Klaipėda-Šiauliai Railway post 1930

Postmark of the T.P.O. (Pašto vagonas) line Klaipėda - Šiauliai

This is a cover sent in 1930 by the railway post (Pašto vagonas) line Klaipėda - Šiauliai to Berlin, Germany. Unfortunately I don't know where is it sent from because the sender have not written any return address. 30 centas was the postal rate for the domestic letter but this rate also applied to Germany, Latvia and Estonia. To other countries, is was 60 centas.

Šaukėnai 1931

This is a registered mail sent in 1931 from Šaukėnai to the district court in Šiauliai (Šiaulių apygardos teismas). It looks like there were some kind of legal documents. Šaukėnai is a small town in Šiauliai County with a population of little over 700. Nice arrival cancel of Šiauliai on the back!

Recent Acquisitions

Since I have accidentally found a full sheet of a 1941 Vilnius overprinted issue couple of months back, I have been putting more attention to the 1941 issues in general. Here are some I have acquired the last few months.

I have been focusing mainly on blocks since I couldn't find any full sheet at a reasonable price. I also found some nice used Nepriklausoma issue, all of them with a C.T.O. of Šiauliai except the grey blue 10 Kopecks which has a Kaunas Centr. postmark on it. Al last, also got an extra copy of the 80 Kopecks Vilnius issue, not in perfect condition and hinged but with a very attractive price of 25 Euros.

Šiauliai 1916

Schaulen - Postamt / Šiauliai - Post office

This is a German military field post (Feldpost) card of the post office building in Schaulen (now Šiauliai, Lithuania) sent in 1916 to Bremen, Germany during the WWI German occupation. The postcard tells us only that it is a post office in Šiauliai so I'm sure about exactly which post office it is referring to but I can tell you for sure that it is not the main post office building used during the Imperial Russian time. It is most probably a building occupied by the German military not far from the railway station and used to house the field post office. The card itself has been sent from the field post of the 41st infantry division.

Šiauliai 1923

This is a cover sent in 1923 from the Žemės ūkio kooperatyvų sąjunga „Gamintojas” in Šiauliai to Taastrup, Denmark. Žemės ūkio kooperatyvų sąjunga „Gamintojas” was one of the numerous trade unions of coorperatives established throughout Lithuania during the early 1920's. In 1927, Gamintojas was eventually absorbed by „Lietūkis“, another agricultural coorperatives union based in Kaunas.

Recent Acquisitions

Here are some of the recent acquisitions of stamps:

WWI German occupation with a postmark of Schaulen (now Šiauliai, Lithuania) 1916

a stationery cut out (what a pity!) with a postmark Heydekrug (now Šilutė, Lithuania) 1895

Polish occupation period with a part of machine cancel of Wilno 2 (now Vilnius, Lithuania) 1938

Soviet stamps with a postmark of Vilnius C. 1941 during the first USSR annexation 

Postmark: Lekėčiai 1929

Postmark: Višvilė 1928 (present Viešvilė, former Wischwill, Memelgebiet)

Postmark: Alunta 1937

Šiauliai 1990

Registration label Šiauliai - 8

The inscription USSR (CCCP) and Lit. SSR is omitted, only Шяуляй (Šiauliai) is left

Почта (Post) with the inscription USSR (CCCP) omitted 

I'm sure you have already heard of provisional stamps or postmarks but, what about a provisional meter franking? This is a registered cover sent on 9 May 1990 from the post office Šiauliai 8 to Vilnius, with a rare provisional meter stamp. Everything that relates to USSR (CCCP) is omitted and on the top of the advertisement space, "Lietuvos Respublika" is added. Lithuania declared the restoration of independence on March 1990 but it wasn't until 1991 that the USSR and the international community recognize it. So when this cover was used, Lithuania was in kind of a state of limbo, no one knew for sure if it was in fact an independent state or not. Some post office kept using Soviet name (especially in the Polish speaking region near the border of Belarus) but some like Šiauliai 8, chose to act as the Lithuanian Post even if they were dependent on Soviet postage stamp and currency. The first post-Soviet Lithuanian stamps were issued only on October 1990.

Šiauliai 1940

This is an airmail cover sent in 1940 from Šiauliai to Ostende, Belgium. The company Semlinas (or simply Semlin) owned 1 of the 2 biggest factories in Šiauliai in term of number of employees, along with the shoe making company Batas during the interwar period.
It is also interesting that there was a Warsaw (Varsovie in French, Warschaustraat) street in Ostende. I wonder if they didn't have any Vilnius street.

Daugavpils-Šiauliai Railway post 1977

ПВ Даугавпилс - Шяуляй / Daugavpils - Šiauliai

I know it's not really a beautiful looking cover but it definitely has a very attractive postmark: ПВ (Почтовый Вагон / Pochtovy Vagon) Даугавпилс - Шяуляй / Daugavpils - Šiauliai. The cover has been sent in 1977 from Rokiškis railway station to Vilnius. ПВ (Почтовый Вагон) literally means "postal wagon" which is used to designate TPO. I have posted in the past on this blog, a Soviet railway postmark of Panevėžys-Šiauliai, the one I'm posting today is the extension of the same line.

Railway map of Šiauliai to the direction of Daugavpils

Šiauliai 1941

Soviet stamp franked on the back of the card

This is a detached answer part of a Soviet round trip double postal stationery cancelled in 1941 in Šiauliai / Шяуляй. The forwarding part was probably sent from somewhere in the Soviet Union but I guess for some reason, the receiver decided to make an philatelic item out of it. The date is sometime in February 1941 but the day is unclear. The interesting part is that there is a Soviet stamp franked on the plain back of the card, cancelled by the same postmark as the one on the front.
Šiauliai was occupied by the Soviet in 1940 until the Germans entered the city on June 26 1941.

Šiauliai 1973

Unfortunately postally unused but still interesting set of postcards of Šiauliai during the Soviet rule. Published by Mintis in Vilnius in 1973.

K. Didžiulis Polytechnic school

Station square

Central bus station

by the lake Talša

All descriptions are according to the information on the back of the postacard.

German stamps in Lithuania

When I write "German Reich stamps in Lithuania", most philatelist probably comes up with Memel related stamps or the occupation issues such as Postgebiet ob Ost. or Ostland. Well, I should say that's the right reaction but that is not all. There were some regular German stamps that have been used in Lithuania under different circumstances. I have mentioned before in this blog that I do collect Soviet stamps but having difficulties because of the criteria of my collection: all non-Lithuania themed stamps must be cancelled in Lithuania. The exact same criteria applies to the regular German Reich stamps as well, which makes again, collecting German stamps very difficult. There are several cases when these stamps were used in Lithuania, I would like list those in chronological order.

1. Pre-Memelgebiet stamp
99% of the regular Reich stamp that has been issued before 1920 could have been used in the Memel region. When I search German stamps in an internet auction, I usually ignore post-1920 Reich stamps up to 1939 to go faster. However, this does not mean that there is absolutely no way to find any postmark of the Memel area on a Reich stamp between 1920 and 1939 (for example, railway postmark Insterburg-Memel used in Tilsit could be on a post-1920 Reich stamp).
Pre-Reich stamps or also called Old German states' stamps were used in Memel region as well but only the stamps of Prussia and the North German Confederation.

Memel postmark of 1886 on a Reich stamp

2. Postgebiet Oberbefehlshaber Ost area

These areas occupied by the Germans during World War I basically used German stamps overprinted "Postgebiet ob. Ost" but in some cases, regular Reich stamps were used mainly by the private postal delivery services. It is very difficult to find. Believe me... 

3. Re-Annexation of Memel region

Nazi Germany re-annexed Memel region on March 1939 and used regular Reich stamps until the Soviet armies took the region in 1945. I would not say "frequently found" but those are relatively easy to find.

4. Ostland

Ostland had its own overprinted stamp but regular Reich stamps were also valid through out the territory. As a result of the mass-production of Ostland stamps, the use of regular Reich stamps were limited. 

Postmark of Schaulen (Šiauliai, Lithuania) on regular Reich stamps

Schaulen postmark used for precancellation or also for parcel

Those were the 4 cases where regular Reich stamps were used in the present territory of Lithuania for postal use. If I'm missing any cases, please feel free to comment on this post. 

Šiauliai 1966

This is an illustrated Soviet military field post cover sent in 1966 from the post office Шяуляй/Šiauliai 2. The envelope has some nice pictures of Друскининкай / Druskininkai. Most of the field post sent from Šiauliai has a postmark of Šiauliai 4, because this post office was in Zokniai where the biggest military facility in the city, Zokniai military airport (presently used by NATO) was also located. However, Šiauliai 4 has opened sometime at the end of the 1960's so any mail prior to that was posted more from Šiauliai 2, one of the two post offices located in the center of the city.

Šiauliai 1975

Yes, Yes, Yes! Well, most of the readers of this blog are probably wondering why I'm getting excited for such common low catalog value stamp. Indeed, this Soviet stamp is not rare at all, but "rarity" depends on the perspective! Usually, non-Lithuanian themed Soviet stamps can't be added to my collection because it has nothing to do directly with Lithuania. So, if I find a non-Lithuanian themed Soviet stamp I like, I need to find the one cancelled in Lithuania. This makes collecting Soviet stamps pretty complicated for me but I just can't change the criteria of my collection... I was looking for this 1967 Soviet international woman's day stamp (Tarptautinė moters diena in Lithuanian, such beautiful stamp!) and after 6 years of search, I finally got it! I probably went through a couple of hundred of this same stamp, each time disappointed to see Москва/Moscow CTO. I have other Soviet stamps on the list but I get the feeling that it's going to be a long ride...
By the way, the stamp is cancelled in 1975 in Шяуляй/Šiauliai central post office.

Coat of Arms series - 1

Modern Lithuanian stamps are not really my speciality but however, there are several of them I really like. One of them are those Coat of Arms series, issued every year from 1992. It shows you different city coat of arms (except in the first issue, there is a national one) across the nation. 

 1992 issue - Kėdainiai, Vilnius, Republic of Lithuania

This first issue is the only one with Talonas as the face value.

The size is slightly smaller than others.

1993 issue - Skuodas, Telšiai, Klaipėda

 1994 issue - Punia, Alytus, Perloja

1995 issue - Virbalis, Kudirkos Naumiestis

This issue is the only one with 2 stamps.

 1996 issue - Šeduva, Panevėžys, Zarasai

Zarasai has an eccentric coat of arms with an imaginary creature symbolizing the wealth of its nature.

1997 issue - Neringa, Vilkaviškis, Pasvalys

1998 issue - Kernavė, Trakai, Kaunas

Trakai's arms has a head of St. John the Baptist, just in case you are wondering... It supposed to symbolize the Christianization of the town.

1999 issue - Marijampolė, Šiauliai, Rokiškis

Very nice coat of arms of Šiauliai

This modern arms is based on the 1791 arms with the Samogitia bear (Šiauliai was the center of  the duchy Samogitia), Eye of Providence symbolizing parliament and the red calf of the House of Poniatowski, the royal family of King Stanislaus August Poniatowski who granted this arms.