Galerie

 

Private airmail surcharge stamps for the Poznan fair
As we are on the subject of airmail letters to and from Danzig, we should also in this work make mention of the private airmail surcharge stamps, that is those that were issued by the Polish air transport company ‘AeroT arg” on th occasion of the Poznan fair from 30.5 to 1.6.6.1921. This company made special flights
a) between Poznan and Warsaw and back
b) between Poznan and Danzig and back.

The corresponding letters were usually additionally franked with the ordinary postage—stamps of the sending country. The stamps of “Aero—Targ” were additionally applied. They had the two value stops 25 Marks and 100 Marks (Polish currency). Whilst the official postage—stamps of the sending country were cancelled in the post, on the other hand the surcharge stamps were cancelled by the company with their own handstamp. However in Danzig the private stamps were for the most part likewise cancelled with the official postmark. In Poznan there followed a cancellation, as mentioned above, with a handstamp in red ink (see illustration). Also the stamps themselves are illustrated alongside. (the cancellation is illustrated below the private stamps on page 17 of the original].


The stamps are found with a perforated strip attached to the lower sheet margin bearing the letters T.A.B.R.O.M.I.K. These are the initials of the distillers Tadeusz Bronislaw Mikolejczyk, who in all probability had borne the costs of production of the stamps.

Because of their primitive manufacture there are many plate and perforation flaws. There are, for example, selvages that are not separated from the stamp by perforation. For greater information on this see the study by Tornow (see bibliography). [Although this seems to have been omitted from the bibliography]. There are also reprints and forgeries. The issue quantity of the stamps was 50.000.
Surcharge              a) for postcards                       25 Marks
b) for letters up to 20g          100 Marks.

The airmail postmarks of Danzig
The airmail postmarks were first introduced from 3.5.1921 even though airmail service had already started in October 1920. The postmarks with their date of introduction are listed below
Postmark legend                                                             Earliest known date
1) Danzig 1 / Luftpost                                                               3.5.1921
2) Danzig la / Luftpost                                                              2.7.1921
3) Danzig 5 / Luftpost                                                               6.5.1921
4) Danzig 5a / Luftpost                                                            25.7.1933
5) Danzig 5 / Südstrecke                                                         23.3.1923
6) Danzig-Langfuhr / Luftpost                                              3.6.1921
7) Zoppot (Freie Stadt Danzig) / Luftpost                       18.4.1923
8) Daposta 1937 Danzig / Luftpost                                     6 — 8.4.1937

In all cases these were oval handstamps (see illustrations) although the proportions varied in breadth and height as well as in the arrangement of the inner parts.

 

Danzig Report Vol. 1 - Nr. 62 - January - February - March - 1989, Page 15.