| Airmail Postal Rates And Usages |  Top |
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US$ | ||
400661 "View EXACT ACTUAL Image"){kind=small} |
5 øre Posthorn and 10, 40, and 60 øre Lion stamps (not known if with or without watermark) on 14 May 1941 registered airmail cover from OSLO to New York City, USA. The cover was censored at Bermuda with a PC 90 "EXAMINER 342" censorship label without any additional (IC, or C) marking. Flynn lists the examiner 342 label as being known on a few covers. Flynn states that the PC 90 labels were used in Bermuda from about July 1940 to the end of April 1944; and that an additional "IC" notation was NOT added for about the first 18 months of use (and "C" was not used unti mid-1942). There the cover was HELD FOR THE DURATION OF THE WAR (also called "CONDEMNED" whether permanently confiscated or eventually released after the war), and was RELEASED BY THE CENSORS in January or Feburary 1946; the PC 90 label was then marked "REL 29947" The cover first was censored by the Germans in Frankfurt (with a clearly printed brown censor tape with the "e" code for Frankfurt). The cover was sent from Norske Creditbank in Oslo to the Chemical Bank and Trust Company in NYC; the latter tended to be involved in business transactions. Over the address, in the area of the word "Chemical" the 3-line violet (AMERICAN) handstamp can faintly be seen; it is Flynn Type 3 (Flynn page 101) with the text "HELD BY BRITISH / CENSOR / RELS'S [JAN. or Feb.?] 1946". To the right there is a black single-line (BRITISH) "RELEASED" handstamp (markings like this are sometimes seen with three wavy lines above it, but such lines are not evident on this cover). The cover was first received in New York on 13 February 1946 and by Chemical Bank on the 15th. That the Germans allowed the cover to pass but the British (in Bermuda) held the cover strongly suggests that the registered cover between banks cover contained a form of payment that would have been beneficial to the German war effort and their activities in occupied Norway. While it was normal for the Bermuda censors to hold mail containing merchandise, such as stamps and covers, it held business / banking mail is much less seldom seen -- probably because the envelopes were typically discarded upon eventual receipt by the recipient as was most mail. Condemned mail was "put into prize", with the goal of denying the enemy financial resources. Much condemned mail at Bermuda, whose contents were deemed "trivial", was destroyed starting 1 January 1944 due to a serious lack of storage space. Information about this subject and Bermuda-censored mail in general can be found in "Intercepted In Bermuda" by Peter A. Flynn, published in 2006 by The Collectors Club of Chicago. The 115 øre franking is typical of Norwegian registered airmail letters to the U.S. in this time period. The stamps are worn as is the lightweight airmail envelope; all very typical of such mail. Censored covers transiting Bermuda in this time were surveyed by the Bermuda Censorship Project -- only a VERY TINY quantity of censored covers (26, per Flynn -- less than half of one percent of source countries) in the survey came from Norway! Such covers are both very scarce and a very important part of Norwegian postal history. From the Norman Gary collection. ACTUAL item. |
Reference |
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229693 "View EXACT ACTUAL Image"){kind=small} |
289 [80 øre 1647-1947 issue] (VF) solo use on 1947 air cover to the U.S. Scarce solo usage. ACTUAL item. |
17.00 |
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229696 "View EXACT ACTUAL Image"){kind=small} |
281, 284, 288 [15, 40, 60 øre 1647-1947 issue] (VF) on 5 May 1947 air cover to U.S. with matching machine cancel. ACTUAL item. |
12.00 |
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229726 "View EXACT ACTUAL Image"){kind=small} |
1950 May 3 registered airmail cover with several stamps to Austria with Austrian censorship. Some aging. Inner liner removed due to censor regulations. ACTUAL item. |
22.00 |
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229637 "View EXACT ACTUAL Image"){kind=small} |
195, 310 (VF) on 25 June 1951 picture post card (Vigeland) from OSLO, to the U.S. with airmail label affixed. However, the 35 øre postage did not pay the airmail rate, thus Norwegian postage due handstamp applied: single-ring, violet "T / 5 / cts.". There is also a violet single-line marking between two lines "Not paid for air mail"; I think this is a Norwegian marking, but am unsure -- note that it is in English. I cannot recall previously seeing that marking. No indication that postage due was collected upon delivery. ACTUAL item. |
15.00 |
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229641 "View EXACT ACTUAL Image"){kind=small} |
317 number imprint 4-block on 1958 air cover to the U.S. Very unusual! ACTUAL item. |
25.00 |