Happy New Year 2011!

Hello All,
Greetings!
I wish all my blog readers and postal label collectors A Happy New Year 2011! May the new year bring us prosperity, productivity and good health.
Happy collecting!
Cheers,
Lee

Malaysia Poslaju (Domestic Express) - Unable to Forward Cancellation

This Poslaju (domestic express) letter was delivered to my house but there was no one at home to sign and collect the letter. This letter was returned back to the nearest post processing center for self collection. A notice has been delivered to inform the addressee. The letter then stamped with "Kembalikan Item Gagal Diserah Pada 2 Nov 2010" (Returned Item, Failed to Forward on 2th Nov 2010). 

Below is the empty form for Poslaju Domestic Express. If you intend to send item oversea, you need to get another form which stated for International Express.

US Airmail Cover

This is another old US airmail cover sent from US to Germany with different designed of airmail label.

US Airmail Cover

This is an old cover sent from California to England in 1966. Postage rate is 50c. The airmail label is printed with message "Employ Epileptics".

Malaysia Custom Declaration Label (CN.22)

This is the current used custom declaration label, details instructions are printed on the back of the label. Custom declaration label is printed in green, is a worldwide standard. It is use to declare contents sent, such as gift, document, commercial sample and others. The sender also need to declare the quantity, weight and value of the contents. 

To accelerate customs clearance,  fill in this form in English, French or in a language accepted by the destination country. If the value of the content is over 300 SDR (or the equivalent currency of the country), you must use a CN.23 form. 


What is SDR?
"The currency value of the SDR (Special Drawing Rights) is determined by summing the values in U.S. dollars, based on market exchange rates, of a basket of major currencies (the U.S. dollar, Euro, Japanese yen, and pound sterling). The SDR currency value is calculated daily (except on IMF holidays or whenever the IMF is closed for business) and the valuation basket is reviewed and adjusted every five years."


IMF (International Monetary Fund) website provides the SDR Valuation:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/fin/data/rms_sdrv.aspx


If you would like to know more on SDR, below is the Aljazeera English programme on YouTube:
Inside Story - China questions the dollar's value - 26 Mar 09 - Part 1, 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X192rTX0zgI&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si2vXUJyATE&NR=1

Chile Airmail Label

Printed with Chile Post logo.

Argentina Airmail Label

"Via Aerea" (Spannish) mean by airmail. Use white as background which is uncommon for standard airmail label.

East African Airways (EAA) - Airmail Label (Africa)

This is the East African Airways airmail labels used by 3 African countries; Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in the 70s. The label printed with the airline lion logo with tagline "The Safari Airline". 

I obtained this labels from Uganda post office. The strip of five labels are in mint condition. The printing format is unique as two labels are printed upside down to form a strip of orange and light blue. I am eager to look for the full sheet of this labels. If you have, do let me know. I can do a trade. Wikipedia have a brief write up on EAA: 

"East African Airways Corp. (EAA) was an airline jointly run by three countries in East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania; and Uganda, which were then part of an East African Community. The airline was headquartered in the Sadler House in Nairobi, Kenya. When this was dissolved in 1977, each country established its own national airline: Kenya Airways, Uganda Airlines; and Air Tanzania."

You can view the pictures of EAA´s aircraft from bygone days at:

http://www.mccrow.org.uk/EastAfrica/East_Arican_Airways/East_African_Airways.htm

Thailand Airmail Registered Cover - Thai Calendar Year Postmark

This is a multi-service cover from Thailand, i.e. sent through Airmail and by Registered post. Thailand airmail label has a distinctive design, the label itself look like an envelope with Thai postal authority logo. The modern registered label with bar-code is affixed on the front cover and back cover is the receiving end bar-code from Pos Malaysia. 


The interesting thing I wanted to highlight is Thailand used Buddhist (Solar) calender as their official calender. There is a 543 years different between the Buddhist calender and the Western Calender (Gregorian). Hence, year in 2010 is year 2553 in Thailand. You can notice this on the postmark: THP Headquarter 02.06.53. That is 02 Jun 10 in our calender and THP stand for "Thailand Post".


You can read more on Thai Solar Calender at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_solar_calendar

USA Airmail Labels on cover - old designed

This cover sent from USA to Germany. The Airmail labels are perforated, postmark not cleared.

Argentina Airmail Label - via B.S.A.A.

This is an old cover I obtained from a friend. A cover sent from Argentina to Alemania (Germany in Spanish) on 21 Oct 1947 (postmark not very clear). It was sent via British South America Airways (B.S.A.A.). It was a state-run airline in Britain in the 1940s. It had several mysterious accidents such as loss without trace of aircraft cited as evidence of the Bermuda Triangle.


Postage rate was 60c (Argentina currency) and arrived on 10 Nov 1947 (handwritten on the cover). Around 20 days by air in1947 (notice two of the stamps were printed with year 1947). This airmail label is perforated like stamp, printed with "Speedman" image by B.S.A.A. (not by Argentina post office). Interesting to note even after this airline was ceased, many envelopes still annotated "Via B.S.A.A." for sending airmail letter. 


I done a bit of research on the Internet, you can do further readings on B.S.A.A. below: 


TIME Magazine, old article on Monday, Apr 01, 1946 - The British Are Coming:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,792703,00.html

Fly with the Star - B.S.A.A. - collections of yesteryears posters, map, aircrafts and labels: 
http://www.flywiththestars.co.uk/Pictures/pictures.htm

B.S.A.A. on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Lancastrian
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_South_American_Airways

Malaysia Airmail Label - Parcle (Old logo)

Above are old Malaysia airmail label for parcel use, printed with old Pos Malaysia logo. The second label's logo image is slightly shifted. This consider normal as there are no security printing requirements for airmail label. 

For new logo, view my previous posting:

http://airmaillabels.blogspot.com/2009/12/airmail-label-malaysia-parcel.html

POSLAJU: Volumetric Weight Label (Malaysia)

What is Volumetric label?
"If you are shipping an item that takes up a lot of space but isn't very heavy, a shipping company might charge you for the item's volumetric weight instead of its actual weight. Light packages that take up a lot of room in a shipper's trucks or airplanes actually cost the company money to ship if they are charged based only on their actual weight."

To denote the parcels and boxes using Volumetric weighting, POSLAJU used an interesting round label. Printed in black and stated "Item ini menggunakan pengukuran" in Malay. Translated as "This item use measurements". POSLAJU also offer rectangular boxes for volumetric measurements. 

Want to know more on volumetric weight, I extracted below an explanation from Wikipedia. You may also get more details from UPS, DHL and TNT website, the formula vary from different shipping company:

Shipping companies will not ship items that exceed a certain dimensional weight (also known as volumetric weight).

Shipping costs have historically been calculated on the basis of gross weight in kilograms or pounds. By charging only by weight, lightweight, low density packages become unprofitable for freight carriers due to the amount of space they take up in the truck/aircraft/ship in proportion to their actual weight. The concept of Dimensional Weight has been adopted by the transportation industry worldwide as a uniform means of establishing a minimum charge for the cubic space a package occupies.

Dimensional weight is a calculation of a theoretical weight of a package. This theoretical weight is the weight of the package at a minimum density chosen by the freight carrier. If the package is below this minimum density, then the actual weight is irrelevant as the freight carrier will charge for the volume of the package as if it was of the chosen density (what the package would weigh at the minimum density). Furthermore, the volume used to calculate the Dimensional Weight may not be absolutely representative of the true volume of the package. The freight carrier will measure the longest dimension in each of the three axis (X,Y,Z) and use these measurements to determine the package volume. If the package is a right-angled rectangular cuboid (box), then this will be equal to the true volume of the package. However, if the package is of any other shape, then the calculation of volume will be more than the true volume of the package.  

POSLAJU: Fragile - Handle with care label (Malaysia)

Above are 2 different types of POSLAJU (Express Service) Handle with care label. With usual glass symbol to indicate the item is fragile and red to bring attention while handling the parcel. Small and large size available in peel and stick format.  

Malaysia Airmail Label - Variant on printing (2)

This is another interesting find, the corner of this sheet is printed with "traffic light" indicator (color used for this printing).  

Malaysia Airmail Label - Variant on printing (1)

This is another variant I found, there is no text printed on the corner of the sheet. The color is lighter than conventional dark blue and the perforation type is "rouletting", i.e. small horizontal and vertical cuts on the label and adhesive paper. So you can separate the individual label easily. 

As you may know airmail etiquette does not required high quality and security printer as it doesn't carry monetary value. Although it is printed officially by the post office (not private). The printing quality is low and you can find lot of variances. 

Uganda Airmail Label - Sheet (Mint)

This is the old designed Uganda airmail labels in sheet format. 

Turkey Airmail Label - Old designed

Turkey Post used an interesting bird symbol for this label. Printed "ucak ile", translated as "with aircraft" in Turkish, i.e. letter send is via Airmail. 

Turkey Registered Mail Label - Old designed

This is the mint label I obtained from Turkey post office as a complement. The label is use in Ulus-Ankara post office for registration mailing. After many years in my album, it still preserve in good condition. 

Mexico Express Label - Old designed

Believe this the express label used by Mexican Postal Service. This label I obtained from an old cover which I peel it off many years ago. This brown color label printed with Spanish text and an eagle symbol. The size is larger than the conventional airmail label.

Taiwan Airmail Labels - Old designed

Above are 2 variances of the old designed Taiwan airmail label, it is printed in single label and size is smaller then the conventional label. I will post the new design in my later posting.

Indonesia Airmail labels - Old designed

This posting shown 2 earlier designed Indonesia airmail labels. The size is smaller then the convention label. The bottom designed printed with tagline "Fast, Accurate and Peace of Mind" in Indonesian language.

South Africa Airmail Labels - Old designed

These are few old designed South Africa airmail labels found in my old stamps album. Do a quick search on Google, surprisingly South Africa airmail labels are changing very often, there are many variances available. I couldn't recall when I obtained this label as I do not have a proper airmail labels catalog to describe the year in used.

A good advise is to keep the airmail label intact with the postcard or cover. The cancellation postmark will give you the year this label been used. If you collect mint labels from post office, do make sure you record the year. The above shown labels are printed in vertical strip format.

New posts, new ideas for the coming months

After stop blogging for few months, or perhaps longer, I can't recall. I will continue to post more articles, new presentation format in my blog. Despite busy workload, I have gathered some interesting items and some new ideas crossing my mind on how to make this blog better and interesting.

During the break period, I have collected many interesting airmail labels, registration labels and relevant details to share with you.

Stay tune and happy collecting.

P/S:
Previously, there are many Spam comments affected my article. I removed and cleaned it. All Spam are reported to Blogger.

Airmail Label - Zimbabwe (Africa)

Zimbabwe (formerly the Republic of Rhodesia), is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the continent of Africa.

Recently, Zimbabwe became famous due to its political crisis and currency massive inflation and redenominations.

Photo shown an old design of Zimbabwe airmail label.

Airmail Label - Botswana (Africa)

The Republic of Botswana is a landlocked country in Southern Africa.

The airmail label printed with white bird symbol on the traditional blue color on all standard airmail label. This photo shown my collection of a single sheet of 45 labels. If you keen to know more on this country through philately, visit below link to Botswana Post.

http://www.botspost.co.bw/