Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Why is this cover franked with French stamps?
The cover was posted in 1948 in Haiphong, which was not yet under communist control. Was the usage of the French stamps simply a case of “illegal” use that wasn’t noticed by postal clerks? Or is there something I’m missing in reading the admittedly confusing history of Vietnam?
Bob
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06:35:22pm
French military post : Postes aux Armees cancel.
The designation in the top right is likely the military unit in Haiphong.
Roy
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That must be at least part of the explanation, Roy, but the sender is clearly not in the French Army. Would a military post office handle civilian/commercial mail?
I have a two letters sent from Haiphong by a soldier in Haiphong to his mother in France in 1947; his job was to climb up the outside of multi-floor buildings to shoot communist snipers. Both letters were in one free-franked envelope.
Bob
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So, does anyone besides Roy have an opinion about the cover in question?
Bob
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I'd say that the note in the top right is a stand-in for the registration label. L. R. = "Lettre recommandee", it's got a place name and a number, even the lines evoke the design of such a label.
As for using French stamps: Maybe they had run out of Indochina stamps, but the use of the stamps of the colonial power was allowed or at least tolerated in such a situation. It would not have been the first time, such occurrences have been reported from other places in times of shortage.
Martin
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Just an envelope to most people but the back story, given the time and circumstances, is very interesting. An ordinary business letter to a potential customer in the far off land of Illinois. It has always amazed me how life goes on with all that is going on around them in places of conflict.
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This is puzzling. Indochina, which included Laos, Cambodia, and all of what we know today as Vietnam, was a French colony until 1954, when the communist Vietminh defeated the French army at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. Indochina issued stamps until 1949. Around 1950, national governments for Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were established, and each began issuing stamps and coins in their own names. The first Vietnamese stamps were issued in 1951, supplanting Indochina stamps. All of which begs the question:
Why is this cover franked with French stamps?
The cover was posted in 1948 in Haiphong, which was not yet under communist control. Was the usage of the French stamps simply a case of “illegal” use that wasn’t noticed by postal clerks? Or is there something I’m missing in reading the admittedly confusing history of Vietnam?
Bob
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01 Nov 2023
06:35:22pm
re: A puzzling use of French stamps in Indochina
French military post : Postes aux Armees cancel.
The designation in the top right is likely the military unit in Haiphong.
Roy
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re: A puzzling use of French stamps in Indochina
That must be at least part of the explanation, Roy, but the sender is clearly not in the French Army. Would a military post office handle civilian/commercial mail?
I have a two letters sent from Haiphong by a soldier in Haiphong to his mother in France in 1947; his job was to climb up the outside of multi-floor buildings to shoot communist snipers. Both letters were in one free-franked envelope.
Bob
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re: A puzzling use of French stamps in Indochina
So, does anyone besides Roy have an opinion about the cover in question?
Bob
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this post
re: A puzzling use of French stamps in Indochina
I'd say that the note in the top right is a stand-in for the registration label. L. R. = "Lettre recommandee", it's got a place name and a number, even the lines evoke the design of such a label.
As for using French stamps: Maybe they had run out of Indochina stamps, but the use of the stamps of the colonial power was allowed or at least tolerated in such a situation. It would not have been the first time, such occurrences have been reported from other places in times of shortage.
Martin
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04:28:54pm
re: A puzzling use of French stamps in Indochina
Just an envelope to most people but the back story, given the time and circumstances, is very interesting. An ordinary business letter to a potential customer in the far off land of Illinois. It has always amazed me how life goes on with all that is going on around them in places of conflict.
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