Postal History Journal
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Postal History Journal NUMBER 165 OCTOBER 2016 P OSTAL H ISTORY J OURNAL, N O. 165, O CTOBER Africa to Europe Air Mail 1961-1973 * The U.S. Zone Improvement Plan 20 * 16 Oregon Statehood Centennial * U.S. APOs in Casablanca from 1942 * Mormon Post Offices in Southern Alberta, Canada * Rogers Philatelic Blue Book 1893 Now is the right time to consider selling your specialized collection. Kelleher is proud to have countless bidders and buyers in every conceivable philatelic specialty throughout the world—you name it. There’s no be�er place to sell your specialized collection. Count on Kelleher to help you. Quite frankly, there is no be�er source in the world for every form of worldwide postal history. And because of this—as one might expect— there is no be�er venue in the world for you when it comes time to sell your cherished collection. Daniel F. Kelleher Auctions, LLC America’s Oldest Philatelic Auction House • Established 1885 60 Newtown Road., PMB #44 Danbury, CT 06810 USA +203.297.6056 • Fax: +203.297.6059 [email protected] www.kelleherauctions.com Postal History Journal Published by the Postal History Society APS Affiliate No. 44 issued February, June, October. Annual dues $35 U.S., $40 Canada & Mexico $50 rest of world (or $15 for electronic journal, special to non U.S. members only) P.O. Box 468101, Atlanta GA 31146, U.S.A. www.postalhistorysociety.org For this journal, the editors have been awarded the American Philatelic Congress Diane D. Boehret Award 2014; Reserve Grand Stampshow 2015; gold medals Napex 2009, Colopex 2007, Chicagopex 2015, APS Stampshow 2015. NUMBER 165 ISSN 0032-5341 OCTOBER 2016 Editors: Diane DeBlois & Robert Dalton Harris, P.O. Box 477, West Sand Lake NY 12196, U.S.A. <[email protected]> Editorial Board: Yamil H. Kouri; Roger P. Quinby; Harlan F. Stone; Stephen S. Washburne; & U.S. Associate Editor: Kenneth Grant, E11960 Kessler Rd., Baraboo WI 53913 <kenneth. [email protected]> Foreign Associate Editor: Daniel Piazza, National Postal Museum, P.O. Box 37012 MRC 570, Washington DC 20013-7012 <[email protected]> Advertising Manager: Michael Mead <[email protected] CONTENTS © Copyright Postal History Society 2016. Publication supported by a bequest of Jesse and Diane Boehret. RESEARCH FEATURES 1961-1973 AIR MAIL from TANGANYIKA and TANZANIA to EUROPE: Inferring Rates from a Census of Postal Covers by David M. Frye ................................................................................................................ 2 ZONE IMPROVEMENT PLAN: The Story of Mr. Zip by Alex Gill ......................................................................................................................... 7 The OREGON STATEHOOD CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION by Ralph H. Nafziger .......................................................................................................... 12 The U.S. ARMY POSTAL SERVICE in CASABLANCA from 1942 by David Stotter ................................................................................................................. 20 Post Offices the ORO DPOR into OUTR RT, anada Part I: Glenwood & Hill Spring District by Dale Speirs ................................................................................................................ 27 COVER ILLUSTRATION ......................................................................................................... 58 REVIEWS & COMMENTARY OUR POST OFFICE: TWO VIEWS by Terry Hines ................................................................ 32 500 YEARS of POSTAL HISTORY in EUROPE by Diane DeBlois ....................................... 34 WORLD STAMP SHOW - 1893 STYLE by Stephen Sheppard with Diane DeBlois ............. 35 MORE ARRIVALS and DEPARTURES of ITALIAN STEAMERS by Joseph J. Geraci ....... 59 AMERICAN POSTAL HISTORY in OTHER JOURNALS by Ken Grant .............................. 40 FOREIGN POSTAL HISTORY in OTHER JOURNALS by Joseph J. Geraci ................ ........ 45 SOCIETY FORUM PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE, Yamil Kouri ................................................................................ 61 POSTAL HISTORY SOCIETY OFFICERS and BOARD of DIRECTORS ................... ....... 19 The EDITORS’ CORNER ....................................................................................................... 64 POSTAL HISTORY JOURNAL, NO. 165: OCTOBER 2016 1 1961–1973 Air Mail from Tanganyika and Tanzania to Europe: Inferring Rates from a Census of Postal Covers by David M. Frye Introduction After a long and complex history as part of German East Africa and then as a colony in British East Africa, Tanganyika became an independent nation on December 9, 1961. The new country preserved the British monetary system, denominating its postage stamps in shillings and cents, and issued its first set of postage stamps on its day of independence. Continuing through 1967, Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda jointly operated the East African Posts and Telecommunications Administration, which shared responsibilities for postal matters.1 On April 26, 1964, the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar was formed. Renamed the United Republic of Tanzania on October 29, 1964, the country issued the first postage stamps of Tanzania on December 9, 1965, the fourth anniversary of independence. The country’s second set of definitive stamps, featuring fish, was released on December 9, 1967. Postal covers from this period that use these definitive issues are not particularly difficult to find, nor are they particularly expensive to acquire. With patience and diligence, a postal historian can accumulate a sizeable collection of covers. Making references to rate tables marks the typical method for interpreting the connections among the origins, destinations, frankings, postmarks, auxiliary markings, and services reflected on postal covers. These resources, constructed of information gathered from government announcements and bulletins, typically provide the beginning dates of postal rates, rates for various destinations, and charges for basic and supplemental postal services. Thus, for instance, one can refer to a resource summarizing surface and air mail rates by weight to destinations in the United States from 1950 to 1971.2 More detailed summaries exist for Tanganyika’s colonial period 3 than for its post-independence period. One researcher has noted that the raw material for constructing rate tables for post-independence Tanganyika and Tanzania resides in relatively inaccessible microfilm repositories of government publications.4 In the absence of accessible and comprehensive summaries of the dates, destinations, services, rates, and weights for post-independence Tanganyika and Tanzania, a census of covers, from which a reasonably detailed summary can be extracted, can serve as the foundation upon which to begin building a comprehensive summary of the details of Tanzania’s post-independence postal services. Because the focus of this paper is to propose and demonstrate a methodology for building this summary reference, the census will focus a portion of the country’s postal services: air mail from Tanganyika and Tanzania to European destinations from December 19, 1961 to May 3 1973. These dates come from the earliest and latest mailing dates of covers in the census and represent the period that begins soon after Tanganyika’s independence and ends several months before Tanzania issued its second set of definitive stamps in December 1973. The beginning date of the census could be advanced ten days to span Tanganyika’s postal services from their inception. The ending date is arbitrary, although it occurs late enough in 1973 to cover most of the postal activity that occurred before the issuance of the butterfly definitive series in December 1973. The census is restricted to air mail letters without additional services mailed to European destinations during the chosen period. Thus, the census does not include aerogrammes, postal 2 POSTAL HISTORY JOURNAL, NO. 165: OCTOBER 2016 cards, parcels, printed matter, and supplemental services, such as registry fees. Additional study will focus on mail in these classes sent to other destinations. This paper characterizes the postal covers comprising the census, presents a summary of the rates paid at each mailing date, extracts the basic rates from the tabular summaries, examines and explains the reasons for covers with franking rates that appear to break the proposed rate summaries, and presents suggestions for extending the census to determine additional details of the period’s rate structure. Method An accumulation of covers bearing post-independence Tanganyika or Tanzania postage stamps was assembled. From this larger accumulation, 34 covers with destinations in European countries were selected for further analysis. All covers in this subset included discernable postmarks, intact franking, legible delivery addresses, and indications, either in the form of air mail envelopes or other auxiliary markings, that the senders intended to post the letters by air mail. Examination of each cover produced a census entry cataloguing the originating and destination addresses, destination continent, postmark date, auxiliary markings, total franking, and a list of the particular stamps appearing on the cover. From this larger set of data, the postmark date and total franking were selected for further analysis. Results and Discussion Of the 34 covers, 28 showed frankings between TZS 1/30 and TZS 1/50, where TZS is the recognized currency designation for Tanzanian shillings and the solidus (/) is the preferred separator