Gallery

Danzig Report No. 11

DANZIG REPORT  -  -  STUDY and RESEARCH GROUP

Editor: John H. Bloecher Jr., 1743 Little Creek Drive, Baltimore, Md. 21207

Mr. Delavan C. Clos of Newport News, Virginia, has sent for our inspection two of the great rarities of Danzig philately : HISTORY OF DANZIG’S MAIL AND POSTAL CANCELLATIONS. These two booklets, as well as some in Bud Hennig’s collection, comprise all that we have heard of in recent captivity. If any of you readers have seen other booklets, please let us know. Mr. Clos has also sent an interesting article that appeared in the Deutsche Briefmarken Zeitung in April 1966, describing the failure of the 1964/65 Michel Spezial Katalog to list correctly all of the Danzig booklets HISTORY OF DANZIG’S MAIL AND POSTAL CANCELLATIONS. A revised listing appeared in later editions, but the catalog still differs from the article in minor respects; e.g., No. MH-5a and MH-7b. (The article appears to be written by a K. Bohm.)

Mr. Clos quotes from correspondence with the author:

After many inquiries among Danzig collectors, I succeeded in compiling the list published in DEZ 4/66. The difficulty of this ‘work’ arose from the fact that to this day I myself have never seen a single booklet These booklets are among the greatest Danzig rarities since they are almost completely used up. As far as I know, to this date they have not been offered in auctions, so that, unfortunately, I cannot refer you to any dealers who might eventually offer you one. An advertisement in DBZ was unsuccessful.

The DBZ article referred to above describes the difficulties in acquiring the booklets and quotes from the 1926 Kohl-Handbuch:

About the middle of October 1925, I sought in Danzig booklets at face value and paid 1.80 Gulden. These were comprised of 3 sheets of the 6 Marks to 5 Pfg., 10 Pfg. and 15 Pfg. The interleaves of silk paper between the 3 sheets of stamps contained advertising.

The author continues to say that 8 booklets appeared between 1925 and 1938, with his analysis following on the next page:

 

Danzig Report  Nr. 11 – September - October - 1976, Page 1.