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BUY or BID SALE (#9)
Monday 18 Jan 2021 at 22:00 Israel Time (10:00 PST / 15:00 EST / 07:00 AEDT on the 19th)

Stamps, Postal History & Philately of all periods of the Holyland, Palestine Mandate & Israel and Near East | Jewish & Zionist Philately, Ephemera and Memorabilia | Postal History of Worldwide War-times & Conflicts, including 'Postkrieg' - from the American Civil War to the Present Day | & much more...

The sale features all aspects of philately and postal history: perforations, papers, printings, settings & overprints; postal rates, routes, handling, markings, censorship, civilian & military mail, taxed mail, and more

The opening bid price is flexible and bids of at least 80% of the opening price will be accepted. Lots can be purchased outright at the published buyout price; in order to not discourage bidding on a lot, this price will rise if the bidding level passes the midway point between the opening bid price and the initial buyout price. The buyer's commission is 18% on the hammer price; layaways and installment payments can be arranged.

Visitors and bidders can "watch" lots and receive updates on the bidding status of those lots, only a simple registration is needed; once an update message has been sent, the receiver needs to log-in in order to continue receiving these updates. This is intentional in order to limit 'spamming'.

Bidders can also track their bids by selecting the option to "see lots I bid on", near the search field at the top part of the screen.

As philately is complex and multi-faceted, we gave much thought to the issue of classifications and categorizations - and search and display functions to aid visitors in navigating the sale.

• The sale as a display "from start to finish" can be viewed by clicking the "current auction" menu link on the top menu bar.

• The sale as a display split by its categories and sub-categories (in order of the lot numbers) can be viewed using the "Sale Categories" menu link on the top menu bar. Here, users can either select a 'parent' category and be shown all the lots assigned to it (with the sub-category labels displayed).

• Here we should point out that in our sales we are able to assign a lot to up to 2 categories, and this is in order to help address bidder interests in varying fields. These category assignments sometimes turn on a razor's edge regarding their relevance and priority, and are based on the priority of relevance of the classification to the particulars of the lot. For example, for a cover where "1948-49 Rates & Routes" and "1948 Post Siege Interim Jerusalem" categories could be relevant, such a cover would only be assigned to the latter category if it bore an "interim Jerusalem" characteristic. Likewise, certain subjects may be mutually exclusive: covers assigned to the "taxed mail" categories will rarely be additionally assigned to a "postal history" category unless there is a special circumstance for it (eg. a special postage rate used). Similarly, special military postmarks or issues pertaining to them are relegated to "military mail" as a single subject and not placed additionally in the "postmarks & postal markings" categories (eg. of Israel, by the locale). Here also, special markings related to service suspensions in Arab-Israeli conflict are covered exclusively in that section. On desktop and laptop computers the "Sales Categories" menu will display the range of the lot numbers assigned to the categories: here, please note that the lot number appears only next to the primary category a lot has been assigned. That same lot may also appear in another category - but its lot number will not appear as part of the range. One clue that additionally-categories lots appear in a menu selection is the discrepancy in the menu's summary of the number of lots included there: it may show lots #1-3 but the summary will show (10) items to be displayed.

• There is a search field near the top of each page, where a free-word search can be conducted - however this is limited to whatever words were used in the lot's title or description.

• To augment the search or menu-display results, another way of viewing the sale (or delving deeper in the display results) is to use our subject filters - these appear in the left-side column on desktop/laptop computers, and appear just below our logo on cell phones. The purpose of these filters is to display lots based on conceptual assignments we have associated with them. An easy example of this is "censored mail": there is no sale category for censored mail because it cross-cuts many other times and subjects, but the filter menus will enable users to pin point lots based on such conceptual/characteristic assignments we have made to them.

• Finally, using the "Sale Subject Index" menu link from the top menu bar, visitors can peruse the sale using any of a number of different indexing methods for the display - by country, city, special characteristic, object type and more. With the move of the mouse cursor over the image icon next to the lot, users can quickly see the title and image of the lot - and click to access it directly.

Please note, the site also features a regularly updated store with a fixed-price/make-offer display. In order to specifically view this or the auction display, please select the menu option from the top menu bar, and the menus and filters will then display only those items relevant to those displays - otherwise all the items appear.

If there are any announcements or updates to be made, we will make them here in this area

 

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*15 MAY* 1948 1st Day Israel sea mail to UK, Interim + Mandate postmarks/franks

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**1st Day ISRAEL 15 MAY 1948 mail** OVERSEAS-bound cover with Mandate & interim markings (3 period cover): handwritten letter in German dated [Thursday] 13 May 1948, sent from Ahuza HAIFA to LONDON, on 25 mils pre-franked Mandate-era Air Letter stationary (the period rate for air mail to the UK) - here refranked 23 mils (2m underfranking) using interim stamps, probably because of the expected demonetization of the Mandate franks on 16 May (noted in the Post Office circulars of the period; interim franks would be tolerated until the 22nd) - and tied by 2 strikes of the HAIFA interim postmark; as backstamped 13 MY 48 at MOUNT CARMEL on Elhanan Street (which used interim cancellers), this is probably the post office which received the cover & cancelled the interim franks, using the Mandatory canceller as a dating device.
For whatever reason it took additional time + an extra transit point to process the mail, here on 15 MAY (the official 1st day of Israel as an independent country) - Saturday night/Jewish start of Sunday (after Shabbat) - at the AHUZAT SAMUEL postal agency on Moria Avenue (closer, ironically, to the sender's address), which per Fluri p.44 "kept irregular hours due to the patriotism of its manager and her desire to help people" (though he didn't have documentary evidence to show that it operated on the 15th). This is very rare and undocumented by any source: only 2 more post offices are known to have operated on the 15th, Pardess Hanna & Safed (and possibly also MOUNT CARMEL - see lot #81143) - and this is the only such dated overseas mail known to us.
The Ahuzat Samuel post office was so small it was not issued an interim cancelling device and only had the Mandate-era date cancel (GD-117), and this - correctly, per the new postal procedures, was used to cancel the Mandate franking for overseas mail (interim postmarks were not to be used to cancel franks on overseas mail, and interim franks were not to be used on overseas mail - a postal catch-22 at this time).
The additional franking is not for registered mail as the cover is not marked as such: though intended for airmail to the UK and in principle correctly franked for such it was unlikely sent by air as few air mail links existed in this period and the schedule was improvised; the 1st outbound shipment was via CSA to PRAGUE only on 26 May, and postal relations with the UK were re-established only on 22 July. Likely posted by surface mail (20m fee), and in this case it may be the 1st outbound surface mail from Israel, carried by the SS Franconia or the SS Argentina, from Haifa on 16 May - predating the famous outbound shipment (of mail to North America) by the American ship SS Marine Carp by 4 days. Stamped/certified on the inside corner by the noted Chicago philatelist Samuel Ray. POSTAL HISTORY GEM - a discovery piece.

Post-Auction Direct Sale $2,200.00
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**1st Day ISRAEL 15 MAY 1948 mail** OVERSEAS-bound cover with Mandate & interim markings (3 period cover): handwritten letter in German dated [Thursday] 13 May 1948, sent from Ahuza HAIFA to LONDON, on 25 mils pre-franked Mandate-era Air Letter stationary (the period rate for air mail to the UK) - here refranked 23 mils (2m underfranking) using interim stamps, probably because of the expected demonetization of the Mandate franks on 16 May (noted in the Post Office circulars of the period; interim franks would be tolerated until the 22nd) - and tied by 2 strikes of the HAIFA interim postmark; as backstamped 13 MY 48 at MOUNT CARMEL on Elhanan Street (which used interim cancellers), this is probably the post office which received the cover & cancelled the interim franks, using the Mandatory canceller as a dating device.
For whatever reason it took additional time + an extra transit point to process the mail, here on 15 MAY (the official 1st day of Israel as an independent country) - Saturday night/Jewish start of Sunday (after Shabbat) - at the AHUZAT SAMUEL postal agency on Moria Avenue (closer, ironically, to the sender's address), which per Fluri p.44 "kept irregular hours due to the patriotism of its manager and her desire to help people" (though he didn't have documentary evidence to show that it operated on the 15th). This is very rare and undocumented by any source: only 2 more post offices are known to have operated on the 15th, Pardess Hanna & Safed (and possibly also MOUNT CARMEL - see lot #81143) - and this is the only such dated overseas mail known to us.
The Ahuzat Samuel post office was so small it was not issued an interim cancelling device and only had the Mandate-era date cancel (GD-117), and this - correctly, per the new postal procedures, was used to cancel the Mandate franking for overseas mail (interim postmarks were not to be used to cancel franks on overseas mail, and interim franks were not to be used on overseas mail - a postal catch-22 at this time).
The additional franking is not for registered mail as the cover is not marked as such: though intended for airmail to the UK and in principle correctly franked for such it was unlikely sent by air as few air mail links existed in this period and the schedule was improvised; the 1st outbound shipment was via CSA to PRAGUE only on 26 May, and postal relations with the UK were re-established only on 22 July. Likely posted by surface mail (20m fee), and in this case it may be the 1st outbound surface mail from Israel, carried by the SS Franconia or the SS Argentina, from Haifa on 16 May - predating the famous outbound shipment (of mail to North America) by the American ship SS Marine Carp by 4 days. Stamped/certified on the inside corner by the noted Chicago philatelist Samuel Ray. POSTAL HISTORY GEM - a discovery piece.