On The Road Again - Eye To Eye With The Local Postal Authority

Dear Collectors,

a holiday means recreation, but surely adventure as well.

And we collectors, who are gathering stamps, are naturally also hunters.

So, what are collectors doing when on holiday?

Exaxctly, they visit the local post office.

On one hand there is the hope for a good catch, that is to say for a prize, as it is unconceivable to show up at home without a trophee. On the other hand we need proof for one's accomplishments and that we have pushed through even abroad, and therefore this prize is absorbed into our collection as a token of triumph and eternal glory.

Naturally, one needs to show achievements on holiday greetings sent home as well. Let's not forget, our reputation is at stake there.

These days I thought of that und went through a few cards which have survived the course of time.

The oldest one - the no. 1 so to say – I chose to upload.

And the result is......absolutely trivial!



Well, looks like it, as one has been starting a leap like an ambitious tiger and found oneself landing as a castrated house cat. That can happen, if you are at the will of a wicked post clerk.

Just consider what would have been possible here. Nearly everything that has been issued since 1938 could have been used for Postage. That means a full range from Franco (for the shiver) to cathedrals in impressive intaglio printing (so beautiful one could kneel down).

But alas, by the time (1990 – 21 years old – foolish and unexperienced in philateletic regards, without any decent stock and with only a small budget) everyone was still sitting on huge bulks of hoarded mint stamps demanding high overnominal prices.

Thank the lord, that in a another post office (in a rural part of the island) I could acquire a special issue, which was a folio of six stamps printed in one sheet – honoring historical smith art in fine intaglio print – and they warm my heart whenever I trip over them when looking through my albums.

Nice. This one was intended to have the labels between the two columns of stamps; i.e., your example has columns 3,1,2. Columns 1,2,3 would show a background of yet another item of ironwork.

Interesting experiences and the special issue you got looks great.

But the problem is endemic at US post offices. Most offer simply Flag coil stamps and the current commemoratives with some old ones that have been slow to sell thrown in. If you take some time you will find post offices offering more than this - Priority Mail Express stamps, some panes of low denomination stamps no longer sold at the USPS site. I mean some of the commemoratives offered are quite good and you can get some nice intaglio definitives sometimes at some post offices in the US but it requiressome work.

As for cancels, I find clerks seem to just go ahead before you can say anything. So I never get my hopes up for a nice cancel. The United Nations and a few foreign post offices provide nice cancels when they send your online order to you -- which I appreciate much.

As OP writes, this was 1990. Nowadays, going into a post office in Spain asking for stamp causes a panic. This also happened to me last Saturday, in Italy. In Spain (and Italy), post offices tend to have stock books with sheets of stamps in a back office. Some counter staff have no clue where that stock book is. When they find it, there are different stamps in the stock book. However, they may not be for the common tariffs - Spain now has basic domestic (A), Europe (B) and Rest of World (C) rates -. The other stamps may be quite outdated as no one ever buys stamps. Hence the panic. These common rates, now, are often covered by a pack of five inflation stamps torn from self-adhesive sheets and packed in plastic you cannot open easily hanging from a display carrousel.

In my experience, staff at Spanish post offices is very forthcoming. In many very large cities, you may encounter rude or unhelpful staff. This tends to be the case in the centre of those cities, more than in the peripheral offices. I guess this has to do with rushed customers who are similarly rude.

For those of you who have never been to these Spanish mass-tourism resort towns: the average tourist visiting such places is scum. He or she considers having paid to get there gives him or her the right to crap-up the town and treat locals as servants. Locals work hard and get paid badly. Still, you might be better of then inland, where there is no employment. So, they treat tourists equally badly. It does not matter whether you belong to the scum that rolls out of a chartered flight, or the most gentlemanly person who has genuine interest in the wellbeing of the locals. To them, you are just another of those Goths invading their town, once again.

Since the average charter-flight Goth cannot be bothered to lift his behind from the poolside stretcher – yes people, we fly four or five hours to a beach resort to claim a stretcher at the hotel poolside at six in the morning -, they do not annoy the locals in such smaller towns away from these resort towns. And it shows in how they treat you.

Very good of you to look beyond Maspalomas.

Naturally, there are decent charter-flight Goths and friendly locals working in resort towns and big-city centres. But odds are much better away from those places. And there you even may have an interesting chat with the staff. Explaining your intentions may help, but some are beyond saviour.

I have been recently on a journey (oh, is that now 30 years ago - astounding how fast time flies) to Turkey.

It is now that I found the time to document my experience.

So, should you be interested in a travel to Turkey - look in (I have put that in an extra topic so that friends of Turkish philately, who look for nothing else, have a chance to find it).

Enjoy!

http://goscf.com/t/80215

Haven't been to Spain. Wouldn't go when Franco was in power, and somehow never got around to visiting thereafter. My experience with French post offices is that, when I go to the counter clutching my postcards, I receive current stamps. Even got a miniature sheet once, which was a pain to extract the individual stamps from.

Adventure in one's own country of origin (here: Germany)? Well, of course!

Firstly, everyone of us will have made his experience with postal clerks (many good, but in few cases less favourable ones). By the time (we are in 1994) in Germany it could not be taken for granted to encounter clerks devoted to offer service. Still today, I awake drenched in sweat, when in my dreams the poison dwarf appears, who always told me, when I was thirteen (1982) "We don't have it. What do you want? It's not for you." only because I asked for a new stamp a week after it's date of issue. I may have forgotten the incidents, had they been the only ones, but the personnel in the offices of my love-hate hometown, were specialised in bullying their customers.

Secondly, the adventure begins the very moment we leave our cave. Who knows, what waits outside for us. Could be the reason why we leave our collection at home. No harm shall come to it, while we rove out. Maybe we are a bit overcautious in that regard. First our stamps travel hundreds or thousands of miles from sender to the recipient. And then, nothing - permanent downtime for them. When it comes to us we are more courageous. Or are we a bit to reckless in this regard?

Now, be that as it may, at that time I was on a cycling tour (nothing planned, nothing booked – the direction was all, that was decided on). Where the day would end, who could tell. Some banknotes in your saddle bags, enjoy life.

And isn't it astounding, the moment we are on our way, we turn home from afar – drop a line, send a card - and let our friends and family know: it is You, we have not forgot about.

Those who look for a good adventure will find everything their heart desire in Germany as well as in any other country. This is simply a question of perspective. Who comes to us from abroad, will sense the local hustle as an exotic one (and of course it is).

And Germany is so full of varieties. You go a 100 km and will find the sound of the language slightly altered, the architecture changed etc., etc. Put some Germans from different regions in front of you and you will be amazed.

For whom this is not enough and who wants his travel even more colourful, go on a side trip from Germany to the neighbouring countries. We have after all 3.758 km of border.

To France for example. And so, on my travel, I passed by there, and before I knew it, found myself right there in the border town of Lauterbourg where I without delay headed for the local post office. There I was gratified with the below shown stamps. Now, whether one likes a specific design is a purely subjective question of taste. However, I was enthralled.



And has it been a good bargain and the right decision?

Well, l still love these stamps, and it is amazing, when I look at them, they remind me of the travel and the postal servicewoman, who sold me these gems (by the way I found it remarkable that 1 km behind the border, in Alsace, she pretended not to understand German – so I simply changed to a somewhat rusty French).
And of course, I wanted to find out which language is spoken there, German or French (as Alsace was a German speaking province until France seized it 1648 – in the 19th and 20th century this province was forced to change the flag three times). What about these conflicts of the past that one can read about from time to time, what is the cultural reality? Now, if the postal servicewoman had not been sent by the French secret service to mislead German travellers, the French language dominates.

And, if you may have read my article where I preached down on my local postal clerks in my dear German hometown (ever unwilling to deliver what ever one wanted), what do I get in a tiny village of 3.000 souls in France? A super carnet / stamp book honouring Franco-Swedish-relationship (1,5 million print run, what was below average by the time). There you go! I knew it, good service is possible, if there is the will for it.

And here is my conclusion: these stamps are priceless.

And this not all. The French stamps can still be used for postage, while Germany could not resist to use the introduction of the Euro as a pretext to devaluate all Mark-nominated stamps (it is less the economic loss that annoys me, but it's a pity that we lost so many wonderful designs for usage).

So, it's hats off for "La Poste" - and that is why I say today: Vive la France!

These who are travelling, are always in danger to fall into bad ways. A lot of perils lie along the way. And that is, what seems to have come to the below shown item, which shows marks of more than usual strains of transportation. I assume a wrong feed of the sorting / cancellation machine.

That is prove, that even in Germany travelling might be dangerous.

Waldshut on Rhein (in the province Baden) - at that time I chose their post office as a depot of supply, as then it was still possible to send a parcel domestically as a poste restante item, perfect to change the laundry. On that occasion I also sent greetings home.



Completely unscathed, however, arrived the stamps which I acquired the day before in the Swiss town of Basel. They were bought at the counters of the main post office, stowed away safely in waterproofed luggage und thus transported home safely on my own accord.

Let's take a look at these Swiss spoils (which were on the occasion of my homecoming transferred into my collection naturally in a triumphal procession accompanied with a worthy banquet and drink):

- The annual anniversaries series - that is typicall of the Swiss: sober designs. Here it is interesting to see, that four different topics are combined into one set: so, the stamps show the same size, but design and the subject-matter differ.
- honouring books and the press – a bit to conventional in design to my taste, on the other hand that is exactly the virtue for which Swiss stamps are esteemed by collectors all over the globe. Smashing colours - well, we are in the 90ies.
- pieces of art by women – I like the one for 60 and the highest nominal (By the way, who would doubt, that women are good artists? When I look back to my school days, my female classmates were much more performing in arts than us boys - maybe yet another reason to being attracted by them even more. However, we see a politicized issue, but I have a liking for good propaganda.



So, the worthy pieces even received a laudation today.

And that is why we can here not longer speak of pure objects of utility, but need to use the expression of a cult object - that is to arrive at the highest ordination, namely to be being admitted to and absorbed into our collection.

And those were the days when CHF 100,00 cost DEM 120,00. That would mean 1 EUR = CHF 1,62 (today in 2022 it is CHF 1,01). So, never let it be said, that the acquisition of stamps inevitably produce a loss.

Every journey must come to an end eventually. And don't we put ourselves on route only to return savely - that means unscathed - to our home?

The last stages of my journey went from Lake Constance to Munich. The whole trip made up to 1.000 km of Germany + a visit to the neighbours. Phantastically versatile - as our stamps constantly proof to be.

On half of the route another card was sent home, from Schongau, a Bavarian town. When one turned south, one could see the Alps.

So, once again to the post office - and how wonderful, another stamp with a new design for the domestic post card rate was on sale.

Cancelled in the typical style at the time - clear, showing the exact place name on the right and a field for a postal advert on the left, by then a cancellation not preferred by collectors (which by the way has very much changed in the meantime).



What was the cancellation in 1994 that philatelists desired: a cleary displayed postmark in one of the corners of the stamp showing a quarter of the punch head displaying the town name (so that the most of the motive was left out and thus the stamp design clear to look at).

And the times they are a changing, today in Europe we want a full cancellation (by the punch head - continental Europeans detest killer Postmarks or advert fields) in order that the place and date are fully discernible. And it should better not be a courtesy cancellation, but an item out of the normal course of postal business.

And the item should have been really transported and best left in one piece. This is taking up lots of room which one needs to have in the first place.

Needless to say that on the other hand it should though look pristine as on the first day (oh gee, you can't have it both ways - a to spotless item is always an artificially produced one).

I live in Atlanta, GA which still has lots of offices still open. A few months ago I did a mini-tour of five branches in my area. I found different stamps in each one. My best find involved a smaller branch that had several stamps no longer available on the USPS site. Best of all they were sold to me by a nice and sweet postal worker who also collected stamps and was happy to pull out all the varieties they had for me to look at.

i can't wait to visit other offices and I am planning a special trip to the main branch.

I can't remember where I read/saw this but they said that the best way to collect new, current stamps is to befriend your local postal employees so that they will watch out for, set aside stamps and even order stamps to sell at the branch to help you. They are also more willing to special cancel stamps for you. Kindness still goes a long today.

I remember as a kid about 60 years ago going to the p.o. here in the states. I was always interested in the new stamps coming out. OIn one visit I asked for a p.c. stamp or something like that and the clerk pulled out a fat book, opened up and said "hey kid take a look". I could not believe my luck. Page after page of stamps from about a thirty year period that he could not wait to unload. Strange things like coils and small and large denominations I had never seen before. If I had ten bucks I probably would have spent it. I was in heaven and went back as often as I could\d afford. Still have some of them.

In 1995 it was time to go east. 1995 was a year where one could find Germany reunited (now for over 32 years, phantastic, who would have thought of that, let's say in 1988).

I am from West-Germany, would have loved travelling to East-Germany in 1989/1990 to see what was cooking. Alas, due to the fact that right during that time I was taken advantage of by my government (the army, not prison – though the difference is hard to tell), comprising a ban for visiting Warsaw Pact-territories together with a lousy payment below welfare level - a journey was inconceivable. It was one of the happiest moments in my life, when on 30.06.90 I regained my personal freedom (as all Eastern Germans regained theirs – on 01.07.90 for example the Deutsche Mark was introduced in East Germany and social schemes adaptes, on 03.10.1990 Germany was reunited).

So, 1990 was the year of liberation? Oh yes, Sir!

So, let's say goodbye to repression. But also remind ourselves of the price of freedom: regrettably stamps of the GDR and the Berlin issues ceased validity (what a pitty – but let's appreciate that at least Western Germany stamps could still be used until 30.06.2002). German's have the tendency to believe they are World Champions in everything. However, when we look at the validity of stamps and the number of only regional and time limited usability of issues, we are not and resemble more like one of these infamous philateletic rogue states.

This stamp I bought in Eisenach (capital of protestantism) and send it from Weimar (capital of German poetry). That was the only one available issue for the postcard tariff, showing as a motive Regensburg. But even of a philatelist one can not demand that one is only travelling to places, where a matching issue has been released by the postal authorities in honour to.



The post office in Eisenach was by the time still unrefurbished and had the charm of a still highly functional, but in the lapse of decades somehow used up establishment. Remarkable service in the areas of stamps and parcels by very professional female staff (appearing to me more assured and self-confident than Western women. Impressive!).

And if a further proof should be necessary that I was really in Thuringia by the time, I still remember the prices of the famous local Thuringia sausage on the central place with the cathedral in Erfurt, here it is - DEM 1,00 per sausage (what was a bargain, also by the time). I had to have three of them!

Going from the Rhineland to Thuringia, there must be something in between? But what? Allright, I had to sort in a few new arrivals for my Germany collection anyway, so I looked up the recent 60 pages of my collection of Germany (blanks everywhere, but the demonetisation of DEM-nominated stamps in 2002 and the uncertainty of the sustainability of self-adhesive stamps in mint quality has left its marks on my collecting habit).

My aim: you will find something.
My findings: there is life between Düsseldorf and Weimar.

See the proof on the below shown stamps:



• The intra-German border is gone? No, it is still existing, but today it is a nature preservation area and a hiking path. Golly! I love the stamps's colours.
• Tradition: part of the regions, one travels through, were Prussian and stamps of the Northern Germany Postal Union were in use at some time. The German postal authority commemorated this recently – and they we right to do so.
• These who get hungry on the way, may eat some of the numerous German specialities. German Bread – I have been to many places round the globe and I say, in Germany you will find the best in quality and variety. It was high time for a stamp honouring German bread – and here it is.
• Frankenberg / Eder (German town in the silvan area of Hessia – phantastic timber-framed houses you will be able to discover there. On the stamp: timber-frame with ornamental bricks. The Gourgeous side of Germany.
• The Wartburg – seen as a perfect example of a castle in the German low mountain range areas. – I was there for lunch (well, we are a republic now).
• Perfectly matching to Eisenach and the Wartburg: reformist or depending on the perspective insurgent and populist – Martin Luther – the stamp quotes a well known iconographic depiction of him
• Gotha – and another palace but we are in Thuringia. They had a great number of gentry families (male surplus has often been exported to Britain – Prince Albert for example)
• You will find that on your way everywhere: German woods in low mountain range area (not so many motorways or train lines, small towns, historic buildings and woods – the romantic side of Germany)
• The Brothers Grimm – famous writers and experts in German language. I dare say every child knows them, that is to say their fairy tales. Hessia is marketing themselves as the land of fairy tales. And the silvan areas give indeed an impression of enchantment.
• Gorgeous historic buildings – you will find them everywhere: on stamp an example before the area of styroporising German fascades.

Well, beautiful, isn't it? I always say: stamps a source of inspiration for our senses and mind. That is what they are there for – try that with a label code.

Inspiration for the senses, how about taste and something to eat? I have recently held/prepared a banquet in honour the second stage of my travel (from Morsbach to Biedenkopf – I confess I needed a pretext for gathering friends):
• Asparagous soup
• Oven baked trout with potatoes, green salad and typical Hessian Green Sauce
• Paprikaschnitzel with French Fries and cole slaw
• Apple pancakes
• drinks: wellwater, local beers, Rhinewine – a good Riesling, Doppelwacholder (a Schnaps - double destilled Gin), Coffees

After that you will sing the national anthem, that is the German one, provided that your preperations went well.

And don't forget: licking stamp gum alone will leave you hungry (you have to get up and eat something decent!).

And these were thoughts inspired by only eight years of German stamp issues – and they were even uncomplete. And there is so much more to discover or rediscover in our albums.

What fun collecting can be. Enjoy!

I already picked a restaurant in Limburg to have Grüne Soße, when I ended up in a hospital near Frankfurt. I shall have to return tp Frankfurt to have that Grüne Soße and maybe Flammkuchen, later this year.

I remember a girl in my secondary-school class. Her father worked for the government. I think it was the Ministry of the Interior. They were not allowed to travel to Warsaw Pact countries. For us commoners, there was no such restriction on travel, so we could visit Bulgaria and Romania in the early 80s, Of course, there was no freedom to travel around there. Consequently, we only stayed in horrible coastal resorts.

There are 1,200 of those half-timber houses as depicted on one of those stamps in Quedlinburg in the former GDR. It, certainly, is worth a visit. Alas, COVID struck when I wanted to visit Meißen. The porcelain from that town has been depicted on German stamps. I must still replan that trip.

Travelling? Let's consider what needs to be done to get it going (have a look at the stamps - start at the top, go from left to right).



1. First of all one need's to have to have some time off. Thank the Lord, us Germans are granted a many number of days to claim, much envied by the rest of the world, I suppose. To celebrate holiday making in general, the German post administration released an issue in honour of that – of course at the nominal for an inner-German post card in those days, as it is unconceivable to go on holiday without sending holiday greetings.

2. So, let's get it started, which in my case due to my place of residence needs always to begin in Germany. Black-Red-Gold these are the current German colours. All right, lets's stay in Germany for a the start.

3. In 1996, Eastern Germany was for Western Germans still a sort of an exotic place - as one needs to keep in mind that in those days the peacefull upheavel had happened only a few years before and the transition was far from over. Lets's be grateful that the reunification could be achieved so peacefully and without the shed of blood.

4. So, let's get on...by train...it's only a few hours and one is far, far away..and arrives in Mecklenburg

5. Mecklenburg, or „Ostzone", i.e.. Soviet Occupied Zone as my grandfather who lived a great many years there in Mecklenburg always used to say. And what is one of he most important achievements of Eastern Germany? Of course, it is the „Sandmännchen" or the sandman a now germanwide popular figure in daily TV-broadcast This programm is addressed to children and tells little story at the hour a child usually is taken to bed. One sleeps simply more relaxed after having heard a good story. Let's allow our little ones to indulge a last gentle excitement before of a coming long and refreshing slumber.

6. Early summer in northern Germany, that is where and when you can find fields and avenues as displayed on the stamp

7. Northern Germany, the „Hanse" a powerful German merchants union was able to leavemany architectural artefacts there, which still can be admired to the present day. The Hanse was annihilated by the proceedings of the German 30 years civil war.

8. ...and than we move along the coast line from west to east: Wismar - so beautiful a town is has been declared world cultural heritage

9. Rostock – a town with architectual contrasts

10. The beautiful island of Rügen und ist cliffs

11. Rügen here again in 60-ies design (pastel coloured, nice to look at)

12. Stralsund – the gateway to Rügen - here you see the town hall of that world cultural heritage-town

13. The Baltic Sea shores - with the unique mixture of pine tree woods and sand beaches

14. Sassnitz - ferry haven to Sweden. So, let's ferry over......and see in my next contribution what could be found there…

High time to continue my report. Suppositions that the ship may have sunk and that would be the reason for the delay are false.

On the contrary, the crossing was uncomplicated and after a few hours I landed in Ystad, on Swedish soil.

Oh, Sweden and Scandinavia – especially for Germans a place for longing, may be that is why the stamps of these countries are so popular in Germany (and maybe in your country, too). Why is that? Maybe a sort of soppy hysteria – stories are widespread that Germans (they need to travel – hasn't much changed since Germanic Migration during the Roman Age) surprisingly meet on their voyage – preferably in enchanted woods – beautiful, open and kind blond lasses, who have there waited for them for some years. Isn't it wonderful that she has a cabin by the lake where one can dwell until she is lifted on the back of ones white horse to be taken to Wolfsburg, Leverkusen or Gelsenkirchen (by the way: towns infamous for their industrial compounds – so much for scenic setting) where one works as an industrial engineer….

Marvelously beautiful however, are the stamps of Sweden particularly these from the 1970ies on.
Until then their stamps were mundane, mostly one or two coloured designs in intanglia.

Also after that, most stamps are etched until today, even if nower days offset printing is increasingly used.

Typicall is the form of distribution of special issues in Sweden. Definite issues are being sold from large coils, special issues however are being sold in stamp booklets (that is a combined print of a set in a booklet of light cardboard – which is convenient for storing in a stockbook without buckling. On that cardboard an exemplifying text is printed, by the time only on Swedish – not so difficult to those who are aquainted with Germanic languages).

One needs to esteem the utility use of such booklets: effectively protecting the stamps from harm, containing a number of stamps as stock, perfectly matching into a wallet or a handbag, thus easily to betransport and quickly at hand.

I encountered in Sweden no barrier in language which could not be overcome. English was unproblematic, German was often spoken as well.

After the landing, I took course due west – and after a few kilometers one arrives in the metropole of Malmö. There I visited the main post office in the city center.

In this office a large number of different issues were in stock. We are in the year 1996, the available issues went back to 1992. The annual issues of the last two years were completely in stock, also from the years before numerous issues were at hand. A nice treat for the collector.

Here two examples
a. to familiarise you with Swedish culture: Swedish housing at the domestic rate
b. one of my favourites: early 20th century design – these amazing patterns and magnificent furnishings! Worth being placed even today. I love the blue tapestry pattern. Terrific!



And as the loot was so bountiful another sample
a. Matched wonderfully to he passage to Sweden: historic sailing ships.
b. Historic gold artefacts – also made in intaglia



And that that there is a purpose for stamps might be seen here. Of course, really transported by the postal authorities. Looks smart and intriguing, a nice surprise for the recipient.



And nearly every stamp issued form 1920 on may still be used – whereas the nominal of stamps from the fifties (SEK 0,05 or 5 Öre) is hardly sufficient for current rates. By the way, I could by the time still buy small values. The lowest nominal available was SEK 0,05 that is EUR 0,005

As a collector I felt completely satisfied. One might say this article is an advert for collecting Swedish stamps and this is true. Everything was just so as one could wish for.

I travelled a few days along the coast – and in Halsingborg I traversed the sea for Denmark. But that is another story.