Monday, April 30, 2012

Whaletown, British Columbia

Whaletown is a small community on Cortes Island in British Columbia (Canada). I had read that the Whaletown Post Office was using an old split ring hammer to cancel mail. It's known as a split ring because the ring around the cancel is split or broken by the name of the town and province. They've been using this cancel since 1894 and apparently it is the oldest cancel of its type still in use. I wanted to see if they still use it so I sent this little cover over and this is what I got back.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Koldewey Station, Ny-Ålesund, Norway

This cover came back to me today from the AWI's Koldewey Station in Ny-Ålesund. Koldeway was originally a German research station but the AWI merged its Arctic research operations in Svalbard with the French IPEV and now conduct their research in the Archipelago jointly.



I sent this cover to the AWI headquarters in Bermerhaven, kindly requesting that it go up to Koldewey station and be mailed back to me. And at the time I was under the impression that all of the station's mail was somehow returned to Bremerhaven where it would enter the mail stream so I stuck some German postage on it. But in hindsight, why would they do that?!? It's in Ny-Ålesund; home of the world's most northern post office. I should have just mailed it directly to the station with the correct Norwegian postage on it. Fortunately someone up there (thank you very much whoever it was) was kind enough to stick the correct postage on it and mail it back to me through Ny-Ålesund.

Two reasons I'm glad this came back through Norway Post: 1) It has a different version of polar bear franking labels on it (these were either older labels, or labels used exclusively in Svalbard... can't recall) and 2) it has the new Ny-Ålesund postmark on it.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Germany, Titanic Postmark


A postmark from Hamburg Germany to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Thank You Martin.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Canada, Titanic Numismatic FDC

Canada Post issued their Titanic stamps on 5 April 2012 and 10,000 of these first day coin covers were produced. I'm not too interested in the Titanic anniversary but I collect coins and I lik the look of this cover. Glad I bought one when I did because they are now sold out online and I no longer see them available at my local post office. 



The stamp used on the cover is the self adhesive international rate stamp and the coin was available from the mint on its own earlier this year.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Nordkapp, Norway

Norway's Nordkapp post office is located in the North Cape visitor center which is near the edge of the cliff at the end of the tourist area. The area is generally considered to be the Northern most point of mainland Europe.


Saturday, April 14, 2012

Kenya and Nicaragua

I received a surprise in the mail the other day from friend and fellow polar enthusiast Bhavin.



I love the Giraffe stamps from Kenya and the Nicaraguan PPRG issue was one I did not yet have. Thank You very much Bhavin!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Mariehamn, Åland

The postmark on this one is for the 20th anniversary of the Åland Peace Institute in Mariehamn.