#548 French Southern and Antarctic Lands 11/04/20

Thank you, Jean Pierre, for sending this amazing cover from the Île Amsterdam! It was cancelled on Martin-de-Viviès on April 20 and arrived on September 16, 2011.

The left stamp was issued on January 1, 2009, and depicts the minerals pyrite.The second stamp commemorates the mineral tourmaline and was issued on January 1, 2010. The two stamps at the right are part of the set “Amsterdam Seals”, which was issued on June 2, 2010.

The cover also has a mission cancel of the 62nd mission to St. Paul and Amsterdam, which is signed by the ornithologist Benjamin Callard.

See also: #505 French Southern and Antarctic Lands 11/01/01

#505 French Southern and Antarctic Lands 11/01/01

Thank you, Jean Pierre, for sending this beautiful cover from Martin-de-Viviès on Amsterdam Island! It was cancelled on January 1 and arrived on September 16, 2011!

The left stamp was issued on January 1, 2009, and depicts the mineral pyrite. The right stamp was issued on January 7, 2011, and therefore was cancelled before its issuing date! It depicts the station Martin-de-Viviès.

The cover also has two mission cancels of the 62nd mission to St. Paul and Amsterdam, which are signed by the ornithologist Benjamin Callard and Romain Buenadicha resp. Mr. Callard has a nice blog (in French) about the expedition.

#502 United Nations 11/09/03

This special Austrian cover was delivered by balloon post in Vienna on September 3, 2011. The cover was on board of the Nivea balloon OE-ZN1.

The special delivery took place in the course of the 22th balloon post event, which was organised by the stamp collectors club BSV Pinkafeld. The sales revenu is used to aid the St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute.

The stamp is part of a set, which was issued on July 1, 2011. It commemorates the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

#500 Russia 11/06/29

The 500th cover, which I present, is a very special one. It is the official mail, which was on board of the Gagarin anniversary rocket RSM-54.

The rocket flight took place on June 29, 2011. The cover shows the blue boarding cancellation, the red space mail cancellation, and the cancellations of the start in Severomorsk (Северомо́рск) and landing in Viluchinsk (Вилючинск).

The stamp commemorates the 75th anniversary of the birth of Yuri. A. Gagarin (1934-1968). It was issued on March 6, 2009.

Less than 2000 copies of this cover were transported by the rocket.

#477 Austria 10/11/27

This cover was delivered by a stagecoach from Garsten to Christkindl on November 27, 2011.

I already wrote about the special delivery in this post.

The attached stamp is the advent stamp, which was issued on November 11, 2010. It depicts a painting of the Golden Roof in Innsbruck.

#182 Austria 09/09/22

This special Austrian cover was delivered by balloon post from Kirchberg to Brixen im Thale in Tyrol on September 22, 2009. Interestingly the post office in Graz added an additional postmark on September 25, although the stamp had been already cancelled.

The special delivery took place in the course of the 20th Tyrol Balloon Cup, the sales revenu is used to aid the St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute.

Austria 08/11/29

Special delivery cover from Austria. This cover was delivered by a stagecoach from Garsten to Christkindl on November 29, 2008.

The cover is a numbered folded letter with an image of Christkindl’s pilgrimage church on the front side. There are an inscription “Garstner Advent – 19. Sonderpostbeförderung mit historischer Postkutsche nach Christkindl” (“Advent of Garsten” and the description of the event) and the number (#0568 of 2000) of the cover too. The unfolded cover reveals an image of the stagecoach in front of the pilgrimage church.

I attached the current Christmas stamp, which was issued on November 21, 2008, and a definitive stamp issued on June 2, 2003, depicting a snowy landscape, the “Steinernes Meer” in Salzburg. The stamps were cancelled with a commemorative cancel depicting the stagecoach in front of the church. In addition the Christkindl postmark was applied on arrival.

This special delivery is held every year since 1989, and the covers are listed in the Austria Netto Katalog Spezial (Austria’s detailed stamp catalogue) with 32 to 67 euro. The forerunner letter of 1989 even has a catalogue value of 695 euro!

The sales revenue of the event is used to help the poor children of Christkindl/Steyr.