These are some of my favorite pieces. These vary in date, but display several stamps from late in the Franz Joseph reign. All three are to Istanbul, but it is curious that some of them have both “Istanbul” and “Constantinople” written on them. I’m not sure exactly when the terminology changed, but I am guessing it is around this time. The name was formally changed in 1930, but these would indicate that some usage began prior to that date as these three are all from 1917. The three examples below all indicate different usages.
Nov 17, 1917 sent to Constantinople — date received is unclear. Rate of 2 kronen 95 heller.
Nov 20, 1917 sent to Constantinople (with “Istanbul” listed below) — date received is unclear. Rate of 2 kronen 95 heller.
Nov 1, 1917 send to “Constantinople-Stanbul” — date received is unclear. Rate of 2 kronen 95 heller.
Andrew has been collecting since 2020, and created this website in 2022 to document his philatelic experiences.
I’ve been collecting Austrian stamps since 1976. Forty years ago these forms were commonly found in dealer’s Bargain Boxes or extremely overpriced because they didn’t know how to evaluate them, Austrian Postal Stationary? Who’s Franz Schneiderbauer? All 3 appear to be his number 241c in the Paketverkehr section of his 1961 Ganzsachen Osterreich Spezialkatalog und Handbuch. Priced used each at 220 Shillings .
The receiving cancellations on the back of each form have the dates in the same syntax as the Austrian Post Office: “Day Month Year”. They were received by the Austrian Post Office in Constantinople.
“6 5 8” and “7 5 8” on the top form are “6 May 1918” and “7 May 1918”, 176 days from “12 XI 17”.
“1 5 8” on the middle form is “1 May 1918”, 46 days from “20 XI 17”.
“6 5 8” and “7 5 8” on the last form are “6 May 1918” and “7 May 1918”, 187 days “1 XI 17”. The form also has a receiving date stamp of “7 Mai 1918” on the face that may have been added by the receiving organization.
Better service from Vienna in the middle of WWI. I’m not familiar with the details of the transportation problems from the outlying cities of the Empire, especially during the war.
Thank you for this! It would have never occurred to me that a digit would be dropped from the year. Looks like I have a new catalog to search for.
It appears that the postal clerk in that office decided not to put in the “1”. All the receipt marks on all three seem to have been made by the same canceller, maybe used by the same clerk. Ain’t Postal History FUN?
BTW, A photocopy of the Book is available on eBay.de today for 55 Euros.plus shipping. I found it while composing the comment. I made a search, just to see if there were any copies available.by searching “Schneiderbauer” in both eBay here and in Germany. I have nothing to so with the listing. Good luck with your search. I have an original that I bought new in the early ‘80’s, but I can’t remember what I paid for it.