Big Blue 1840-1940: October 2017

Kimble's November Calendar

Into the Deep Blue
As a collaborative project, Dan and I are presenting a postmark calendar for all 366 possible days of the year, represented by interesting appropriate date cancellation stamps from the Kimble collection.

We are publishing, during 2017, a monthly blog post with the date postmarks for that month for everyone's enjoyment.

The introduction, dedication, and links to the other months that have been published, is included with
the January post.

November Postmark Calendar

November 1

1898 U.S. Revenue Scott RB20

1/8c yellow green "Battleship"

November 2

Belgium 1882 Scott Q11 50c carmine

Parcel Post/Railway

Hoogstraten is a municipality in the Belgian province of Antwerp.

November 3

Great Britain 1902 Scott 127 1/2p gray green "Edward VII"

Croydon is a large town in south London.

November 4

Japan 1915 Scott 151 10s ultramarine

Enthronement Hall, Kyoto

Issue intended for the enthronement of Emperor Yoshito

November 5

Trinidad & Tobago 1922 Scott 23 1 2/p rose red

"Britannia and George V"

Port-of-Spain, Trinidad

November 6

Great Britain 1902 Scott 127 1/2p gray green "Edward VII"

Suspect Dublin.

November 7

Canada 1868 Third Issue Federal Bill stamp FB40

3c green "Victoria"
Van Dam Canadian Revenue Catalogue

November 8

Great Britain 1902 Scott 127 1/2p gray green "Edward VII"

Charing Cross railway station?

November 9

U.S. 1861 Scott 65 3c rose

"Washington"

Grand Rapids, Michigan?

November 10

U.S. Revenue 1898 Scott R164 2c carmine rose

"Battleship"

Chicago

November 11

U.S. Revenue 1898 Scott R164 2c carmine rose

"Battleship"

November 12

Canada 1873 Scott 37 3c orange red "Victoria"

St. John, New Brunswick

November 13

Australia 1924 Scott 26 1 2/p scarlet "George V"

Tenterfield, New South Wales?

November 14

Portugal 1899 Scott 117 25r carmine rose

"King Carlos"

Urros, Portugal (Thanks Gene!)

November 15

Austria 1875 Scott 37 10kr blue "Franz Josef"

Fine Print

November 16

New Zealand 1916 Scott 163 2p yellow

"George V"

Ranfurly, New Zealand?

November 17

Austria Newspaper 1876 Scott P9B (1kr) violet

Metilka, Slovenia (Thanks Gene!)

November 18

Austria 1875 Scott 36 5kr rose "Franz Josef"

Fine Print

Klagenfurt? (Thanks Gene)

November 19

Sweden 1891 Scott 58 10o carmine

"King Oscar II"

Kristianstad, Sweden

November 20

Belgium 1900 Scott 66 10c bright rose "Leopold"

Laeken is a suburb of Brussels.

November 21

Canada 1927 2c green

"The Fathers of the Confederation"

Vancouver?

November 22

Belgium 1905 Scott 85 10c dull rose

"King Leopold"

Brussels

November 23

Austria 1875 Scott 56 5kr brose "Franz Josef"

Fine Print

Brno, Czech Republic (Thanks Gene!)

November 24

Guatemala 1964 Scott C312 5c orange

"Enriquez de Rivera"

November 25

Austria 1875 Scott 56 5kr brose "Franz Josef"

Fine Print

November 26

Germany 1880 Scott 39 10pf red

"Coat of Arms"

Interesting cancel. In Schleswig-Holstein? Is this now in Denmark because of the 1920 Schleswig plebicite? I don't think so, but "Norburg" was clearly in Germany in 1888.

November 27

USA 1930 Scott C12 5c violet

"Winged Globe"

St. Louis, Missouri

November 28

Netherlands 1894 Scott 41 5c light ultramarine

"Princess Wilhelmina"

Zwolle, Netherlands

November 29

Canada 1868 Third Issue Federal Bill stamp FB40

3c green "Victoria"
Van Dam Canadian Revenue Catalogue

?, Ottawa

November 30

Great Britain 1902 Scott 127 1/2p gray green "Edward VII"

Enfield. (Thanks Gene!)

Romania 1893 Scott 126 25b violet

"King Carol I"
Bucharest (Buceresci) Thanks Catalin!

Out of the Blue
Some of the postmarks are identified, others are not. Help from readers is appreciated. ;-)

Note: all of the stamps featured for the post are part of the Kimble collection.

Comments appreciated!

Denmark Christmas Seals

Bud's Big Blue
Bud's Observations

Denmark’s early stamps tend to be small and monochromatic. Numerals in ovals and solemn, if not somber, kings predominate. Perhaps as a remedy to this bleakness, the Danes invented the Christmas seals. They’re often found in feeder albums brightening Denmark pages.

Star postmarks added a bit of sparkle between 1866 and 1929 (page 1, row 5- Scan 1c). But in 1929 the Danish post office ordered that the stars should be chiseled out, leaving empty circles (page 3, row 3 -Scan 3b). Too much twinkle, I suppose. The star cancels (aka, mill wheels) make an interesting specialization, but forgeries abound.

Census: 206 in BB spaces, six tipped-in, 42 on supplement pages, 29 Christmas seals (17 showing above).

Jim's Observations
There are eleven spaces in BB for the 1870-79 Numeral stamps (Scan 1b). For each of these stamp spaces, one can find a normal or inverted frame candidate. Then there are a number of color variations for these stamps, adding to the possibilities. But we have seen this before, as BB often telescopes several choices into one space: fair enough. What is disconcerting is by setting the "date" parameters to 1870-79, BB excludes the 1895-1901 and the 1902-04 Numeral re-issues. A number of these stamps are less expensive than the choices in BB. Many BB albums will have a healthy dose of 1895-1901, and 1902-04 stamps in these spaces for the good reason that they are more common and less expensive.

So a choice for BB collectors: Adhere strictly to the date requirements, fill the spaces with the (generally) more expensive 1870-79 issue, and put any "orphan" 1895-1901 and 1902-04 issues on supplemental pages, OR change BB's dates to "1870-1901" or "1870-1904", and welcome the later issues into Big Blue.

If you do decide to keep the 1895-1901 and 1902-1904 out of BB's pages, there is a simple way to identify them. They all are perforation 13, while the 1870-79 issue is 14 X 13 1/2. Now, if you elect to keep them in, then one will need to look at watermarks to separate the 1895-1901 issue (wmk 112- rounder Crown) from the 1902-04 issue (wmk 113-more narrow Crown).

Denmark Blog Post and Checklist

Page 1 (Click and enlarge for examination)