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The Auxiliary Markings Club (AMC) is one of the philatelic groups I joined earlier this year. This week’s Tuesday meeting had some interesting covers, although the speaker ran through a lot of slides quite quickly. Luckily there is a YouTube, and for the first time in my life, I am the first viewer of a YouTube video. There should be a prize!

Here is a link to the video:https://youtu.be/1p5a8gq3V4U?si=2gfwLlv2xFFgs7-8

The host is Gregg Redner, who is appearing in so many places lately I got confused when my Google calendar gave me a reminder linking to his email invite for Wednesday’s meeting of a completely different group. I thought I had put the AMC meeting in my calendar twice. As a result, I missed the Philatelic Specialists Society of Canada meeting. I hope I can find a video!

Mail is being delivered again I waited a long time to have my Scott 231 cover delivered in this cover. All Though modern it has a mathematical perfect used stamp on it. Its a 2016 stamp so I don't even know the number. The one on the right. Do I destroy a nice Fancy cancel remove the stamp and send for grading to PSE?

Here's where you can sit back and take a break from stamping. In the Lounge you can talk about things that don't always fit in the rest of the forum. 

For example, start a new thread, or add to one, on topics such as:

• A quick review of a stamp show you attended recently
  
• A book or article review
  
• What are you listening to tonight as you work on your stamps
  
• Giving thanks to another club member
  
• Sharing personal news that you want to share ... I just retired, We're celebrating our wedding anniversary, and so on. 
  
• A cool new catalogue or monograph that you've added to your philatelic library
  
• Just about anything you'd like to share, in good taste, with other members. The kinds of things you might share at your table group at a club meeting
  

Have fun!

I bought this from Mark at the last KSC meeting. It looked like it might be fun to analyze and Graham and I were curious about the dates on the cancels. 

I've now had a chance to give it a good look. It's a Shōwa-era cover and was sent from Kanazawa in Ishikawa Prefecture to the Canadian Pacific Steamship Empress of Asia in Nagasaki harbour. 

   
   

The receiving two-ring CDS is dated April 1, 1938 [13.4.1, Shōwa (昭和天皇) 13 = 1938, the 13th year of Hirohito's reign (December 25, 1926 to January 7, 1989). It was processed in the afternoon ... 午後 0–4 [noon to 4PM]. The text is only a partial and muddy, my guess is 金沢中局 [Kanazawa Central Post Office]. This is supported by the return address on the back flap which reads, 14 Nakatakajo, Kanazawa.

   

It is tied to three SG 320 (4s, Green) Admiral Tōgō (東郷平八郎) stamps issued in 1937. The 12 sen franking was the domestic letter rate for a letter weighing more than 40g.

It was addressed in English and Japanese.

The Rev. Mr. John Stinson
Empress of Asia
Nagasaki

長崎市加奈多艦太平洋汽船会社の
エムプレス・アプ、エジア内
[In Nagasaki City, within the Empress of Asia of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company]

The arrival postmark on the back was dated at 長崎 [Nagasaki] on the following day ... [1]3.4.2. [April 2, 1938]. The time mark indicates that it was received during the afternoon ... 午後 4–8 [4-8PM]

   

There is a vertical boxed rectangle with a vermillion hand-stamp on the front. It appear to be 到着 [Arrived]. It's probably not a postal marking. I suspect it's an arrival stamp applied by the local on-shore agent of Canadian Steamship Company. Alternatively, it may have been applied in the ship's mailroom prior to delivery. Other opinions are welcome.

   

There is a manuscript 334 on the front of the cover, in pencil. I assume it's Rev. Stinson's cabin number. In which case, he was traveling first class and had a cabin on the C Deck. 

If my information is correct, the Empress of Asia had left Hong Kong in late March and was scheduled to arrive in Nagasaki on April 2 before continuing on to Kobe and Yokohama. If so, this cover was perfectly timed.

The RMS Empress of Asia was built in 1912 in Scotland for Canadian Pacific Steamships. As well as being a passenger liner between Vancouver, BC, Japan and Hong Kong in peacetime, the ship was an armed merchant cruiser during both world wars. Three years after this cover, in January 1941, she was requisitioned by the British Admiralty.  She was sunk by Japanese aircraft on February 5, 1942 while travelling in convoy from Bombay to  Singapore.

The addressee may have been Rev. John [Wesley Arnold] Stinson (1910-1994) a Canadian missionary in China. In the spring of 1938, shortly after Japan occupied Shanghai, he and Dr. Steward Allen were asked to escort all of the tons of wooden boxes and other missionary baggage that had been stuck in Shanghai. They took a steamer to Hong Kong and travelled on the French Indochina Railway to Kunming. There they hired eight trucks and drivers for a trip along the Burma Road.

[Source: chinamiddlekingdom.siue.edu/omeka-s/s/missionaryphases/item?Search=&property%5B0%5D%5Bproperty%5D=51&property%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=eq&property%5B0%5D%5Btext%5D=John%20Stinson]

Cheers, Hugh

Scott 294 strip of 4 plate # 1172 with guide Arrow

1859 12 cent black ,plate 3, Scott 36 B

Boyd's City express, Scott 20l14, 2c black on green, Scott 10 Early plate #4, New York May 29 1852.

    This is Scott 357 Bluish Paper Boston Mass. Feb 22 1909, Letter was written on first day of stamp use Feb 21,1909 but not mailed until next day a close first day use. Second day will do.     Her I has a 357 Bluish paper Washington D>C. April 15,1909. On Post Card They say they are scarce but they sell every month. I buy some time to time not used but resell them a few months later.

Two illegality uses of Scott 73 Black Jack Used as a revenue stamp on revenue documents.

Its like Hugh said I'm on two other boards. But this one is the most relaxed to post about things I want to have you add too, I'm on Richard Frajolas Board of Philatelics were you must know what your aloud to post about only Philatelic and postal history. We have an  ongoing U.S. census board to keep track of all the covers we purchase. The members are the best experts alive. They write all the certificates for our covers and stamps and have been collecting for as long as they have been alive 70 80 years some of there  other members own the auction houses like Siegal of New York. I've been on there for about 17 years now. I have learned a lot about almost everything, But not everything. I enjoy the chase of maybe its rare and who was that person in the letter, What ship the letter traveled on, or stagecoach or Pony Express, Rates  and so on. I like to  research it all. The Club has always been there for me and my three children. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Happy Collecting.