The Thailand 2023 World Stamp Championship is currently underway. Let's wait and see how the visitors and judges respond to my book...
The Philatelic Manual
Aleš Marinšek
2020
Only a few postal items sent from Šavnik in the spring of 1945 are known...
I will participate in the XIX International Philatelic Exhibition Balkanfila in Belgrade. I prepared two exhibits: the manual "Local Issues of Independent State of Croatia" (see here) and the new, one-frame exhibit, "1944 Senta Provisional Issue." See you in Belgrade from 12. to 14. October ...
I was at a local philatelic meeting today. As always, it was nice to meet fellow philatelists and browse through piles of letters, stationery and stamps.
I am getting a lot of questions about what is happening on this blog. Yes, lately I have plenty of other activities so that philately may be a bit neglected. It will probably be like this for some time. However, I am still available for certification and questions over email.
I recently got a stamp with an interesting error...
Although it is most likely that the entire margin of one sheet was folded, so all ten stamps from the right edge were partially overprinted on reverse, this is the only piece I have seen so far...
I am very proud that the manual is now included in the library fund of the Royal Philatelic Society London...
I just returned from the London 2022 International Stamp Exhibition. Very glad as this was my first philatelic gathering after the pandemic, and another Large Vermeil medal for my 1941 Međimurje exhibit.
Three different rubber censorship cachets were used in Mostar. One was "★VOJNA / CENZURA" (= "★MILITARY / CENSORSHIP"), the other "ЦЕНЗЫРИСАНО!" (= "CENSORED!") and the third "CENZURA" (= "CENSORSHIP").
The last one is interesting because it contains mirrored letter Z. It is unknown whether this was an error in the preparation of the rubber cachet or whether the cachet was of Italian origin where the mirrored Z represents S as CENSURA in Italian means CENSORSHIP.
The Germans occupied the Krmelj in April 1941. During this first German occupation, the post office operated. They used an old one-line KARMEL seal and a newly made German two-circle KARMEL (STEIERM) postmark with counter code A. On October 8, 1941, the Germans left Krmelj to the Italians. The post office continued to operate until the late summer of 1942, when it was closed. It was reopened on January 1, 1943, until August 14, 1943, when it was finally closed. The Italian administration used a two-circle Italian postmark with the inscription KRMELJ / (LUBIANA). During the second German occupation (autumn 1943 - May 1945), the post office Krmelj remained closed.
Double overprints are very rare and known for values of 0.25 and 4 Din only...
After a long period, I had some free time today, which I used to develop a catalog of postmarks of the Ljubljana Province. Here is a preview for one of the post offices showing different periods and different postmark origins. There were a total of 101 post offices, so worth mentioning that a catalog could be generated programmatically.
Anyway, there is still a lot to do, so I hope to have some extra time soon ...
Overprint double occurred only on one horizontal row of No. 17, where one sheet was incorrectly inserted together with another sheet and received two plate strikes. So, altogether only 10 examples with double overprint could exist.
During WWII, Podlipa had a small auxiliary office of the Vrhnika post office. The German army left Vrhnika on May 5 1945, and the next day the abandoned area was held by the Yugoslav army. Nearby Ljubljana and other parts of Slovenia were liberated on May 9. The new regime immediately suspended postal services in the territory of Slovenia - first informally and then, on May 12, also formally. The ban was in effect until June 6. On June 7, the stamps of the Ljubljana Provisional Issue were overprinted and delivered to the post offices in the following days...
Partisan mail was operated by couriers who carried mail between branched relay stations. The senders or recipients were usually in mobile partisan units or stationary bases such as military hospitals. One of such hospitals was SVPB-E, an evacuation hospital that operated in two locations in Bela Krajina near the partisan airport at Otok village. Patients waiting to be evacuated by plane gathered here. The first evacuations were to Italy and later to Dalmatia...
After the Italian occupation of Montenegro and the province of Ljubljana in 1941, the post between these regions was a domestic mail. However, due to the war circumstances and the censorship centres, the shipment routes were quite complicated...
