Swan Island Mail

Besides being a radio aficionado, I also dabble in philately and subscribe to a couple of stamp magazines.

The cover of the October 15 issue of Linn's Stamp News caught my eye with its display of a QSL card from Swan Island (HR6SWA, US NWS Upper Air Sounding Station). As it turns out, the magazine contains an extensive article about the history of Swan Island and its various inhabitants (including the RF variety).

Being a philately magazine, the article concentrates on how mail was handled to and from the island, but its mention of the radio operations is interesting nonetheless. The article is well illustrated and includes a number of QSL cards from the various Swan radio operations.

I found the article interesting from both a radio and philately perspective.

And I'm sure glad I kept the envelope that delivered my Radio Americas QSL card!

This Day in History

This day in history marks a major step in the history of radio. On May 13, 1897, Guglielmo Marconi sent the world's first wireless communication over the open sea. Click here to read all about it.

Huge FDC

A few weeks ago, I ordered some United Nations stamps from the UN Postal Administration.

On Thursday, a 12.5 x 15 inch flat cardboard mailer arrived from the UN containing my order.

My daughter remarked the six UN stamps affixed to the mailer were "Cool!" I agreed.

Upon closer inspection, I was surprised to see that the stamps were postmarked March 8, 2016 with a First Day of Issue postmark for the UN's He For She stamps issued that day. Two stamps (the pair at the top right) from that issue were among the six affixed to the mailer.

At 12.5 x 15 inches, that makes it the largest First Day Cover in my collection, by far. Cool!

And March 8 was my birthday, so that makes it that much cooler!

What’s wrong with this picture?

I received the above envelope from a Boston area eBay seller containing stamps I purchased for my collection. 

At first blush, the envelope looked innocuous: three commemorative stamps, 4¢, 20¢ and 25¢ denominations adding up to 49¢, the current rate for First Class Mail for 1-ounce letters.

I did not notice anything unusual until I took scissors to the envelope to clip off the stamps. Only then did I notice that the 25¢ denomination stamp was not a U.S. stamp; rather it was a United Nations stamp (Scott #284 from 1977)!

UN stamps (or any foreign country’s stamps) cannot be used for postage for mail originating in the U.S., yet this one got through the USPS system with a Boston, Mass. postmark.

Believe it or not!

Waterbury Fancy Cancel to Wolcott Town Clerk

This cover, which I won in an eBay auction is very interesting to me for a number of reasons.

It was addressed to Henry Minor, Esq. in Wolcott, Conn., who was the Town Clerk of Wolcott for 27 years. (I have called Wolcott my home for the past 31 years.)

The cover was postmarked on September 13, 1862, in Waterbury, Conn. (Waterbury was where I was born, raised and lived for the first 32 years of my life.)

The cover has a "fancy cancel."

"A fancy cancel is a postal cancellation that includes an artistic design. Although the term may be used of modern machine cancellations that include artwork, it primarily refers to the designs carved in cork and used in 19th century post offices of the United States.

"When postage stamps were introduced in the US in 1847, postmasters were required to deface them to prevent reuse, but it was left up to them to decide exactly how to do this, and not infrequently clerks would use whatever was at hand, including pens and 'PAID' handstamps left over from the pre-stamp era.

"A number of offices began to use cork bottle stoppers dipped in ink. These worked well, but would tend to blot out the entire stamp making it difficult to check the denomination, and so clerks began to carve a groove across the middle of the cork, making two semicircles. Further enhancements included two grooves cut crosswise (the four-piece 'country pie'), and then two more, for the eight-segment "city pie", and notches cut out of the outer edge to lighten the cancel further.

"The carving process seems to have sparked the creativity of clerks across the country, and soon thousands of designs appeared, ranging from shields to skulls to stars, geometrical shapes, animals, plants, and devils with pitchforks. Among the most common fancy cancel designs are stars and crosses of varying designs. The Waterbury, Connecticut post office was the master of the practice, and turned out new cancels for every holiday and special occasion. Their 'Waterbury Running Chicken' cancel, perhaps a turkey since it appeared close to Thanksgiving of 1869, was in use for only a few days and is now the most prized of all 19th century cancels, with covers fetching very high prices.

"The era of fancy cancels came to an end in the 1890s, when the Post Office Department issued new regulations standardizing the form of cancellations." (from Wikipedia)

For a webpage full of Waterbury fancy cancels, see http://www.theswedishtiger.com/1861water.html.

Surfin': Collecting Radio Stamps

This week, Surfin' considers the connection between ham radio and stamp collecting.