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30/03/2026 8:29 pm
It's only about 2/3 of the full postmark so I'm having trouble identifying which mark this is. The closest match I can make of it is the Fr26 Tsingtau-Tapautau. The barely visible beginning and ending letters at the left and right corners match those names, as well as being layed-out at the correct angle.
The problem is, the day and month for that postmark should be separated by a "/" not a bold "." Also, I might be wrong, but the Fr26 depicted in the awesome pages from germanstamps.net also shows the star on the right is not level with the star on the left, and is noticeably closer to the U in Kiautshou than the U above it, whereas the right star on my stamp seems to be level with the left star and equidistant between the U's. I can't find another Kiautshou postmark that matches it better, either because of the layout or the dates of usage, this one being July 27, 1912.
Thanks for looking!
30/03/2026 9:59 pm
It's Tsingtau-Tapautau. I overlaid it in Photoshop with one from my collection, and it's a perfect match.
Pretty sure the dot/slash in the date were interchangeable just like the number slugs. The example given in Friedemann – with slash – is likely from Gleichmann's records, as it pre-dates the period of postal use. Gleichmann was the manufacturer of the cancellers, and IIRC, they made sample cancellations in their records, typically with the current date, upon completion of the manufacturing process and before shipping them to the Reichspost. So it likely originally used a slash. The example in the ArGe postmark catalog also has a slash, but with a later date the Friedemann's example, from during the period of known use (that's also the one used on my album pages).
However, there are examples from throughout the colonies of the same canceller using slash, dot, or neither, over time. I have Tsingtau-Tapautau postmarks in my collection with a dot and without a dot or slash – see here – but not one with a slash. Go figure.
31/03/2026 7:03 am
It's only about 2/3 of the full postmark so I'm having trouble identifying which mark this is. The closest match I can make of it is the Fr26 Tsingtau-Tapautau. The barely visible beginning and ending letters at the left and right corners match those names, as well as being layed-out at the correct angle.
The problem is, the day and month for that postmark should be separated by a "/" not a bold "." Also, I might be wrong, but the Fr26 depicted in the awesome pages from germanstamps.net also shows the star on the right is not level with the star on the left, and is noticeably closer to the U in Kiautshou than the U above it, whereas the right star on my stamp seems to be level with the left star and equidistant between the U's. I can't find another Kiautshou postmark that matches it better, either because of the layout or the dates of usage, this one being July 27, 1912.
Thanks for looking!
31/03/2026 7:10 am
To iilistrate. Slash was use to separate date in 1906. Dot was used in 1907. Since cancel illistration shows a shash, it might have been the post master's choice?
This post was modified 1 month ago by Paul Czopek