Germany special Gandhi Postmark Cancel or Gandhi Rubber Stamp?

Hello Gandhi Collectors,

Recently I saw one more Gandhi Special Postmark Cancel from Germany. Thank God this one don't have Emblem of India.

This postmark cancel is different than which was for sale on ebay with Gandhi picture & Emblem of India with CDS of 2nd October 2009. But there are some similarities between this 2 postmark cancel.
1) Picture of Gandhi on postmark cancel.
2) Address (Town) on cover.
3) And lot more..........

It's amazing.!!

Following is the cover which has GANDHI special postmark cancel with CDS of May 6-10, 2009. Seems to me that India is welcoming this stamp exhibition at IBRA(Internationale Briefmarken-Ausstellung) 2009 in ESSEN, Germany. Name & Address is white-out is from this cover by me. If you want to do more research on this I can provide full scan.






After looking in to details on this cover it has 5 Rupees Stamp from India. Which is not sufficient/correct postage required for International mail by Indian post in 2009.
I have following questions about above Gandhi Postmark cancel.

1) What to do with Gandhi and this exhibition(expo) in Germany?
2) Is this offical cancel from IBRA with cachet of stamp exhibition?
3) Which philatelic society of India is Greeting this Exposition?
4) Do Indian Postal Service or Indian Goverment greets this exhibition?
5) Do Indian Embassy in Germany knows about it?
6) It has orange barcode so do you think it is commerical used (with insufficent postage)?
7) If commerically used than how it is valid with Indian stamp or only Indian stamp on cover?
8) Why Indian stamp on German Expo (IBRA) cover? Not sure whether this cover is mailed from India or Germany?

After thinking answers for all above questions, Will you consider this as Special Postmark Cancel or Special Rubber stamp?


Unless I don't get sufficent proof of this cancel, I will call it as Special Rubber stamp.!! Like my kids play with rubber stamps of butterfly, flowers, rainbow, princesses, disney characters etc. This is my personal opinion for this Gandhi Special Rubber Stamp because it is very hard for me to think as Special Postmark Cancel.

After researching for previous Gandhi Postmark Cancel from Germany, I can do research on this myself so I did not contacted Deutsche Post. If someone has contact with IBRA I would like to get more info on this if possible.

This postmark cancel is not as per design guidelines of Deutsche(German) Post. Following are links from Deutsche Post for special cancellation requirements. Check it out for more information.

1) Postal stamp with self promotion used for special anniversary or memorial event.
2) Sonderstempel used for anniversary, festivals, fairs and exhibition.

There is a huge difference in design requirement of this cancel compare to 2nd October 2009 cancel where only POSTHORNS were missing in the postmark cancel.
I think artist/creator of this postmark cancel learned from previous mistakes and make neccesary improvement in next release (bug fix for computer industries) but still there are more bugs.!! Next time they need to fix Gandhi Photo on the cancel so it looks completely different.!!
Why Germany?
According to me something is going on like Germany's BLUM Forgery so Gandhi collectors need to be aware of this kind of activities as currently we see it from Germany than we might see from other countries like it happen in 1969. Also World is very small now compare to 1969 so it is easy to keep your eyes open and you will see something not only in Rubber stamps but also how philatelic material prices are increased by collectors, dealers and reseller.

Let us know if you have more information about this Rubber stamp so we can change it to Postmark cancel. But I think it is a Rubber stamp.!!!

And also Christian Sperber thinks so. You can read his comments by clicking following link.

http://stampsofindia.com/newssite/download/432.pdf

Again thanks for reading this blog post and  Please share your thoughts in the comments section.

Thanks

Ketankumar Patel.
http://gandhistampsclub.blogspot.com

===============================================================
On side note:-

Why collectors, dealers, resellers try to make Gandhi Postmark(rubber stamp) cancel. I am not sure what they are trying to do or prove by making this cancellation and why collectors buy them!!

One think is sure that someone wants to make money and someone wants to make their collection unique by buying expensive Rubber Stamps and win awards.!! But what we are trying to do is that we are not following the principles laid down by Gandhi.

Also it is easier and less expensive to make this kind of Rubber Stamp as no special equipment is need. So I guess greedy collectors and dealers try to take benefit!!

If someone wants to really show their art & creativity than they can start making use of personalized stamps with Gandhi theme, which is also cheap and easy to do. Also this is legal in certain countries so need to worry.

THE STATE EMBLEM OF INDIA & GANDHI Postcards and Postmark Cancel.

Hello Gandhi Collectors,

Recently I saw in philately world there is a great demand of official material and to supply this demand philatelic organisation all around world started using official/emblem of that counrty after getting permission from authorized countries. Today I am writing about "Emblem of India".

http://mha.nic.in/pdfs/STATE_EMBLEM_ACT2005.pdf

Above link will explain why it is ILLEGAL to use EMBLEM OF INDIA without permission of Goverment of India. Also it explain about penalty and fine for using illegally.!!

WHAT IS STATE EMBLEM OF INDIA:

The State Emblem of India is an adaptation from the Sarnath Lion Capital of Emporer Ashoka, who ruled from 272 BC to 232 BC. It is preserved in the Sarnath Museum, near Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. The Lion Capital has four lions standing back to back mounted on a circular abacus. The frieze of the abacus is adorned with sculptures in high relief of an elephant, a galloping horse, a bull and a lion separated by intervening Dharma Chakra (Wheels of Law). The abacus rests on a bell-shaped lotus.

The State Emblem is the official seal of India. As such, use of the State Emblem for official seal is restricted to the President, the Vice President, Union Ministers, Ministers and others Officers of the Central Government including diplomatic missions abroad, Governors, Lieutenant Governors, Chief Commissioners and Administrators of Union Territories and Ministers and departments and offices of the State governments and of Union Territory governments and administrations who have adopted the State Emblem. Offices of Central Government permitted to use distinct emblems of their own may, however, use the same in their seals.

The State Emblem, on demi-official stationery used by Ministers, when printed or embossed should appear on the top left hand corner in blue colour,. The lettering like "Home Minister" or "Ministry of Home Affairs" should appear on the top right hand corner. The demi-official stationery used by officers should be embossed or printed in red colour except when an officer is specifically authorised to use such stationery in some other colour. Names of officers, however, should not be printed on such stationery.

The Members of Parliament may have the State Emblem embossed or printed on their stationery. The colour to be used for the purpose in the case of the Members of the Lok Sabha is green and red for the Members of the Rajya Sabha. Such stationery when supplied by the Chief Controller of Printing and Stationery, does not contain the names or addresses of the Members. But the Members may, at their discretion get such stationery, with their names and addresses printed at private presses approved for this purpose by the Government of India in the Ministry of Urban Development.

Where the stationery used by the Members of Parliament, contains the State Emblem it should not bear words like "Advocate, Supreme Court/High Court" and "Editor…..Journal", below their names in the letter-heads.

The Members of Legislative Assemblies of Union Territfories and the Members of Metropolitan Council of Delhi may have the State Emblem embossed or printed on their stationery. The stationery containing the State Emblem, however, should not bear words like "Advocate, Supreme Court/High Court" and "Editor…..Journal", below their names in the letter-heads.

The State Emblem shall not be used for any trade or profession or in the title of any patent, or in any trade mark or design except in such cases and under such conditions as may be prescribed by the Central Governments under Section 3 of The Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950. Unauthorised use of the Emblem for such purposes is an offence under the Act.

Private persons, bodies of persons and sports associations are not permitted to use the State Emblem on their letter-heads, seats, crests, badges, house flags or for any other purpose except with the permission of the Government.(PIB Features)

Above Postcard is from Croatia with GANDHI postmark cancel issued on Oct 2nd 2009 has "EMBLEM OF INDIA". This is legal as it was issued in presence of Indian Consulate Officer from Embassy of India in Croatia. Also he attended this stamp exhibition.

This was issued during philatelic exhibition tribute to Gandhi from 30.9. to 30.10.2009. in Zagreb at HT Museum. It was exhibit of Mr. Ole-Fredrik Olsen from Norway. Above photo is from opening ceremony ( from left to right : Ivan Libric, president of Croatian Philatelic Federation; Mrs Dunja Radosevic, Director of Museum; Mr. Suresh C. Khurana, Embassy of India; Interpreter; Mr. Ole-Fredrik Olsen philatelist from Norway). This makes that this postcard was issued officially with STATE EMBLEM OF INDIA.

On the postcards are coats of arms of the Croatian Philatelic Federation, OFFICAL EMBLEM OF INDIA provided by Embassy of India and Association Lotos Zagreb. Text on postcard is in Croatian language: Days of Mahatma Gandhi - and "My life - my message".

So to all my fellow collectors if you are buying any postcards, postmark cancellation or any other philatelic material make sure it is offically issued by Indian Goverment or Indian Goverment has given Permission to use that.

Please beware of greedy dealer/reseller who are trying to abuse Gandhi Philatelic collection by creating unbelievable philatelic material.

Let me know if any quesitons or concerns. Any comments or further research on this topic is most welcome.

Thanks

Ketankumar Patel.
http://gandhistampsclub.blogspot.com

Germany Gandhi 1969 Black test stamps or Photographic proof or German Archive proof prints

Hello Gandhi Collector,

Following is interesting blog posts about test stamps which I recently bought it.


Germany has issued a surprising number of "proof prints" commonly called "black prints" or in some cases referred to by the post office as, "test stamps". After stamp is selected they come up with color trials which you will see from different countries but very rarely seen this tests stamps.

These items are officially produced by the post office for a number of uses and generally find their way to collectors, though usually in very limited distribution.

Test Stamp is a label not valid for postage, used by postal authorities on sample mail to test various sorting and cancelling machines or machines that can detect the absence or presence of a stamp on an envelope. May also be known as "dummy" or "training" stamps.



In most cases, the "proof prints" from Germany have been made using the
engraved portions of issued stamps. They are usually imperforate, printed in one color (different than the issued stamp).

If you notice that there is difference in price on the issued stamp and this test stamps. Issued stamp was 20 Pfennig(0.20 Deutsche Mark) where as test stamps are 30 Pfening (.30 Deutsche Mark).

I don't have test stamp of the issued one but I have other 6 test stamp which were created for selection process.

Also not sure why they changed price to 20 from 30 Pfennig.? Need further study for this.

You will also find color trials of this 20 Pfennig stamp in blue,red,green & yellow which you can see on Dr. Rajan's website.

I am specially looking for TEST stamp of issued stamp(20 Pfennig). If someone has this black test stamp of issued stamp, please let us know so we can update this blog.

BTW:- I had returned this because it was not proof but PHOTOGRAPH. I also beleive that this was cut from 1969 yearbook and than photographed to sale as Photographic proof. This is another way to make money from Gandhi Philately items. So in future if you are willing to add in your collection than please make sure it is real.(I don't think it's real!!)

Above is copy of 1969 yearly Germany Stamp book
How you can make TEST stamp.

1) Print above sheet
2) Cut it
3) Print more on kodak paper or any good paper
4) start selling.!!



Again thanks for reading this blog post and  Please share your thoughts in the comments section.

Thanks

Ketankumar Patel.
Shill Bidding on Gandhi Stamps

My First year experience in Gandhi Philately.

My 100th blog post.

Gandhi Stamp Collecting is SCAM. My 3 year experience tell me Yes!!

Gandhi postmark cancel from Germany on 2nd October 2009 - Not Fake!

There has been a tremendous amount of controversy generated due to a blog that appeared here. I have received a few emails and phone calls from my fellow philatelist and readers of this blog.

I have listened to both sides of the fence and here is my perspective and opinion on it.

For the record, I have personally received the cover with the cancel delivered to me by the US Post office at my home from my friend Mr Rajesh Varma in Germany. Additionally the cover also has the "IntelligentMail" barcode printed on it. As time permits I will edit this post and upload the image of the cover.

What we didn't know is that the german postoffice does allow private post marks to be used on covers that are mailed through them as long as correct postage is applied. It's like using your own franking machine or meter mail on a cover.

As technology has improved so has the diversified offerings by the postoffices around the globe. Here in the USA you can upload your own image and make a postage stamp out of it. A unique barcode gets printed along with the stamp. This barcode is used for scanning & sorting. I am not getting into too much barcode related details since it is beyond the scope of this blog.

Similarly, before the barcode, phosphor was used on stamps to enable scanning and sorting by machines. This was invented in the 1960s and it is still continued to be used. The USA Gandhi stamp of 1961 has no phosphor. However subsequent USA issues have phosphor on it. As part of "Operational Efficiency", most USA postoffice do not provide hand cancels anymore. Upon requesting, they will gladly do it for you. The 1969 Gandhi Great Britain stamp has phosphor, but you can easily find one without it which is an error and not a printer waste.

Off late a few sculptress dealers have made their own cancels using quite sofisticated tools and then using them to make First day covers or making commemorative covers on any occasion related to Gandhi. Inflating the price of these worthless covers and duping the collecting community in general. A while back, I had seen a Gandhi Nicaragua miniature sheet with serial number sold on ebay and then subsequently turned around, converted to a FDC and resold on ebay a few days later. The thing which tied both of them together was the serial number on the miniature sheet. Thanks to the digital age we are able to catch these. However the worst of the lot and quite difficult to catch are the ones that are made from the 1969-Gandhi Centenary Issues, specifically the FDCs from countries like Panama for one. These fake first day covers make their way into catalogs and books there by endorsing these covers as genuine with it creating an artificial world of Gandhi collectibles that has a market of it's own.

An additional word of caution out there for 1948 Gandhi FDC collectors. There are a few fakes of 1948-Gandhi-Nepal-Embassy Cancels floating in the market with or without delivery cancels. So be careful.

Like everyone else and including me, Ketan Patel has burnt his fingers on fakes. Fascinated by this German Postmark, Ketan Patel did some investigative work to try and get to the bottom of this. I do commend his efforts on this.

It didn't take too much time and effort for the word to reach Mr Madhukar Jhingan at StampsOfIndia who picked up the phone and contacted Mr Rajesh Varma. I quote what appeared in the weekly newsletter of Stamps Of India, with permission,

"As far as I could with my resources find out is that a certain stamps club brought out its own cancellation on 2nd October, 2009 on occasion of international non-violence day as a protest against the massacre which took place on 11th March 2009 in Winnenden High School in which 16 students and teachers were killed. The German post has permitted to use it only for one day i.e. on 2nd October 2009. Hence according to me these covers are not fake but correctly used with correct postage and postal bar code. False cancellation can be made but postal bar code can no one make or copy. Moreover, here post being private there is no communication between the post offices. So it can be possible that what Winnenden post is doing is not known to the post in Berlin or Frankfurt."

It has also come to my attention that this unique cancel and cover even showed up recently in an award winning exhibit by Mr Pradip Jain, from Patna.

Based on everything above, I can conclude that this is not a fake cover & cancel, nothing out of the ordinary that adds value to one's collection, perhaps glorified to some extent by the coverage it has received from everyone including this blog.

To the readers, I would recommend to focus on the real meaning and occasion it was issued for and specifically for what Gandhi sacrificed his life for.

If anyone has any further comments to make, please directly make it on this blog.

Great Britain Gandhi stamps : 1969 Gandhi FDC with British Force Post Office (BFPO) Postmark Cancellation

3/8/2010

By Ketankumar Patel.

Hello Gandhi Collectors,

Daily you are seeing 1969 Gandhi FDC from UK on Ebay, Delcampe or other stamp shows but today I am going to blog about UK Gandhi FDC with a very different CDS.

Following FDC has Cancellation from British Force/Field Post Office (BFPO) 318, which makes this very unique in my collection. FPO 318 is postoffice on HMS Kent which is part of Allied Regiment. HMS Kent (D12) was a County-class destroyer ship of the Royal Navy from 1960 to 1998. So this is a Naval Cover and I have not seen any FDC which has CDS from Sea (ship).



What is BFPO: The British Forces Post Office (BFPO) provides a postal service to HM Forces, separate from that provided by Royal Mail in the United Kingdom. BFPO addresses are used for the delivery of mail in the UK and around the world.
BFPO is based at RAF Northolt in North West London

What is a BFPO Number?

British Forces Post Office Numbers (Static) are for a given location, and/or group of isolated detachments.

British Forces Post Offices Numbers (Ships) refers to a specific ship, regardless of its location, although it may refer to some land based naval establishments.

Addressing format for BFPO mail:

Service No Rank Name
Unit/Regt
Operation Name
BFPO No

Please be advised that the Town and Country must not be included in the address. 

Do you think this FDC is unique or rare?

If you have any some what similar FDC than please share with all of us and make it an interesting topic to read. So please check your collection or refresh your memory and start sharing.

Any questions, concerns or comments are welcome.

Thanks
Ketankumar Patel.
My First year experience in Gandhi Philately.
My 100th blog post.
Gandhi Stamp Collecting is SCAM. My 3 year experience tell me Yes!!
(My Son's blog http://usapostman.blogspot.com)

My favorite Blog post:- My experience of Gandhi collection.

Gandhi FDC with British Force Post Office (BFPO) Postmark Cancellation

Hello Gandhi Collectors,

Daily you are seeing 1969 Gandhi FDC from UK on Ebay, Delcampe or other stamp shows but today I am going to blog about UK Gandhi FDC with a very different CDS.

Following FDC has Cancellation from British Force/Field Post Office (BFPO) 318, which makes this very unique in my collection. FPO 318 is postoffice on HMS Kent which is part of Allied Regiment. HMS Kent (D12) was a County-class destroyer ship of the Royal Navy from 1960 to 1998. So this is a Naval Cover and I have not seen any FDC which has CDS from Sea (ship).



What is BFPO: The British Forces Post Office (BFPO) provides a postal service to HM Forces, separate from that provided by Royal Mail in the United Kingdom. BFPO addresses are used for the delivery of mail in the UK and around the world.

BFPO is based at RAF Northolt in North West London

What is a BFPO Number?

British Forces Post Office Numbers (Static) are for a given location, and/or group of isolated detachments.

British Forces Post Offices Numbers (Ships) refers to a specific ship, regardless of its location, although it may refer to some land based naval establishments.

Addressing format for BFPO mail:

Service No Rank Name
Unit/Regt
Operation Name
BFPO No

Please be advised that the Town and Country must not be included in the address.

Do you think this FDC is unique or rare?

If you have any some what similar FDC than please share with all of us and make it an interesting topic to read. So please check your collection or refresh your memory and start sharing.

Any questions, concerns or comments are welcome.

Thanks

Ketankumar Patel.
http://gandhistampsclub.blogspot.com

Chile 1974 Gandhi FFC

Hello Gandhi Collectors,

This post is about the Chile Lufthansa 1974 First Flight Cover (FFC) that features 2 Green Gandhi Chile (Ovpt.) stamps.

FFCs are issued when a new Flight Service is started between 2 places, or to commemorate a Special Flight. The covers are affixed with corresponding Airmail stamps, sent aboard flights, applied with the official delivery postmark, and then returned to the sender’s address. In most probability, the sender has an arrangement with the Airways or its branch at the Airport to return the covers to him safely. FFCs were produced in plenty by the German Airways Lufthansa, and also certain airlines in the USA.

There are some examples of FFCs being used with Gandhi stamps, but almost none of them have a direct thematic connection to Gandhiji. This above Chile FFC is an exception. This FFC was prepared in during the 1974 Football World Cup held in Germany, and was issued for the Flight which carried the Chilean National team to Frankfurt. Below featured Card was also issued for the same occasion:

What is interesting and little-known is that during his stay in South Africa, Mahatma Gandhi was closely associated with Football. In fact, Gandhi was the Manager of a Football club known as the “Passive Resisters”. Below is a photo showing Gandhi with his club members:

True to his ideals, the Mahatma educated the young club-members on the positives of non-violence, and also encouraged his team to use lesser aggression in their games during his half-time lectures.

Sadly, the club did not have a very long run, and in the absence of Gandhi, it closed in 1936.

Nikhil Mundra

www.gandhistamps.com

================

US Gandhi cover from US Embassy travelled through US Navy (Naval cover).

As I mentioned in my previous blog post about Naval cover are covers that are from or to Navy personnel stationed overseas or offical purpose for Navy office. Above cover is is not from or to Navy personnel or Office but still carries US Navy FPO, AP 96515 postmark cancel.!!!



From Address is

XXXXX
PSC500-26
DPO, AP, 96515
USA


By looking to this address if you are aware of USA states abbreviations that there is no AP state. Also city name is also weird as never heard about DPO.

I did some research and found out that that this cover is from Embassy of United Sates in Manila, Philippines and send to Venezuela.

This is Diplomatic mail as it was send from US Embassy so it was not carried out by Philippines Postal Service but it was handle by United States MPSA division.

Name: XXXXX
Street Name: PSC500-26
City: DPO (Diplomatic Post Office)
State: AP (Armed Force Pacific)
Zip: 96515


Following will explain how I found out all this.!!



Until 1980, each of the U.S. military Services managed their own mail program. In 1980, the United States Department of Defense (DoD) created Military Postal Service Agency (MPSA) to perform this task with USPS and has a jointly-staffed headquarters located in the National Capital Region. MPSA is required to adhere to United States Postal Service (USPS) rules, federal laws, and various international laws and agreements for movement of military mail into over 85 countries.

USPS and MPSA has addressing scheme so US Military/Navy/Airforce receive mail from family,realtives and friends. Also now a days online retailer ships directly to US Military personnel stationed overseas.

DPO : [Diplomatic Post Office ] : Used by U.S. Embassy.

Following link is US Embassy address in Manila, Philippines.

http://manila.usembassy.gov/wwwh3029.html

So by looking all above mentioned things I had concluded that this Gandhi used cover is from US Embassy and travels through Sea from Philippines to Venezuela. It might have also travelled through Air otherwise it will take long time to reach there.

Thanks for reading and you are welcomed to leave any comments about any questions or concerns.



Thanks

BTW: I had never seen Gandhi Stamp on Embassy covers of any countries so this is a very unique cover for me.