iceland Philatelic magazine An independent journal for collectors of Iceland stamps and postal history EDITOR Brian Flack E-mail address Issue 31/January 2019 [email protected] 1 Iceland Philatelic Magazine Contents Page News 3 Oh, The Things you can learn from Stamp Collecting! William F. Pálsson Airmail cover. 4 M, Schumacher A true manuscript cancel in the 1940s or …..? 5 Feast your eyes on this one. Brúsholt B1a Eivind Kolstad 5 Late use of Norðtunga B1a (Issue 30) 5 Interesting I GILDI cover emerges after more than 40 years – but it is philatelic! Ebbe Eldrup & Ellis Glatt 6 A Danish short cut by a writer in a hurry. Leif Fuglsig 7 Roller cancels Part 3 8 Forgangs-Bréf 11 Iceland Gazetteer Part 23 Árnessýsla David Loe 12 Þjótandi location 19 Cancellation questions for Reykjahlíð and Reynihlíð (Issue 30) 20 Unusual Destinations – L 21 Strange Póstkrafa rate 23 An appeal to our fellow Collectors of Icelandic Crown Cancellations Steinar Fridthorsson 24 Mystery solved - It is REGISTERED LIVERPOOL 24 A bridge cancel question (Ölfusárbrú-Selfoss) (Issue 28) 25 Buy it now before it is too late (ISK 72) 25 1932 Airmail to South Africa 26 Gleðileg Jól 2018 Páll Pálsson 26 Please let me have your articles if you want them in the next issue which will be March 2019. If you need help with translations let me know. The editor will help with the English if necessary. [email protected] 2 News/Comment May I wish all our readers a Happy New Year 2019. The magazine has passed the 3 year mark, and the readership has crept up to 144 during the past year. The national breakdown is as follows:- Iceland 35: USA 35: UK 18: Denmark 15: Sweden 8: Holland 7: Canada 6: Germany 5: Norway 4: France 3: 1 each from New Zealand, Czech Republic, China, Brazil, Hungary, Singapore, Spain and Italy. If you know of any Iceland collector who does not receive the magazine and might like to join the reader list, please put in touch with the editor. My thanks to Vilhjálmur Sigurðsson for news of the introduction of a new B8b1 Colop cancel for the Garðabær office, from 12th November 2018. Cancel devices were replaced at Selfoss (17/5), Patreksfjörður (25/5) and Hvollsvöllur (28/5). That leaves just 12 post offices which have yet to ask for a B8b1 Colop canceller. These are the Reykjavík 2 Póstmiðstöð/Post Terminal, Breiðdalsvík, Djúpivogur, Grenivík, Grundarfjörður, Höfn, Ólafsfjörður, Ólafsvík, Reykjanesbær, Sauðárkrókur, Vík and Vopnafjörður. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Vilhjálmur Sigurðsson announced the opening and dedication of a new post office at Selfoss on 5th December. This is part of the reorganization of the postal service to meet modern needs, reported in IPM two issues ago. The new address is Larsenstræti 1. The old premises closed on the same day. There is no change in the cancels. xxxxxxx From Gunnar Rafn Einarsson, and followed by Vilhjálmur Sigurðsson from the post office, I learned on 14th December that the next day delivery service which commenced earlier in 2018 will be discontinued as of 31st December 2018. The official statement from the post office reads as follows:- Since the Forgangs-Bréf service has been insufficiently used, it has been decided to cancel the service as of December 31, 2018. The service was commenced on February 1, 2018 as soon as the domestic A-mail was cancelled. Customers are advised to use registered letters instead of Forgangs-Bréf; xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx From the Viking Bulletin - Mike Schumacher received Gold for Saga of the Icelandic Horse at FLOREX, November 30-December 2. Congratulations to Mike! 3 Oh The Things You Can Learn From Stamp Collecting! William F. Palsson Airmail Cover M. Schumacher An interesting “Airmail cover from William F. Palsson from Halldórsstaðir, Laxardal via Husavík, Iceland”. What can we learn from this cover? Background information: airmail service in the U.S.A. began on May 15, 1918. Airmail envelopes were typically designed with a colored border, which made it easier for the post office to separate international mail from inland mail. The colors on the border typically are the same as the nation’s flag colors. For example: the U.S., the UK and France – red & blue; Italy – green & red. In Iceland it is known that mail was carried by air as early as 1919. The supplemental charge for Iceland Inland airmail began on June 4, 1928 (10 aur per 20 gm) at which time the Icelandic Postal Administration also announced supplemental airmail charges for destinations initially defined as “Europe”, “Africa” and “America”. Between 1928 & 1931 a small Icelandic airline company rented seaplanes from the Luft-Hansa company in Germany and operated inland airmail service during the summer months. Except for a few pioneering flights by individuals there was no airmail service from Iceland to foreign destinations. Mail for which the supplemental charge had been paid would depart Iceland by sea and be taken to an appropriate port of call and then be directed to foreign air service in Europe to its destination in Europe or by either European or Transatlantic air service to destinations beyond Europe (during the period of June 1928 through June 1929 the air mail supplemental rates were as follows: Europe – 20aur; Africa – 40aur; America – 80aur / per 20gm). This William F. Palsson cover is a typical example of an airmail envelope with a colored border. The style of “Par avion By air mail” marking in the upper left corner in the rectangular box is unusual on Icelandic covers. The “Loftleiðis Par Avion” labels in the lower corners is typical on Icelandic air mail covers. This cover bears 2.5Kr in postage which would be 10aur over payment (likely a convenience overpayment which was typical in small remote locations due to limited availability of stamps as the letter rate was 150aur plus a 90aur airmail supplement) & was postmarked at Halldórsstaðir on January 28, 1952. Halldorsstaðir is a farm in north-eastern Iceland near Husavík. The “Route” that this cover traveled from William F. Palsson at Halldórsstaðir to Kansas City would have been through Husavík before heading by sea to Reykjavík, where it would have been transported by air to the U.S.A. Receiving cancels on the back indicate that it arrived in Kansas City, MO on Feb. 10, 1952 and was handled by clerk # 47. Subsequent cancels indicate Kansas City, MO Central Station on Feb. 11, 1952 and then the Kansas City, MO Kersey- Coates Station on Feb. 12, 1952 (probably before making the return trip to Iceland). The large “Kansas City MO pointing hand return to sender” marking along with other “insufficient address” handstamps is very unusual on an Iceland cover. So a very interesting Icelandic air mail cover! 4 But of course we must wonder – who was William F. Palsson and why was he writing to the Kansas City Zoological Society? William F. Palsson (1896 – 1980) was a well-known bird egg collector; farmer; taxidermist, prolific writer; postman and Philatelist. My Icelandic cover collection contains other covers to and from William F. Palsson that help to provide information about him, such as to and from “The Gossip Printery, Inc.” in Holton, Kansas. The Gossip Printery published the Philatelic Gossip from January 1915 to December 1961 and the Editor was Harry Weiss. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx A true manuscript cancel in the 1940s or...? Seen on Ebay, is this a genuine manuscript cancel, or somebody fooling around in the 1940s? There was no rush of bidding on Ebay, just one in fact. If someone has got a bargain, which office is it likely to be and why use a manuscript cancel at that period? xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Feast your eyes on this one - Brúsholt B1a Eivind Kolstad It shows that great discoveries are still around if you keep looking. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Late use of Norðtunga B1a (Issue 30) The article about Síðumúli strayed on to the subject of the neighbouring Norðtunga collecting office. Jørgen Steen Larsen provided details of his strikes of the B1a Norðtunga, late in to 1965. The date of closure was 31.12.1975. Eivind Kolstad shows this really late cancel. Although the date is blurred, it is on a 1968 flower stamp and he reckons it may be 30.10.68 or 30.12.68. 5 Interesting I GILDI cover emerges after more than 40 years – but it is philatelic! By Ebbe Eldrup & Ellis Glatt Lot 1256 at Frimärkshuset Skandinavisk Filateli AB auction in Stockholm December 8th 2018. Hammer price SEK 13.500, - Rear side of the cover The “postage” can be calculated as follows: Insurance fee for value 3.000 kroner = 3.000/200 x 0,25 = 3,75 kr + parcel rate: package fee by ship 0,25 kr + 10 aur per 500 g (one pound) indicating the maximally allowed weight 10 pounds and thus weight fee 10 x 0,10 kr = 1,00 kr if the postage should be correct; total 3,75 + 0,25 + 1,00 = 5,00 kr as the strip og three and pair of 100 aur with I GILDI ’02-’03 overprint add up to. Postmark: Reykjavik 11-11-1903. Unfortunately, this cover is a pure philatelic product. 6 The cover probably was cancelled at the post office in Reykjavik in November 11th 1903 but it never went into the mail system and certainly never left Iceland in November 1903. The reasons are: 1) The cover has no weight indication for the parcel that according to postage should have been extremely heavy, 8-10 pounds; lack of weight indication on parcels is extremely unusual. 2) There is no arrival postmark/Copenhagen Money Office cancel which is impossible/very, very unusual.