked in Conception del Uruguay, Argentina on this date in 1968.

Thanks, Kirk!  The stamps are, indeed, very nice in the color department, and I feel lucky to have them.  I have other examples of this same stamp, some of which are unused, but the color is best on this used pair from firstfrog2013, so I'm keepin' 'em!

January 12, 1985 from Kvissleby, Sweden
Kvissleby is small (population about 2,500), so I tried to find the post office, but here is what the internet said:

  "The post office does not exist in Sweden. Exciting isn't it? A number of
years ago Posten, the Swedish postal agency, decided to restructure its
work. Instead of having post offices, similar to the ones that exist in
many countries, they have created a system whereby local supermarkets,
newsagents, petrol stations and other similar shops act as postal
service agents."

The stamp is a privatpost type, which(according to my internet search) is intended to be used by private persons on letters within Sweden and
to the other nordic countries for personal mail only and is sold in a booklet for less than face value.

January 13

Pitney Bowes meter (QB3.2 "DM Infinity") imprinted in Columbia, South Carolina on this date in 2017.