What makes this cover special?

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  • 7 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • edited April 2022 0 LikesVote Down
    Japan, China, USA -- Pretty nice! pre Japan invasion pre revolution? English cancels + Customs? very collectable
  • Interesting cover Walter.
    It looks like it's Japan 74, with a late usage (sold in 1883, not used until 1897). LOVE that it was sent from Yokohama to Indiana. (Not a common expectation to find a cover from the 1800's from Japan to an obscure area of Indiana -- Wilson, a dot of a town north of Louisville, K).

    So the weirdness is in the routing and the postage. It has a Japan stamp applied, with a 12 Jun 1897 Ming PO (though this is a romanization cancel), it appears to arrive in Shanghai on 13 Jun (back stamp), gets canceled in Shanghai (postal cancel) on 21 Jun, progresses to Yokohama, arriving 26 Jun. It then arrives in Tacoma Washington on 16 July, and would have then made its way to Wilson Post Office in Indiana.

    It is odd that it has a Japanese stamp, but originates from China...
    I'm kind of questioning if it's authentic. There are a few things that are a little odd, (Chinese cancel on a Japan stamp, the Japanese cancel is entirely Romanized and it's not using the "Japanese Year"). Even today most of Japan uses the "era" of the number of years that the sitting emperor has been in power for their "Year" with the era name added. I'm not saying that is definitive, but it's odd.
  • edited April 2022 0 LikesVote Down
    LOL,, faster mail than most countries these days!! about 35 days on boats! could be missionary cover from a mission in Shanghai?
  • Well, we don't know how long it took them to walk it from Tacoma to Indiana... ><
  • LOL! so true
  • edited April 2022 0 LikesVote Down
    Being revenue nut.. i love the customs and the back Shanghai cancel? not sure what it is time stamp?- revenue office? the paid all cancel i guess has to do with revenues as most hongkong revenues had similar cancels maybe posted from a Japanese post office in china? consulate? as for authenticity.. odd that the Shanghai cancel and the Yokohama one are so similar? obviously at the least made by the same company? maybe both cancelled in China at a consulate?
  • It's postage used postally, not revenue. The nor customs. There's no customs processing on regular mail.
    The main problem with the backs tamp is it's not very clear, and half of it missing. I'll see if I can enhance the stamp, and get a reading on the Kanji.
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