VOL . XXVIII, NUMBER 5

SEPTEMBER 2002

American HelvetiaPhilatelic Society

Internment Camp Location Handstamp sby Bob Kinsley

Dick Hall's Beans, Bananas, and Snakesreview of the 10+5 value (Scott B101) of th eHistoric Monuments issue of March 1940, issue dfor the benefit of "our soldiers" as identifie

d trilingually in the selvedge, sent me checking mycopies. These stamps were favor "cancelled" byinternment camp location handstamps which ,although prepared and authorized by th eDirector of Field Posts, saw little if any use o ncamp correspondence .

As background, in World War I the bilingual location handstamps simply identifie d

the city in two lines (Figure 1), normallyaccompanied by a civil postmark, and wereextensively used on picture postcards .

Figure 2discovered that the handstamp lacked "freepostage" (franc de port) and it was withdrawnfrom use in less than a week .

(continued on page 4)

Figure 1

In World War II a new Military Internee sPost section was hurriedly established t oaccommodate the influx of some 30,000 Frenchof the 45th Army on the 16th and 17th of Juneand began operations on the 19th of June ,1940 . The first internment handstamp rushedinto service to accommodate the French soldier swas a simple double-line circle around a Swis scross, shown in Figure 2 on a YMCA cover ofJune 21 1940 from a soldier at Kappelen. TheMilitary handled such correspondence, and civi lpostmarks are the exception. It was quickly

Figure 3

ContentsInternment Camp Location Handstamps 1

Speakers for Our Seminar? 2President's Message 2CHICAGOPEX 320th Century Swiss Postal History - A n

Overview: Part 2 4Switzerland's Inverted Airmail Surcharge on a

Postage Due Card 9The Fastidious Postal Clerk? 12Matterhorn Meanderings 13

AHPS Website : http://www.swiss-stamps.org

Copyright 2002, The American Helvetia Philatelic Society(AHPS) . TELL (ISSN 1042-2072) is the official journal of theAmerican Helvetia Philatelic Society, affiliate #52 of theAmerican Philatelic Society and a member of the Union ofSwiss Philatelic Societies . TELL is published bimonthly(Jan/Mar/May/Jul/Sep/Nov) .

Opinions expressed in this journal are those of the authors an dare not necessarily endorsed by AHPS or the Editor .

Letters and articles on Swiss, Liechtenstein, UN Geneva andrelated philately are welcome and should be sent to the Editor .Whenever possible, submit material by e-mail in plain text o ras a Microsoft Word attachment . Illustrations are encouragedand may be submitted as image files or as full sizephotocopies ; or, we can copy/scan your originals (pleaseconsult the Editor before sending actual stamps, covers, etc .) .Please include your name, address and telephone number .

Subscriptions for 2002 include AHPS dues : United States ,$21 ; Canada and Mexico $26 ; overseas air delivery, $31 .Request membership applications from the Secretary ordownload from Web page . Change-of-Address should be sen tto the Secretary .

Speakers for Our Seminar?Our Society has committed $50 to ren t

a room for another AHPS seminar Fridayafternoon, November 22, during ou rconvention at CHICAGOPEX. The onlyremaining detail is to find seminar speaker swilling to devote 10 to 15 minutes each t oshow and explain something philatelicallySwiss . As the seminar organizer, I haveagreed to speak on the problems with Swis sexpert certificates, but after my fifteenminutes the seminar will end unless otherscome forward. If you want to join me, i twould be helpful to know now . See page 2 fo rmy addresses .

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGESo, Kathy and I were driving down

Route 119 in Pennsylvania, just south ofDuBois and about an hour west and a littlenorth of State College, when I nearly motore doff the road! There before me was the sign . . .

American Helvetia Philatelic Society

Officers 2001-200 2

ELECTED OFFICERS

APPOINTED OFFICERS

PresidentDavid E. Durham149 Ontario St .Honeoye Falls, NY 14472-113 9Home: 585-624-557 5E-mail : dedur@aol .com

Past Presiden tJames A . Anderson14463 E. Wagontrail Pl .Aurora, CO 8001 5Home: 303-617-7836jamesaanderson@attbi .com

Vice-PresidentWilliam R. Lucas8912 Pinnacle Peak Rd . ,

PM Box 55 9Scottsdale, AZ 8525 5Home: 480-342-9739E-mail : wlucas3@cox.net

Secretary & Libraria nRichard T . HallP.O. Box 1505 3Asheville, NC 2881 3Home phone: 828-681-058 1E-mail: rtravis@alum .mit .edu

TreasurerHarry C . Winte r614 Westwood Avenu eAnn Arbor, MI 48103-3557Home phone: (734) 761-585 9E-mail: harwin@umich .edu

Regional Director Wes tDonn LueckP . O . Box 1158 2Phoenix, AZ 8506 1Home : 602-841-1322E-mail : donn3@earthlink .ne t

Regional Director CentralRalph Soderberg, M .D .P. O . Box 3606 7Grosse Pointe Woods, MI 4823 6Home: 313-885-412 5

Regional Director EastHelen Galatan-StoneP.O. Box 77033 4Woodside NY 11377Home: 718-478-2374E-mail : hfstone@rcn .com

Plan to attend/exhibit at theseAHPS Conventions and shows :

CHICAGOPEX November 200 2

BALPEX September 2003Baltimore, M D

ROMPEX May 2004Denver, Colorad o

MEGA-EVENT, Spring 200 5New York, NY

Commercial advertising copy and rate inquiries should b esent to the Editor . Advertising deadlines are seven weeks prio rto publication date : Jan. 10, Mar. 12, May 12, July 13, Sep .12, Nov . 13 .

Printed by Kettle Moraine Printing, West Bend WI 53095 .

TELL Edito rGeorge Struble210 18th St . N ESalem, OR 97301-431 6Home: 503-364-3929E-mail :gstruble@willamette .ed u

TELL Associate Edito rSteven S . WestonP.O. Box 868Del Mar CA 92014-0868760-752-7812

Circuit Sales ManagerEmil L. ToblerP.O. Box 2 6Bradford RI 02808Home: 401-377-2238

Auction Manage rGordon Trotter10626 Fable RowColumbia, MD 2104 4Phone : 410-730-7936Fax: 410-740-7215E-mail : trotters@erols.co n

Publicity Chairma nAwards ChairmanHarlan F. StoneP .O. Box 77033 4Woodside NY 1137 7Home: 718-478-2374E-mail: hfstone@rcn.com

Slide ChairmanRichard W. Blaney20 Paddock Roa dSouth Easton MA 02375-140 1508-238-313 4

REPRESENTATIVESUnion of Swiss PhilatelicSocietie sRalph Soderber gP .O. Box 3606 7Grosse Pointe Woods, MI 482 3Home: 313-885-4125

American Philatelic SocietyErnest L . Bergman1421 Harris St.State College, PA 16803814-238-0164E-mail : elb3@psu .edu

Liechtenstein Study GroupChm: Ralph R . SchneiderP .O . Box 23049

Belleville IL 6222 3

2 TELL

September 2002

"Helvetia"!! Now, how many of you havevisited metropolitan Helvetia, PA? Well, don't

lose sleep over it . We drove the narrow roadinto the - uh, village, which consisted of fourhouses, no church, no general store, and o fcourse no post office .

This is a reminder of our AHPS Annua lMeeting at CHICAGOPEX in November :

• Dates: Friday - Sunday, November 22-24

• Place : Sheraton Chicago Northwes tHotel, 3400 W. Euclid Ave., ArlingtonHeights, IL 60005 ; 800-325-3535 or847-394-2000, or www.sheraton .com;easy access from O'Hare Airport, fre eparking, reservations (mention CHICA-GOPEX) $119 plus tax

• Swiss stamp exhibits : there might stillbe space for yours; contact John Doyle(see May TELL page 15)

• AHPS Seminar Friday 2 :00 p .m . ,organized by Harlan Stone; see item onpage 2

• AHPS informal dinner Friday evening

• AHPS Business meeting Saturday 2 :00p .m .

• AHPS Swap session Sunday morning ,hosted by Emil Tobler

I have since discovered that there i salso a Helvetia, West Virginia, which is only abit larger: population 269 in 1970 and downto 130 in 1990 . No post office there either .Maybe I could visit it sometime anyway .

Ah, but foremost now is the visit t oCHICAGOPEX November 22-24! Just to th eleft of this column is a reminder of the detail sof our time together at our AnnualConvention . Since it is so central to ournation, we look for a (continued on page 5)

September 2002 3 TELL

Internment Camp Location Handstamp s(continued from page 1)

At the same time the Field Post hadauthorized the preparation of similar hand -stamps in both French and German deleting theword "francaise" and adding the name of thecamp location . In his definitive work on thissubject (2) Georges Schild indicates that ofthese early name handstamps there were two i nGerman (Kienthal and Lenk) and some 19 inFrench in different types (Figure 3) . Once againthese handstamps failed to include "free post -age" and it is not clear how many of thes ehandstamps saw actual use. Of this group ofnamed camps, the cover shown in M . Schild'sstudy and the cover in Figure 4 are both ac-companied by a "franc de port" handstamp .

Also at the same time, the Military In-ternees Section rushed a replacement generi chandstamp into use (Figure 5 top left) cor-recting the earlier omission of "franc de port "but deleting the Swiss cross and retaining theword "francais ." Since many other nationali-ties were in the camps "francais" was soon de-leted (Figure 5 top right) .

Criticism over the absence of the Swisscross led to further redesign, adding the cros sto the middle and placing "franc de port" insmall print over it, this time in all three lan-guages of Switzerland (Figure 5 middle), withadditional varieties such as use of capitals an d

Figure 4

Figure 5

the addition of "camp" of "lager" (Figure5 bottom).

By the end of June 1940, many hand-stamps bearing the name of the camp locatio nappeared; by fall there were some 345 camp lo -cations (3) and before the end of the war therewere more than 600 location (4) . These hand-stamps. appeared in all three languages and innumerous variations such as (a) simple name inFrench, German, or Italian with Swiss cross(Figure 6 top), (b) hyphenated name with Swis scross removed (Figure 6 middle left), (c) namewith abbreviation of canton in parentheses (Fig-ure 6 middle center), (d) name with identifyin glocal feature (Figure 6 middle right), (e) name ofdifferent locations in the same village (Figure 6bottom) .

The regulations in World War II identify-ing free postage for military internees include d

4 TELL

Figure 6

September 2000

Figure 7

References:1. Richard T. Hall, "Beans, Bananas, an d

Snakes, Part 6", TELL July 2002 pp . 13, 1 6

2. Georges Schild, "Die Post der Internierten inder Schweiz 1940-46," published by theauthor

3. "Swiss Internment Posts," The Stamp LoverDecember 1940, translated from BernerBriefmarken Zeitung

4. Schild, ibid.

5. BBZ, ibid .

the rule, just the opposite of the practice i nWW I, that "picture postcards bearing views ofplaces or landscapes are, without exception ,not permissible ." (5) It was also not permittedto postmark Swiss stamps with an internmentcamp location mark . Nevertheless, somestamps were handstamped as illustrated b ythe airmail cover to London in Figure 7, andas a favor in Figure 8 .

Figure 8

PRESIDENT'S MESSAG E(continued from page 3) wonderful turnout of

AHPS members, and I certainly hope you wil lbe among them!

Membership ReportAt the end of June, the

AHPS has 312 members . Wewelcome our nine new membersin the last few months :

Fritz von BergenGeorge W. BowmanJohn HerndonLeonard W. HolmstenScott E. KaltwangEdward H. Miller II IMichael John MohtiakHenry SteinRichard K. Weidele

At least seven of these learned o fAHPS through our website .

5 TELL

Until then, the best to you in yourphilatelic efforts!

David Durham

September 2000

20th Century Swiss Postal History - An Overview : Part 2by Charles J. LaBlonde CPhH

(Reprinted from the Bulletin of the Schweizerische Vereinigung für Postgeschichte ,with permission )

Part 1 of this article was published in the July TELL . Part 2 is the conclusion .

Postal Automation (Routes, Markings )

Late 20th century Swiss postal history might best be summarized by the wor d"automation." The Swiss Post Office was coming under increased pressure from many sides : 1 )Volume of mail was increasing . 2) Business was demanding faster service . 3) Competition fro mindependent carriers such as FEDEX and UPS was increasing . 4) Labor costs were increasing .But, at the same time, there was good news for the post office ; the technology to mitigate thes etrends was exploding.

Automation really startedin Switzerland with the intro-duction (in 1911) of the stam pcanceling machines noted above .The 1964 introduction of th epostal code system in Switzer-land, including the division o fSwitzerland into nine postaldistricts, was a significant steptowards automation. Computerslike to deal with numbers betterthan names. As early as 196 8the PTT installed a lette rcanceling and coding machine inBern . The letters coming out o fthe cancel machine would pas sbefore one of twelve operatorswho would code the mail forsorting and delivery .

At Basel and Geneva in 1984 the PTT installed a new generation of coding and sortin gmachines. Instead of each letter appearing in front of a coder, a television image appeared fo rcoding. A similar machine made its debut in Bern on 1 September 1986 (Figure 1) . For the firsttime we now saw the familiar red bars at the bottom of the mail, bars showing the addres spostcode .

The early machines could read only typewritten orprinted addresses . Recent very high- speed machine scan also read most handwriting. SwissPost now has aseries of coding and sorting centers around the country .One can no longer assume that a letter from Winterthu rto Zürich, for example, will actually travel directly fromone city to the other . The letter might be coded in Biel o rmaybe even Bellinzona! Michael Rutherfoord has verywell told the evolution of letter coding and sorting in th ephilatelic press .

A and B Post (Rates, Markings )In 1991 Switzerland introduced a two tier posta l

system, called the A and B Post . A Post (priority mail)

Figure 1

Figure 2

6 TELL

September 2002

Figure 3

was supposed to arrive the next day while B Post (ordinarymail) was allowed 2-3 days. The postage differential betweenthe two was initially 30 centimes. But immediately there was aproblem : how to sort easily and surely the A Post from the BPost . A Post was supposed to bear a label "A Prioitaire" but fewpeople used this since it looked like an airmail label .

To make things easier for the public and for themselve sthe PTT issued red stamps for A Post and blue stamps for BPost. But not everyone used these stamps on their mail . And,to complicate this situation, the A Post label was blue! In som elocations the PTT installed separate posting boxes for A and BPost (Figure 2) . One day I stood outside the post office Genev a3 Rive to watch the A Post and B Post boxes being emptied b ythe PTT. All letters from both boxes went into the samemailbag !

Mailers were encouraged to mark their priority mail withthe letter "A" . This gave rise to a very large variety of differen t"A" markings, some very professional, others just a littledifferent! (Figure 3 )

But the PTT would not give up . Next came the A and B Post stamps with the code mark salong the right hand side . The A Post stamp even had a large "A" on it . But, what about peoplewho wanted to use other stamps on theirmail? Once again technology came to th erescue of the PTT. The latest generationof mail facing, canceling and codingmachines can read any stamp anddetermine if the letter is franked for A orB Post .

Swiss Post International (Rates ,Routes, Markings)

Swiss Post International (SPI) providedone of the more bizarre, but very interesting ,chapters in 20th century Swiss postalhistory . SPI is a commercial offshoot ofSwissPost, to seek international business ,bulk mailings and to compete with othe rindependent carriers (noted above) aroundthe world. It seems that in 1997 SPIsomehow took over the postcard business inparts of Italy .

One day in July 1997 I received apostcard from my wife who was in Baveno atthe Hotel Dino . The card bore a "stamp" thatsaid "P.P.CH-6830 Chiasso 1" and wascanceled in Locarno (Figure 4) . I wasamazed! Over the years we sent many morecards from Baveno . The markings and th erouting seemed never to be the same . Slowlythe SPI story emerged. Last May I visited theSPI office in Baveno and discovered a larg esign on the door : "Absolutely No Postcards" .

7 TELL

Figure 4

September 2002

It seems that the Italian Post Office had finally caught up with SPI! This author has previouslydocumented the entire SPI story in the pages of TELL .

SummaryWe have seen only a brief overview of the extremely rich postal history of 20th centur y

Switzerland . Due to the limitations of space, we have omitted interesting topics such as postagemeters, Schalterfreistempel, the reorganization of the PTT into Telecom and Swiss Post, the fat eof the PTT Library and Museum, the closure of many small post offices, the great influence ofinternational bulk mailers such as TNT, the introduction of Frama stamps, military posta lmarkings, the wide variety of mailing permits and PP mail and much more . But before we end Imust sneak in just one more cover .

I like to think that postal history mightsometimes go just a "little" beyond rates, route sand markings and get tangled up with "real "history. When looking at a beautiful cover, wemight wish to take note of the addressee o rperhaps the sender . Figure 5 is such a cover .This happens to be an April 1945 registere dletter, posted in Gerrards Cross, GB to Zürich ,via Cherbourg. GB censored the letter and th eZürich postman who could not deliver the lette rattached a notice "Zur Abholung gemeldet" . I tis a very fine wartime cover . But, if we lookcarefully at the address, we note the letter i saddressed to a renter c/o Fr . Prof. Einstein, atHuttenstr . 62, the house of Albert Einstein .

Now that's postal history!!!!!

(Thecomplete story of this great cover will appear in a future TELL.)

Figure 5

September 20028 TELL

Switzerland's Inverted Airmail Surcharg eon a Postage Due Card

by Harlan F. Stone

The recent surfacing of a third postcard franked with a Swiss airmail stamp bearing afamous inverted surcharge provides a solid springboard for three discussions :

1. the nature of the event where the printing error appeared ,

2. the acceptable uses of Swiss airmail stamps under frequently changing postalregulations in the late 1930s, and

3. the difficulty of getting expert opinions that accurately describe the uses of stamps on

covers

This card, reportedly displayed at the 1984 NABA ZURI Swiss national exhibition in Zürich ,does not appear illustrated with three other two cards in Swiss and English-language publication sthat I have recorded back to the 1960s .

The Nature of the Event

In 1980 Lesser (1) and in 1986 O'Keefe (2) relatedhow a postal clerk behind the counter of a Swiss mobilepost office in Baden inadvertently sold 1935 10-centimeairmail stamps (Zumstein No. 20) with an invertedsurcharge to people attending the "Grosse Badenfahrt"on August 15, 1937. Lesser described this event as the"Great Baden Tour" conducted by the Swiss PTT todemonstrate the services of its new post office van, firs tplaced in operation on March 12 in Geneva . O'Keefewrote that the event was the "Baden Motor Rally ." In hisarticle Lesser also illustrated and discussed twopostcards bearing the airmail error and the origins of thecards. One card commemorated "the reconstruction ofsome ancient castle" and the second served as publicityfor Saurer A.G., the manufacturer of the van .

The back of the third card (Figure 1) appears to

Fig . 1 . Back of card illustrating th e"Grosse Badenfahrt . "

illustrate the true nature of the event inBaden. It shows a man in top hat an dtails and a woman in stylish dress andbonnet closely inspecting a railroadengine . The text under this pictureannounces a weeklong holiday festival oftravel, giving the dates of August 7, 8, 12 ,14, and 15, which fell on a Saturday ,Sunday, Thursday, Saturday, andSunday, according to the perpetualFig . 2 . Front of card with airmail stamp bearing inverted surcharge .

September 2002 9 TELL

calendar in the 2000 Zumstein Specialized Catalog of Switzerland . On the front of the card (Figure2) additional text says it is the official festival postcard and refers to the first Swiss railroad i n1847 . Unfortunately, a surface rub has removed another word or two, perhaps a reference to the90th anniversary of the country's first rail line . Baden was one terminus of the line, the othe rbeing Zürich .

Confirming this analysis is a special Swiss machine cancellation in use during the 100t hanniversary of the Swiss railroad system . The pictorial design's text includes "Badenfahrt 9-20 VII I1947 .

All three postcards have been postmarked August 15 by the mobile post office . The list ofassignments for the van in Pen (3) shows it was in Baden only during the weekend of August 1 4and 15. Besides postmarking the cards, the van's postal clerk also applied a special two-lin erubber handstamped cachet in red noting that the event was the "Grosse Badenfahrt 1937 ."

Acceptable Uses of Swiss Airmail Stamp s

Swiss postal decrees, which Kohl (4, 5) has reproduced and discussed, show that beginnin gin 1923 Swiss postal patrons could use new airmail stamps to pay the airmail fee on mail carrie dby airplanes, mail that also required regular postage . A decree dated December 23, 1936, allowe dthe use of airmail stamps also to pay the regular postage, if enough were used to pay for th eadditional airmail surtax as well. Then on March 30, 1938, another decree announced that airmai lstamps could be used for regular postage on mail that needed no airmail fee . Finally on June 2 ,1938, still another decree stated that airmail stamps could be used without any restrictions . Thedistinctions from one decree to another are somewhat ambiguous as the Swiss PTT remove drestrictions on the use of airmail stamps in stages .

All three postcards form Baden in 1937 fall under the 1936 regulation that the sender couldpay regular postage with airmail stamps as long as he also used airmail stamps to pay the airmailfee. All three postcards were mailed to domestic destinations when the airmail surtax withi nSwitzerland was 10 centimes for up to 250 grams . One of the two cards that Lesser illustratedbears two of the inverted 10c overprinted airmail stamps, the correct number to pay both 10 cregular postage for a domestic postcard that year and the 10c airmail surtax. The second card heillustrated, no doubt a flashy souvenir for some lucky collector created at the mobile post office ,bears a block of the 10c inverted error, enough postage to pay twice for both the postcard an dairmail service. (Reportedly, this block has been removed from the card and broken up intosingles, according to the seller of the postage due card . )

This brings us to the third (or possibly now the second) existing card, by far the mos tinteresting of the trio because the sender in this case used only one of the airmail stamps, no tenough to pay for both regular postcard postage and airmail postage . This single stamp could notbe used for regular postcard postage since that would not leave any postage for the airmail surtax ,leaving the regular postage unpaid . The 10c postage due stamp was added to this card, it become sevident, in order to collect the regular postage from the recipient .

Although all three postcards also bear a blue "By Airmail" etiquette in German, French, andItalian, it is ironic to note that none of them received airmail service. The properly franked cardwith two stamps was addressed to Baden itself (which had no airport), the overfranked card wit hfour stamps to the small village of Bottstein only about 12 kilometers from Baden, and the postag edue card with the single stamp to Zürich only about 22 kilometers away .

The mobile post office took all three cards from Baden to Zürich for processing, where the ywere postmarked again before forwarding and delivery. There the two cards with sufficient postagereceived airmail (luftpost) postmarks, probably automatically because of their airmail etiquette sand stamps. The card with insufficient postage received a Witikon postmark identifying th elocation of a neighborhood post office in Zürich .

10 TELL

September 2002

Expert Certificates that Fail to Describe Stamp UsesThe certificate from a Swiss expert that originally accompanied the third card in Septembe r

2001 (Figure 3) said the card had 10c postage due, double the missing postage of 5c for a postcard .Since the postage rate for a domestic postcard was 10c, this statement made no sense . Themissing amount for a postcard should have been 10c and the postage due 20c .

Upon close inspection, one can see tha tthe faint penciled message on the left-hand sideof the card is six words long plus a signature . (Itsays in German "Many greetings from Bade ntown .") That short message explains the 10 camount of postage due. Under Swiss postalregulations, cards with conventional greetings ofno more than five words, plus any number ofsignatures, could go at the printed matter rate o f5c for up to 50 grams in 1937 . In this case, agenerous postal clerk let the sixth word pas swithout penalty .

At my insistence, the card's seller wentback to the expert and asked for a new certificat ethat accurately describes the postage due . Arevised version of the certificate (Figure 4) nowsays 5c postage for a card with a maximum of

Fig . 3 . Original certificate incorrectly stating card bear s10c postage due for a postcard .

five words and airmail surtax of 10c, andpostage due of 10c equal to double the tax fo rthe missing 5c postage . One wonders why theexpert, presumably familiar with basic postagerates, didn't use this description on the firs tversion .

This problem doesn't apply only to- Swisscertificates . At the first North American meetin gof the International Association of Experts inPhilately (AIEP in its French acronym) held a tthe Collectors Club in New York on Novembe r14, 2001, I described my multiple efforts toobtain a certificate that accurately described thesuperfluous nature of a German 20c occupatio nstamp issued for use in France but employed onan 1870 postage-free letter from a Frenchprisoner at Mainz in Germany to Switzerland ,where the letter was forwarded to Brussels with

Fig . 4 . Revised certificate correctly stating card bear s10c postage due for a card with maximum

of five words (printed matter) .

September 2002 11 TELL

a 30c Swiss stamp (Figure 5) . A Swiss auction firm described this as a cover with mixe dGerman/Swiss franking .

Accompanying the cover was acertificate from another Swiss expert statingsimply that the cover was genuine in al lrespects, a truthful description as far as itwent. When I told my Swiss auction agent t oobtain a more detailed certificate at myexpense, it came back from aninternationally known French expert statingagain that the cover was 100 percen tauthentic with no further comment . I toldmy agent to try again. He obtained acertificate from a second internationallyknown French expert with the same result .Since I was unwilling to give up until I got acertificate that explained the presence of th egenuine occupation stamp, he went next to awell-known German expert, who responded with a detailed analysis, for which I willingly paid ,since it finally agreed with me in writing that the occupation stamp served no franking purpose, aconclusion that I think should have been apparent to the one Swiss and two French experts . TheSwiss auction firm had to agree that its "mixed franking" description was incorrect and it had t orefund my money. This cover became the subject of an article by Cohn (6) .

After I recounted my long search for an adequate certificate, the only response at the AIE Pmeeting was that experts do not have time to provide detailed descriptions . The fact that I waswilling to pay whatever the charge did not seem to matter .

References

1. Lesser, Fred R., "Switzerland's Second Inverted Overprint, " The American Philatelist, February1980, pp. 132-134 .

2. O'Keefe, Donna, "Swiss surcharge error brought frame to MPO," Linn's Stamp News, August 25 ,1986, p . 55 .

3. Pen, Catalogue des Bureaux de Poste Automobile Suisses 1937-1963. Champery (Switzerland) :Editions Pen, no year .

4. Kohl, Roland F., "Die Flugpostmarken der Schweiz," Schweizer Briefmarken Zeitung, 4/1993 ,pp. 135-138 .

5. Kohl, Roland F., Personal correspondence, March 14 and April 2, 2002 .

6. Cohn, Ernst M ., "Cumulative Philatelic Evidence," The Collectors Club Philatelist, March-Apri l1998, pp. 113-116.

Figure 5 . A cover incorrectly described asGerman and Swiss mixed franking .

The fastidious postal clerk?by John Barrett

I recently received a lot including thi sStrubel #23C, which has a mysterious"cancel" as well as the usual lozenge . WhenI examined the stamp under a microscope ,he found under the cancel a natural papercrease - uninked during printing . Thelozenge cancel also missed this area . The

clerk was not to be denied !He/she took the edge of thecanceller - at least, analysisshows that it is the sameblue ink -- and filled in th ewhite streak! Does i tremind you of the chisel -point markers used to"distinctively" cancel our

stamps today? Has anyone seen this before ?

September 200212 TELL

Matterhorn Meanderingsby Richard T. Hal l

In my last column I remarked about the end o fan era with the transfer of the stamp printing presse sfrom Courvoisier and the Swiss Post to England an dChina, respectively . Now I ask you, is what I show i nFigure 1 the beginning of an era? The marking is theSwiss equivalent of our experiment by Stamps.Com.Beginning in May of this year and ending at the end ofJuly, Swiss Post has been experimenting with thi scomputer-generated franking which goes by the nam e"STAMPIT." The experiment was carried out with 2 0business and private customers. As an item of postal history, one of these test period cover sshould be quite an item .

Figure 2 explains the variou ssegments of the franking, the heart o fwhich is the checkerboard matrix at th eleft. In this matrix are encoded th eidentification of the sender as well as th edate of preparation of the franking andthe postage amount . As withStamps.Com, the user maintains a creditbalance with the Swiss Post that can beaccessed via the Internet from the user' sPC . The franking is downloaded from th eInternet site to be printed by the user's ink jet or laser printer directly on the envelope .Provision has been made to allow imprinting directly on the enclosure to be viewed through awindow in the envelope . If the trial run is successful (which includes compatibility with th eprocessing machinery in the Swiss Post sorting centers), the Swiss Post says the testing will b eexpanded to a pilot-testing level in early 2003, followed by system-wide marketing in th esummer of 2003 .

I received a question from my down-state neighbor Kelly Horn regarding three cancel she's come across that have bees in them. These are shown in Figures 3a-c. He asks what theyare about and for how long were they used . The German cancel in Figure 3a is the earliest ofthe three cancels . Between September 17 and October 31, 1956, this cancel (machine cancelF2 .2.47) was used to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Swiss Week . Swiss Week was apromotion of Swiss products held in the last half of October each year . In this anniversary yearthe cancel was used in 10 post offices in German-speaking, 6 in French-speaking, and 3 i nItalian-speaking Switzerland, all for the 6 weeks noted above .

In the following six years a generic form of the cancel (machine cancel F2 .2 .49) was usedduring the same period each year . The generic form is as seen in Figures 3b and 3c . The cancelwas used at different post offices over the period . For example, the Montreux 1 post office(Figure 3b) used the cancel in 1957, 1958, 1960, and 1962 . The Locarno 1 post office (Figur e3c) used the cancel in 1958, 1959, and 1960 . All in all, the German version was used in 3 9different post offices but, including variations in the crown (circular date stamp) portion of th e

September 2002

13 TELL

cancel, there are 44 different cancels . Including the different years the cancels were used, ther eare 93 different usages of the German version . The numbers for the French version are 1 3different post offices, 14 different cancels, and 34 usages . For the Italian version the numbersare 5, 5, and 13 . Can one of our Swiss members tell us why they stopped using the cancel afte r1962? Did Swiss Week cease to be held? Thanks, Kelly, for your question .

I received a nice e-mail from Chuck LaBlonde regarding the two questions Bruce Marsde nasked in my July column. First with regard to the "O .A .T." marking. In 1960 a collector wroteto the British Royal Mail asking exactly what the letters stood for . The Royal Mail's responsewas "Onward Air Transmission" not provided for in the international postal regulations . GreatBritain was the only country to use this marking which was first used on a tag attached to asack of airmail . Later it was applied to the top letter in a 60-letter airmail packet (see a detailedexplanation for its use in The American Philatelist, September 1962, pages 903/956 ,"Unravelling a Philatelic Mystery - Meaning and Purpose of AV2 and O .A.T . Markings," byDonald D . Smythe. The American Air Mail Society issued a book by Murray Heifetz on thesubject in 2001 . )

With regard to the meter-like stamp Bruce has, Chuck says these are calle dSchalterfreistempel or SFS for short . They came into use in the late 1970s just after the Fram astamps and were made by the same company . The SFS machines were installed in major pos toffices to put the postage on packages in such a way that no cancellation was required . An SFSis an "official" postage meter which sounds very much like the current PVI machines in our pos toffices. Since the SFSs have a date on them they are not postage stamps but meters . Each SFSmachine had a unique two-part number. The first (Roman) number is the postal district and th esecond (Arabic) number is the machine number . Bruce's example is I/ 1, which means it wasmachine number 1 in postal district I . Chuck has an example with VIII/234 which was used inUnterengstringen . Bruce's example is an early version with 4 digits, Chuck's is a later exampl ewith 5 digits . The SFS machines were phased out in the 1990s .

With regard to the question of whether an example belongs in the Swiss Fondue exhibit ,Chuck says no since they aren't stamps . Ill leave it up to Bruce . I think if you are showingexamples of ordinary postage meters you need to show examples of the "official" meters . ThanksChuck for a very comprehensive reply .

I also had a question from Kathy Lutz regarding a catalog for K-cancels . Yes Kathy, thereis such a catalog. It is published by the SVPS (Schweizerischer Verein der Poststempelsammler)and complied by G . Balimann - Handbuch der Werbedatumstempel Schweiz / Liechtenstein (K-stempel) . My copy is the 1998 edition which I think is the latest . Kathy remarks that with s omany post offices being closed a lot of these cancels will be eliminated . That's correct, and ifyou'll notice in my listings of the closing post offices, I note where a K-cancel had been in use .The loss of these cancels is a sad aspect of the Swiss wholesale post office closing campaign .

Speaking of questions, with our new web site I've started getting questions from all over .One interesting question I just fielded came from a lady by the name of Nancy Butler whos egrandfather was Ponziano Togni . She had heard that he had designed some Swiss stamps an dwas interested in which ones . Between the clues she provided me and the listings in th eZumstein Specialized, I was able to identify the four stamps he designed . They are the fourhigher values of the 1956 Pro Patria set showing the Rhone, Rhine, Katzensee, and Walensee .Ms . Butler says her mother still has a drawing that was the basis of one of th edesigns.

There were three new K-cancels put into service in June and July . Thefirst of these, K-cancel 1612 from 8707 Uetikon am See in canton Zürich, wa sput into service on June 27, 2002 . Uetikon am See is located about half waydown the north or eastern shore of the Zürichsee . I can't find any furthe rinformation about the buildings shown in the cancel . Can anyone help me?

The second, K-cancel 196b from 1854 Leysin in canton Vaud, was put into service onJuly 1, 2002 . It is a replacement for K-cancel 196a which had been used since January 1 ,

14 TELL

September 2002

1970 . The only change is the dropping of the zone number "2" after "Leysin" .Leysin is located above the Rhone valley near its outlet into the Lake ofGeneva. There is a train line which runs from the valley floor at Aigle up toLeysin . From there a cable car runs up to the ski area of Ai-Berneuse . TheBerneuse is 2084 meters high. The cancel shows the town and the cable carwith the Dents du Midi (3257 m) in the background .

The last, K-cancel 1537a from 3953 Varen in canton Valais, was also pu tinto service on July 1, 2002 . It is a replacement for K-cancel 196 which hadbeen used since January 5, 1998 . Here the only change is in the PLZ from3969 to 3953 . It boasts of its location as a wine town in a natural region at theupper end of the Rhone valley . The butterfly reinforces that idea .

Here's this issue's listing of closing post offices .

1. On April 27, 2002, the post office at 6850 Mendrisio Fox Town was closed .

2. On May 31, 2002, the following post offices were closed :

7245 Ascharina (canton Graubünden)1121 Bremblens (canton Vaud )2332 La Cibourg (canton Bern/Neuchâtel )4243 Dittingen (canton Bern)1124 Gollion (canton Vaud)3376 Graben (canton Bern )3373 Heimenhausen (canton Bern)3375 Inkwil (canton Bern)1896 Miex (canton Valais)4812 Mühlethal (canton Aargau) [K-cancel 896 was last used on that date . ]3363 Oberönz (canton Bern )2413 Le Prévoux (canton Neuchâtel )5235 Rüfenach (canton Aargau )6839 Sagno (canton Ticino )1115 Vullierens (canton Vaud)3802 Waldegg (canton Bern )

3. On June 28, 2002, the following post offices were closed :

1976 Aven (canton Valais )6646 Contra (canton Ticino )3960 Corin-de-la-Crête (canton Valais )6986 Curio (canton Ticino )3960 Loc (canton Valais )9062 Lustmühle (canton Appenzell Ausserrhoden)6647 Mergoscia (canton Ticino )6986 Miglieglia (canton Ticino )7028 Pagig (canton Graubünden )

4. On June 29, 2002, the following post offices were closed :

3961 Ayer (canton Valais)1144 Ballens (canton Vaud )1817 Brent (canton Vaud )7027 Castiel (canton Graubünden )1263 Crassier (canton Vaud )1516 Denezy (canton Vaud )4442 Diepflingen (canton Basel Land) [K-cancel 905 was last used on that date . ]8580 Dozwil (canton Thurgau) [K-cancel 1492 was last used on that date . ]5078 Effingen (canton Aargau )1429 Giez (canton Vaud )

September 2002

15 TELL

1686 Granges-près-Romont (canton Fribourg )3503 Gyenstein (canton Bern)8535 Herdern (canton Thurgau )5733 Leimbach (canton Aargau )5725 Leutwil (canton Aargau )9308 Lömmenschwil (canton St. Gallen )5465 Mellikon (canton Aargau )3504 Niederhünigen (canton Bern)1430 Orges (canton Vaud )1886 Les Posses-sur-Bex (canton Vaud )8883 Quarten (canton St. Gallen) [K-cancel 872 was last used on that date . ]1113 St-Saphorin-sur-Morges (canton Vaud) [K-cancel 1304 was last used on that date . ]3314 Schalunen (canton Bern )2748 Souboz-Les Ecorcheresses (canton Bern )1734 Tentlingen (canton Fribourg)1685 Villariaz (canton Fribourg)

5. On June 29, 2002, the following post offices changed their PLZs . The new PLZs were effectiveon July 1, 2002 .

8578 Neukirch an derThur (canton Thurgau)became 9217 Neukirch ander Thur

1516 Prévondavaux (can -ton Fribourg) became141 0 Prévondavaux

That's it for this issue .Let me have your questions (an danswers) .

Compliments on ourWebsit e

We have been receivin gcompliments on our website ,www.swiss-stamps. org, andespecially on the Swiss Fonduesection (see the July AmericanPhilatelist) . Many thanks toBruce Marsden and SteveWeston for their excellent workon it .

16 TELL September 2002