Maximum Cards - All Topics

Maximum Card showing the Romanian training ship "MIRCEA" with a special cancellation issued when the ship left Constanta-Port (4 March 1976) for New York to attending the US Bicentenary celebrations.
It is a kind of super-maxi card as ship is depicted on special cancellation as well.

"Mircea" was built in 1938 at Hamburg, Germany by the Blohm & Voss shipyard as a training vessel for the Romanian Navy.

She is sister ship to „Eagle" -USCGC , „Gorch Fock ( II) " - Germany , „Tovarisch" - Ukraine ( currently "Gorch Fock (I) "- Germany) , and „Sagres (III)" - Portugal.

A bark with three masts,"Mircea" is still operational !

The famous Branderburg Gate during the partition of Berlin.
A F.D.I of the stamp and M.C. , on 1 March 1963 , by the West Berlin Post Office.

The post card shows the Branderburg Gate before the Berlin Wall was erected on 13 August 1961.( The Wall was erected as an arc just west of the gate, cutting off access from West Berlin !)

The sign in front of the Gate says : Attention ! Now you are leaving the West Berlin

More about the Branderburg Gate and Berlin Wall here :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_Gate

With the help of a German friend I did learn which was the Post Office mentioned on the postmark of this Branderburg Gate maxicard :

This post office was just called "Berlin 12". It was located in Goethestraße, near the railway station Zoologischer Garten, and doubled as a philatelic outlet. As such, it also provided special first day cancels like the one on my card . The Goethestraße was in the former British sector. The post office and the outlet were closed in 2010

Late edit
The photograph for PPC was taken from the edge of Tiergarten district, British Sector.

A superb vintage maxicard with a splendid cancellation !



" VOYAGE INAUGURAL " (Maiden voyage) Le Havre - New York on 29 May 1935 of the famous French Liner "NORMANDIE", several times the holder of the Blue Riband for the fastest transatlantic crossing .

More about this ship and her fate ( in US ) here :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Normandie

Attention Maxicards collectors ! In order to avoiding wasting your money on " souvenir cards" and not real maximum cards please read this carefully :

FIP
FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DE PHILATELIE
Fondée en 1926
COMMISSION FOR MAXIMAPHILY
SPECIAL REGULATIONS FOR THE EVALUATION OF
MAXIMAPHILY EXHIBITS AT F.I.P. EXHIBITIONS (SREV)

http://www.maximaphily.info/Article...0version.pdf

http://www.maximaphily.info/Article...E_120802.pdf