Mourning Covers and Stamps

Thanks for the clarification. Germany needs an asterisk too, then (Death of Paul von Hindenburg MiNr 548-553). They are reprints of MiNr 513, 515-517, 519 and 522 with a black overprint. 

thanks to rod222 for the list of countries that have issued mourning stamps and covers. Here is the German 'Death of Pres. Paul Von Hindenburg' - value 8 pf. SG 548, just one from the group of six values issued September 1934, and cancelled in Berlin.

We have a single, we have a set ... how about a cover?

Cancel: Heilbronn December 28, 1934
Stamp: MiNr. 552

Hugh

Hi Hugh,
when we begin to depart from the "Black border"  of stamps and covers,  the results become grey and fuzzy.

Take possibly the most addressed person on stamps, on his passing, John F Kennedy
I have 124 different stamps honouring the gentleman, in all colours of the rainbow.
How do we then, set the parameters of a "mourning stamp" ... any ideas?  anyone?

I can't come up with anything.

First, thanks for sharing those great stamps from Japan. 

I've been thinking about your observation about the difference between mourning stamps and commemoratives.

I started looking around.

This Queen Astrid Cover, from Belgium, was posted on January 18, 1936 from Brussels to Aarhus (there is a receiving stamp on the back dated January 20). Her tragic death occured the previous summer and the semi-postal mourning stamps (Sc. B170 to B177) were issued on December 1, 1935 (except for B174 which was issued on October 31.  The timing, the black border, and the raising money for charities in her name, together with her popularity, would seem to clearly mark these as 'mourning' stamps. 



Then there are these stamps ...

This Zhou Enlai series was issued by the PRC on January 8, 1977 - the first anniversary of his passing. Commemorative or mourning stamp? Athough he had been popular, I'm inclined to think that any stamp issued on the 'anniversary' of someone's death - one year, five years, ten ... a hundred - is more a rememberance than a mourning. Not trying to split hairs ... I'm just trying to put some limits around this collecting area in case I jump in. There are a lot of commemorative stamps out there. 

Sc. 1303 to 1306.



[PS - For the fly-speckers out there. I think there may be a dot on the forehead of Queen Astrid on the 1F stamp. Using a position finder, it's in box K5 (or 14mm from the lower frame and 27mm from the left side ... measured from the inside edge of the black border). Or, just look in the middle of her forehead above her left eye.  However, varieties are not my area of expertise - not by a long shot.] 

Hi rod222

This is the one I saw ...

Indeed. These particular stamps seemed to have had a lot of that - mess on the press. Years ago, fresh out of school, I was the newest guy on the team so I was the one that always got sent in the middle of the night to do the press proofs on the jobs we had on the big web presses. It had to be done on the spot (no pun intended). It's amazing what can go wrong on a big press run. 

Cheers,

Franklin D. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945. On December 21, 1945 Greece, then in the middle of a civil war, issued a set of three stamps with a black border in his memory – 30d, 60d and 200d.

Here are a pair of covers featuring two of those stamps.

First, the 200d used April 18, 1946 on a cover to Boston, MA. It is paired with a 500,000d stamp from the hyperinflation period (1942-44) that was overprinted with a red 1000d in early 1946. Unfortunately, I took Latin in school but not Greek so I’m lost on the cancel … is it Rhodes?


Sc. 471 and Sc. 479


Second, a pair of the 30d stamps on a September 1, 1946 cover to Akron, OH. Again, the cancel is Greek to me (smile).


Sc 469

Mourning maxi-card ... Queen Astrid. 

December 2, 1935
Sc. B170

Hi paul1 ... great examples. 

I don't have an SG catalogue for Hungry, but according to Scott, the first (black) mourning stamp was issued on October 15, 1942 - about two months after his death - Sc. 600. It's also in Michel as Nr. 695. 

The purple stamp is a semi-postal issued on August 16, 1943 to mark the first anniversary of his death. The funds were for the Horthy National Aviation Fund. Sc. B170, Michel Nr. 735. Four other semi-postals were issued a few weeks earlier in support of the same fund. Sc. B166 to 169, Michel Nr. 731-734.

First class graphic design. 

A photo postcard from Yugoslavia with two stamps featuring the late King Alexander.


Amid rising tensions inside Yugoslvaia and with its neighbours - especially Italy, the king had been assassinated in Marseille on October 9, 1934, while on a state visit to France. Louis Barthou, the French Foreign Minister also died in the violent attack. Much of the event was captured by a newsreel camera just meters from the King's motorcar.

One stamp is a standard definitive, the other is a mourning stamp issued eight days after the king's death.

The postcard was mailed from Kotor to Zagreb on May 23, 1935.

Stamps:
Yugoslavia - King Alexander
50p Green
Issued - 1931
Sc. 64

Yugoslavia - King Alexander Memorial Issue
25p Black with Black border
Issued - October 17, 1934
Sc. 102

Cancel: Double Circle
Outer ring - KOTOR - SPLIT
Inner - 23 V 35 - 11[?]

Postcard: RPPC with Scalloped Edge
Published by Foto Božić in Korčula [Triangular handstamp]
Appears to be a photo of Korčula (now in Croatia, then in Yugoslavia). The island was occupied and annexed by Italy in 1941.