GEMS IN MY COLLECTION
Five Treaty Port postcard rarities
By Edward Lawrence (G.B.)
1881 QV 3c postcard cancelled “D27” of Amoy believed to be used by the mainland office of Amoy City There are only a few “D27” postcards recorded
1882 QV 1c postcard cancelled “C1” of Canton. 1c was the local postcard rate as well as to Hong Kong, and other Asian cities There are only a handful of “C1” postcards recorded
QV 3c on 16c Formula card posted from Hankow MR 6 1880 via Shanghai and HK to Halifax, England. Hankow D29 overstruck by Shanghai S1 killer.
One of three recorded in private hands
(There are four such cards known, one is in the Hong Kong Museum of History collection and the other in Dr. Andrew Cheung’s collection)
QV 5c on 18c Formula card posted from Amoy NO 19 1879 via Brindisi to London. CENTS with short T variety
There are only a handful of this postcard cancelled “A1” recorded
4CENTS red on QV3c Brown card dateline 29 April 95 and postmarked Ningpo May 2, 1895 to Aberdeen, Scotland
Note that three days delay between written date and the Ningpo c.d.s. date suggests that the card was posted somewhere else. This supports the theory that a forwarding agency was handling letters elsewhere and the rhomboid dot device was used by the agency as a security mark. The agency run by F.F. Ferris was described by the Consul at Ningpo as “virtually a Post Office”.
The rhomboid dot device was used in 1895 and 1896 only.
Earliest recorded and one of two recorded from the same correspondence
(The other 3c card is in the collection of Dr. Andrew Cheung)
