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Letters to the Editor

At a recent re9ional meeting of the Germany & Colonies Philatelic Society, a fellow member and Zeppelin collector, tan Nutley, mentioned that he had an unusual Luposta flight card (see below) and wondered whether I could give him some information about it. I was able to provide some details about the card but a subsequent exchange of letters with Hans Georg Mencke, who has a very similar card, soon uncovered the full and interesting story.

The card is, of course, the Luposta postal stationery card Michel Cat. PP1b (with 10mm spacing of top address line from stamp imprint and break in the thick address line). An additional lOPf Luposta stamp was added and the card was “favour” cancelled at the exhibition sub post office on 30.7.32, and the card was then handed back to the sender. (Further evidence of this is the fact that the same handstamp was also applied to the back.) Afterwards, the Danzig stamps bringing the value to 1 Gulden were affixed to the card as franking for the Zeppelin flight; then the card was taken to the airport and “favour” cancelled again on 31.7.32 and once again handed back to the sender. It was then handed in to the Graf Zeppelin’s “on-board” post office for the return flight to Friedrichshafen (Sieger ref. l69C). There it was franked to the correct postcard rate of 75Rpf for the flight and dispatched with the German stamps being cancelled by the “on—board” handstamp at midnight (1.8.32).

 

Danzig Report Vol. 1 - Nr. 75 - April - May - June - 1992, Page 20.