Tl-IE AIRPOST JOURNAL I I I . •NOVEMBER 1937 The World's First Aimail Stamp ON FLOWN COVER The First Official Airmail Stamp of the World was issued hy Italy in May, 1917, for an experimental flight from Turin to Rome and return. • We offer this stamp (Italy No. 1001) as follows: SPECIAL POSTCARD with printed cachet, franked with the World's First Airmail Stamp, special P.O. Cancellation (Airmail), flown from Turin to Rome ..................................... $2.00 • FLOWN COVER, franked the same as above, but flown on the return flight from Rome to Turin ........ $2.00 • SPECIAL PRICE for both Cover and Card, complete round trin .................................. $3.50 We only hi:;'Ve a few of each item in stock. Money refunded in case we are sold out F. W. KESSLER 551 FIFTH AVE. NEW YORK. N.Y. mately by the current rate of exchange BY JAMES c. HEARTWELL which are as follows: One Philippine 341 Carroll Park West Islands peso (lOOc) equals 50c U.S.A.. Long Beach, Calif. one Macao pataca ( 100 avos) equals 31c U.S.A., one Hong Kong dollar (lOOc) equals 3lc U.S.A., and one Shanghai TARTING with the .Tune 9th issue dollar (lOOc) equals 30c U.S.A. A lettei S of WESTERN STAMP COLLECTOR to the United States therefore costs in and appearing intermittently, a column U.S.A. money from Manila, 50c: from was originated to include items per. Macao, 93c; from Hong Kong, 85c, and taining to the extension of the F .A.M. from Shanghai ONLY 44c I Route #14. Readers were encourag:ng. ly responsive and as a result the column • includes close to 100 p::iragraphs. Covers From Francis J. Field's "Aero Field" to the many points were described, but o.f last May, we learn that one of the as this information is now common recent issues of official air mail labell. knowledge, we are taking notes from from Hong Kong was produced by long­ here and there in the column and pre­ term inmates of the local peniteniary senting them below as we feel that :-nd from the description it appears readers of the AIRPOST .JOURNAL may these were the ones used on the· Clipper find some facts of interest among them. ship covers. • • C. McR. Plummer of Bolivar, Tennes- Face values of stamps on covers car­ see,_ informs that the bird used in the ried from M:anila, Macao, Hong Kong two globes cachet applied at San Fran­ and Shanghai may be figured approx! cisco, Honolulu and Guam to mail going 11> OFFtCIAL PUBLICATION OF THE • AMERICAN AIR MAIL SOCIETY TJ-IE AIRPOST JOURNAL e NOVEMBER 1937 VOL. IX. NO. 2 e ISSUE 91 lOc · PER COPY 3 THE Al RPOST JOURNAL to Macao and Hong Kong, is the Chinese stamp at San Francisco. wild goose, symbolic of messenger and mails, and that the ship is a junk-not Macao covers seem to have purple ca­ an old-time clipper ship as we errone­ chets usually. though several have been ously suggested. seen with the cachet in blue........ Mr. Erle calls to attention the fact that many col­ Joseph Barkman of East Tawas, Mich. lectors, or would-be collecors, take it reports a San Francisco-Macao cover for granted that the cachet on Hong that made the trip to Macao without Kong to U.S.A. covers were put on by the stamps being cancelled at San Fran· HONG KONG! This, of course is not so, cisco. The writer has a cover from and is easily explained by showing the Macao-San Francisco that made the Hong Kong covers wih Manila's received- flight to the United States without the cachet........ Others. according to Mr. Erle, stamps being cancelled at Macao. overlook the fact that Hong Kong Clip­ per and not the China Clipper, carried Two covers have come to our at­ the mail between Manila, Macao and tention which were lacking postage of Hong Kong. The China Clipper did not the proper amount. One reported by extend its route to the new stops, but Everett Erle, editor of the "Pacific Phil­ made connections with the Hong Kong atelist", came to San Francisco from Clipper at Manila so that the FAM Route Macao by REGISTERED mail with onll- #14 was properly extended. 285 avos, whereas the unregistered fee alone is 305 avos. On hand is a cover Many round the world covers have been which slipped through to us from Macao recorded by various periodicals, but var­ with· only 113 avos, the amount of a ious other covers to and from point~ Macao to Guam letter. The Macao clerk beyond M:icao and Hong Kong have applied the handstamp "Par Avian-de not been listed. Fred Wilde of Compton, • . a . .'' and filled in the 19.st line in Calif., has a Brisbane, Australia to U.S.A. writing to make it read "de Macao a ccver; George Wood of San Pedro, Calif. Guam." Obviously intended to be a one from Bandoeng, Dutch East Indies: Macao to Guam cover. the item slipped another Australian cover is reported through and received the May 4th back· from Mangoplak, New South Wales, and ..., .. • C.N.A.C. DOUGLAS DC2's on the line at Lungwa Airdrome, Shanghai. These ships carry mails over Chin:i's routes. connecting with F.A.M. 14 at Hong Kong. -C.N.A.C.- P.A.A. photo. 4 NOVEMBER 1937 • SHANGHAI cover bearing a specially printed cachP.t a.lid a twoMcolor map of the transMPaciflc air route.-Courtesy of Walter Bruggmann, Manila. \RI: -~ 851 I still another from Adelaide to Mrs. Clarence H. Dawson in a letter to the Frances S. Walker of Toronto. "Weekly Philatelic Gossip", states that the reason for the high number of covers Mr. Plummer, previously mentioned, carried to Honolulu, compared to th~ . has a U. S. A. to Golden Square, Victoria, small number to Guam and Manila, was Australia cover. He states the lette1 due to "Navy Mail." The fleet spent the took 18 days from San Francisco to Mel­ week end following the April 21st flight bourne, just a few days under fastest in Hawaii and many relatives of the steamer connections,_ but that the direct s.:>.ilors took the opportunity to write air line, San Francisco to Melbourne via . them via that first flight. Auckland, New. Zealand, will cut the time from 18 days to about eight! E. B. Holton mentions in his column in the "Weekly Philatelic Gossip" that he , F. C. Crosslin of Ashland, Ore., sent was successful in · obtaining something some covers to Ohau, New Zealand, ana different when he received a cover flown I. K. Smith of Lancaster, Calif., posted EASTWARD bearing U. S. stamps. The one to Whangarei, New Zealand. Tom cover was cancelled U.S.S. Sacr:i.mento, Metcalfe of San D '. m~s. Calif., mailed with Canton. China in the killer bars some letters to a relative in Teheran, Persia, and with the China Clipper ex­ tension flight starting them on their way they reached their destination in 39 days. This Month's Cover But, the letter which brought them back from Teheran came through without ben­ THE CLIPPER OVER efit of air service in 20 days! Figure CHINESE JUNKS that one out. • An historic Hong Kong harbor H. D. Sterling of Santa Monica, Calif.. scene taken on the inaugural of trans­ possesses a Singapore - U.SA. cove1 Pacific air service on F.A.M. 14 be­ franked with Malaya, Straits Settlements tween the United · States and China. We present this prize photo through stamps, and he also has a Honolulu­ the courtesy of the Pan American Macao cover novelty franked with a Airways. single U.S. 50c trans-Pacific stamp and an 189'4 Hawaiian 2c brown stamp. 5 THE AIRPOST JOURNAL r -. SALVADOR WILL ISSUE U.S. CONSTITUTION COMMEM­ ORATIVE AIR MAIL San Salvador, Oct. 21, 1937-The Gov­ ernment of El Salvador, by DECREE No. 1564, calls for the issuance of the fol­ lowing stamps, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the CONSTITUTION of the United States of America: 600,000 stamps of 8 centavos for ordinary postage, background and frame in dark blue. 30,000 stamps of 30 centavos for air mail surtax, background and frame in dark brown. To be printed from engraved steel plates, these last to be destroyed as soon as work is finished. Size of stamps: 50mm. x 30mm. and to be done in five colors. Design. back­ ground of volcanic or Andean mountains. Subject: Flags of El Salvador and of the United States in natural colors; Torch of Liberty; Book of the Constitution. The air mail stamps will have added, an air­ plane in. flight. These commemoratives will be on sale as soon as they are turned in to the General Post Office, and the regular or ordinary 8 centavos, and the 30 centavos air mail stamps that are in use, will be retired from circulation until such time as the commemoratives shall have been • LOADING sacks of air mail for the first trans-Pacific fli~ht from sold out.-Rafael Alexander D. San Francisco: • and bears a Manila-U.S.A. cachet. OPEN HOUSE AT GOTHAM Can anonye straighten us out on this Friday, October 1st, found the Gotham one point? Collectors seem to think Stamp :and Cover Club, Chapter 8, of they have first flight reduction rate the A.A.M.S.. holding its regular Open covers, as follows: Manila to Guam, House Night. Over 75 members and Honolulu and San Francisco; Guam to friends were present.