This website is designed to show interesting or colourful covers of the whole world. We try to add about 25 to 30 new items each week. Many countries are included but there is particular strength in GB, the French Group & the German Group, as well as world-wide Wartime Censorship in WW1 & WW2, Postage Dues, Mis-routed mail, Special Services, Registered Mail and Airmails.

A new development is the recent addition of a separate section of Postmarks on detached stamps. Click on the ‘Postmarks’ link to see the new material. Purchases of either covers or postmarks will be grouped together on the same payment page.


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Poland SG 252-260 airmail issue + SG 218, 220, 225, 227, 244 on registered airmail cover from Warsaw to Vienna, 4 Nov 1925; various red h/s included boxed 'SAMOLOTEM' (by 'plane); no b/s; large and attractive envelope

Reference: 1287

150p, 500p pictorials (SG 267, 274) 2nd anniversary of independence issue; cancelled s/r bilingual cds Beyrouth 15 May 1944; no arrival b/s; scarce stamps on cover

Reference: 1286

25p, 50p, 200p pictorials (SG 265, 266, 268) the 2nd anniversary of independence issue; cancelled s/r bi-lingual cds Beyrouth 15 May 1944; no arrival b/s; scarce stamps on cover

Reference: 1285

Envelope to the Red Cross Commission for Prisoners of War, Bordeaux; m/s 'Kriegsgefangenensendung' & 'Frankreich'; d/r cds Berlin-Grunewald 14 March 1915; eagle cachet.' ...ingsstelle des Gardekorps Berlin'; red cachet 'Agence des Prisonniers de Guerre - Croix-Rouge Française Paris'; no b/s; a nice Red Cross combination

Reference: 1284

10 August 1915| crowned POW censor cachet - CHEMNITZ, overprinted Geprüft Gefangenenlager Chemnitz, cancelled with blue cross; d/r bridged cds Ebersdorf bz Chemnitz 23 August 1915; h/s 'Kriegsgefangenen-Sendung ...frei', h/s 'Bureau de secours aux prisonniers de guerre BERNE, Comité de Bâle': message on reverse with questions to the POW, with answers in pencil; fascinating mini-piece of history

Reference: 1283

Paris XV slogan d/s on military envelope inscribed F.M. m/s to Secteur Postal 13957; censored by French with oval h/s 'Ouvert' ZA554; h/s 'Le Destinataire n’a pu être atteint à l’adresse indiquée'; boxed h/s "RETOUR À L’ENVOYEUR" on front and reverse; blue crayon cross (Paris) confirms return to sender?  a wonderful combination on such a 'plain' cover

Reference: 1282

Local mail in Nossi-Bé, Madagascar, 1891; pair of 0.10 on 5c (SG D33), 2 x 0.15 on 20c (SG D34); 'T' in a triangle"; small d/r cds with inner dotted circle; some age faults to envelope; these stamps scarce used on cover; stamps catalogued £126 in SG 2016

Reference: 1281

Multifranking of 18 stamps on 1 envelope from Tananarive-Antanimena to Windhoek, 1954: on the front: 2c (SG54), 20c (SG 59), 45c (SG 99), 45c (SG 100), 60c (SG103), 25c on 2f (SG 111), 15f (SG 173), 25f Eboué (SG 280); on the reverse 8 x 50c (SG 299), 20f (SG 267), 3f (SG 160); a very attractive and spectacular franking

Reference: 1280

30c 'Lauré' cancelled Boulogne 549 lozenge 16 October 1870; red PD, red London Paid cds 17 October; on reverse red London EC & London W 17 October 1870; during the Siege of Paris

Reference: 1278

Mixed franking with France 3 x 50c 'Peace' cancelled with Ancy s/ Moselle Agence Postale hexagonal d/s 18 September 1936; forwarded from London to Lagos with added GB KGV 6d cancelled London FS 38  20(?) August; b/s Lagos 31 August 1936; a fine scarce combination

Reference: 1277

German Prisoner of War envelope, inscribed in m/s "Kriegsgefangenenpost"; franked with 5 allied zone issues (8 pfg, 10 pfg, 3 x 20 pfg); cancelled Weilen (?), 29 August 1947; no arrival b/s

Reference: 1276

3 Allied zonal issues (SG 904, 936, 949) on envelope cancelled d/r cds Hamburg, 6 December 1947 to Staffordshire; opened and resealed with British censor label "Opened by Examiner 9485" & tied by British censorship Germany cachet 0847; ms 'Private - German'

Reference: 1274

Pair of 25pfg AMPOST yellow cancelled Flensburg-Mürwik (in British Zone), 26 September 1947; opened and resealed with censor label  "Opened by Examiner 7555"; tied by VF 'British Censorship Germany' cachet No 5937; ms "written in German"; from a woman in a displaced persons camp

Reference: 1273

West Germany centenary issue (SG 1035-7) cat £170 (2014) used, cancelled on special cover Munich 2 October 1949; with Berlin 'notopfer' label; unaddressed

Reference: 1272

VF PPC of Latvian country village street with 2 x 2r + 4r cancelled TALSI (Latvia) d/r cds 22 March 1922, to Antwerp; all on front of card with the same cds on the reverse

Reference: 1270

KE VIII 1½d brown (SG 459) x 32 (28 on reverse) for a total rate of 4 shillings; cancelled London 30 June 1937, with airmail label front & back; red German zeppelin cachet 'Deutsche-Luftpost, Europa-Sudafrica'; to Buenos Aires; a spectacular franking

Reference: 1269

GB KGV Downey Head 1d cancelled large d/r cds Allahabad RMS, 3 January 1917; boxed h/s 'undelivered for reason stated Return to Sender'; T in circle and 1d postage due cancelled 1 February 1917; on reverse large MS 'refused'; on front 'Bombay DLO Postage Due 2 annas'; on reverse Bombay DLO, 3 March, 7 March; Lucknow DLO 14 March 1917

Reference: 1268

Cover from Noumea (New Caledonia) to Sydney, franked with 2 x 1fr (SG 281), 2 x 1f 50 (SG 282) & 5f (SG 283);by air mail & registered, censored by the French with sealing tape and cachet; attractive and colourful cover

Reference: 1267

Registered envelope (from the Burgermeister’s office); strip of 4 x 12 pfg Hindenberg heads overprinted LOTHRINGEN + 6 pfg all cancelled by large boxed provisional h/s MOMBRONN, June 1941; b/s Metz 6 June 1941; 54 pfg registered rate

Reference: 1265

Hindenburg heads 80 pfg and 12 pfg overprinted Elsass + 2 x 1 pfg un-overprinted cancelled Mulhausen 26 November 1940; 2 x 1pfg cancelled Munich 4 December 1940; registered and express marked in typescript + red crayon cross; no b/s

Reference: 1264

12 pfg Hindenburg overprinted 'LOTHRINGEN' on plain envelope; cancelled boxed provisional d/s 'KLEIN-REDERCHINGEN' (Petit-Rederching), small straight-line d/s 5 March 1941; no b/s

Reference: 1263

Petain 2fr, 2fr 40 on card by airmail to Cranleigh, Surrey via Lisbon, cancelled Albi 16 July 1942; vf Lisbon d/r bridged transit cds 20 July 1942; British 'tombstone' type censor mark; card only; small text in front, some light faults

Reference: 1262

3 x 40c Mercury + 1fr 20 Iris cancelled with m/c d/s Paris 28 Sep 1941; British tombstone censor h/s + blue crayon stripe mark; h/s 'Undeliverable for Reason Stated / Return to Sender'; purple h/s 'RETOUR'; London arrival cds 25 October 1944; b/s 21 October 1944; some faults

Reference: 1261

Sower 2c & 3c, Mercury 5c and 3 pictorials (total 2fr 50 rate); cancelled St Etienne 2 May 1940 to Claygate, Surrey; opened by Censor, sealed with tape "Control Postal Militaire" tied with censor cachets front and back

Reference: 1260

4 pictorials on airmail envelope cancelled d/r bridged cds SERVICO AEREO 30 December 1940; h/s 'VIA AEREO TRANSATLANTICA A EUROPA(?)'; sealed with censor’s tape 'Opened by Examiner 707'; b/s New York 1 Jan 1941

Reference: 1259
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