Gallery

 

Mail Pouch Goes Overboard!

While at BALPEX in Baltimore and at INDYPEX later, a dealer in German stamps showed us the above cover. A white label is pasted onto the cover at the left side only, so that it can be raised at the right to expose the recipient’s address. The label states, in essence, that the letter was part of a mail bag (Luftpostbeutel) that fell from a plane that was on its way from Berlin to Danzig. On the 9th of December, 1937, the German plane lost its load over Polish territory, from which the pouch was retrieved and forwarded to Danzig Post Office No. 5, at the Hauptbahnhof. The inscription shows that the Danzig office received the load on the 29th of January, 1938. Below is a reduced—size copy of another cover that is shown in the Arge—Hasseihoff book: Freie Stadt Danzig, 1920—1939. Bewertung Poststempel, 1977. Incidentally, the top cover’s asking price is $1,000.00.

 

Danzig Report Vol. 1 - Nr. 73 - October - November - December - 1991, Page 7.