Germany: History of Essen

On 22nd September I got three postcards: one from Germany and two from France. 

The card from Germany is the Chronicle card of Essen. Essen already dates back to the 9th century, but it was just in the 19th century that it became of real importance as industrial centre. Today it is among the ten largest cities in Germany. 

A stamp about the 150th birthday of Richard Strauss was used on the card. Back in 2014 when this one was issued it could be used to send  a cover. Now it is only enough for a postcard. It got cancelled with the Covid-19 postmark from the postmarking centre 45.

 Thank You very much Marcel!

cover from the USA

On 22nd September I got not only three postcards but also a cover from the USA. 

The cover was sent my the American Philatelic Society. Five very nice stamps were used. I especially like the ones about Albert Einstein and the Sesame Street. 

In the cover were two FDCs that were sent out for free during an online philatelic event. One bears a stamp about Innovation, the other a Thank You stamp. Both stamps were printed with special effects.

Thank You very much American Philatelic Society!

France: La Manche

On 21st September I got a postcard from France. 

It shows a map of La Manche, a department in Normandy. 

The card got cancelled in Carentan.

 Thank You very much William!

cover from Germany

On 19th September I got a cover from Germany. 

It is one of the many covers I send to myself to get special postmarks. This is a very interesting one. It commemorates an event that was cancelled due to Covid-19 and mentions this cancellation.

 

Germany: Brocken Railway

On 17th September I got three postcards: one from Germany and two from France. 

The card from Germany shows the Brocken Railway. 

I got two different special postmarks on this card. The upper one celebrates a special train journey to the Brocken. The lower one is the new permanent special postmark used in the post office on the Brocken. 

France: Normandy

On 17th September I got three postcards: two from France and one from Germany. 

One of the cards from France shows a map of Normandy. 

The nice stamp about the Raving Rabbids was again used on this card. It got the postmark from Granville.

 Thank You very much William!

France: Le Calvados

On 17th September I got three postcards: two from France and one from Germany. 

One of the cards from France shows various views of the department Calvados in Normandy. 

I think this card was sent from Cabourg, but for some reason only the upper half of the postmark is on the card. The stamp is one of four issued earlier this year about Dublin.

Thank You very much William!

Germany: History of Osnabrück

On 15th September I got two postcards: one from Germany and one from Austria. 

The card from Germany is the Chronicle card of Osnabrück. Around 800 Charlemagne founded a diocese in Osnabrück and in the 13th century it joined the Hanseatic League, the most important historic event in the city's history however happened in 1648. Back then the Peace of Westphalia was signed in Osnabrück and Münster. 

I recently bought this card online and used it to get this advertising postmark about the European Heritage Label. 

Austria: Canaletto

On 15th September I got two postcards: one from Austria and one from Germany. 

Used on the card from Austria was a stamp showing the Dogana of Venice on a vedute by Canaletto from the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The postmark shows a portrait of Canaletto.

The postcard shows a different painting of Canaletto.

 Thank You very much Anita!

Australia: Allosaurus

On 14th September I got a postcard from Australia. 

It is a maxicard about the Allosaurus. The stamp is from a set of six and was issued on the 1st October 1993, just three months after Jurassic Park was released. Canada and New Zealand issued dinosaur stamps on the same day as well. 

Like all Australian maxicards this one is prepaid.

 Thank You very much Jingdan!

Germany: Panda Twin Birthday

On 12th September I got six postcards including four from Germany. 

Many special postmarks were already available this year, but this has to be my favourite so far. I celebrates the 1st birthday of Berlin's panda twins.

I got the postmark on this card of Meng Meng, the mother of the twins. I still had this card from my trip to the zoo in 2017.

I also got the postmark on this prepaid cover about the zoo's 175th anniversary. 

 

Germany: Otter and Hazel Dormouse

On 12th September I got six postcards including four from Germany. 

One of the cards shows two Otters.

On this card I used the super cute new baby otter stamp.

Earlier I already bought the official maxicard of this stamp.

A second card received on this day shows a Hazel Dormouse.

On this card I used the second stamp from the set. Interestingly the special postmarks show the traces of the two animals. 

Germany: Braunschweig

On 12th September I got six postcards including four from Germany. 

One of them shows various views of my home town. I actually bought this card in the hope of a special postmark for the 275th anniversary of my university, but due to Covid-19 all festivities were cancelled. So now I have used this card for something different. 

75 years ago the first stamps of the occupied Germany were issued, the AM-Postmarken. At first they were printed in Washington and London, but later they were also printed here in Braunschweig. A special stamp was issued for this jubilee on 3rd September, of which I used two on this card, one with the the special postmark from Berlin and one cancelled here in Braunschweig. 

France: Caen

On 12th September I got six postcards including two from France. 

One of the cards from France shows various views of Caen. Caen is the third largest city in Normandy. William the Conqueror is buried in the city.

Another very nice French stamp was used on the card. It shows the Raving Rabbids, a popuar French video game character (issued 07-09-2020). What a great addition to my collection of childhood hero stamps! Like usual the card got a postmark from a philatelic shop, Caen this time.

 Thank You very much William!

France: Rouen

On 12th September I got six postcards including two from France.

One of the cards from France shows various views of Rouen. Rouen is the capital of the region of Normandy. It is located on the river Seine and was one of the largest and most prosperous European cities in the Middle Ages.

This year's French EUROPA stamp was used on the card, which got the special postmark from the philatelic shop in Rouen. 

Thank You very much William!