Kulėšai 1918

My latest acquisition Kolletzischken 1918

This week I felt so lucky to be able to find a postmark of Kolletzischken (now Kulėšai, Lithuania) 1918 buried among thousands of other Germania stamps. According to Memelgebiet section in Michel Spezial, Kolletzischken is one of "postmark collector friendly" post office that had only one type of postmark which is the one you see on the above scan. Memelgebiet post offices usually made new postmark when it went under French administration but the one in Kolletzischken apparently did not care or was in lack of funds and kept using the old pre-Memelgebiet ones.

the same postmark used in 1923 during the Lithuanian administration

As far as I know there is only one postmark that preceded this one which has probably been used in the second half of the 1850's by the Prussian postal authority, I have never seen it yet but it is spelled Koletzischken with a single "L".
This post office was later closed down on January 1924 and neither the Lithuanian nor the 1939 German re-annexation administration ever reopened it.

Klaipėda 1923

This is a registered cover sent in 1923 from Memel / Klaipėda to Bern, Schweiz (Switzerland) during the Lithuanian administration period. It is a business letter sent from Georg H. Jaeger who obviously has an office in Libau, present Latvian city of Liepaja but also in Memel according to this cover. The Memel address is Contre Escarpe 8a, a rather bizarre example of French street name in Memel, meaning a moat surrounding a fortification. This street was actually a part of Memelburg citadel and it is called Žvejų gatvė today.

French stamps used in Memel - 2 "Type Merson"

Michel No.30

I have talked about the 2 types of French stamps used in Memel in this blog before in the article "Type Semeuse". Today I would like to talk about "Type Merson". Why is it called so? Well, it's simple, it is written so on the stamp itself. This is one of details that lot of collectors who is not familiar with French stamps seem to ignore. To tell you the truth, I was one of them, I have never really collected French stamps and I didn't know about this inscription on the stamp for a long time. Luc Olivier Merson was according to Wikipedia, a French painter and illustrator. His paintings are well known in France but his designs of French stamps and banknotes are also famous.

Type Merson stamps were "heavily" used in Memel. The French administration never issued a definitive stamp probably due to the hyper inflation that hit most of the German influenced area in Europe at that time. The stamps were often re-used after being overprinted, particularly this Type Merson because of the size which was bigger than other Memel stamps. Some of them were overprinted over 3 times!

Overprinted over an overprinted stamp!

These 3 stamps Michel No.65, 120 and 166 are a good example. They first overprinted "Memel 1 Mark 25" on a 60 centimes French stamp then re-used it for 80 Mark stamp. The following year (1923), the Lithuanian administration that took over also used it to issue the bottom stamp on the picture. The "Memel 1 Mark 25" stamp (Michel 65) was also used in 2 separate occasions in the last 2 issues of the air post stamps. Mr. Luc Olivier Merson died in 1920 and never got see them. I wonder what he would think of this...

Cancellations of Memelgebiet/Memel district - 10

 Coadjuthen (now Katyčiai)

Kinten (now Kintai) 

 Pictupönen (now Piktupėnai)

Mädewald (now Usėnai) 

Nattkischken (now Natkiškiai)

Cancellations of Memelgebiet/Memel district - 06

Wischwill (now Viešvilė)

Kolletzischken/Kolleschen (now Kulėšai)

Dawillen (now Dovilai)

Railway post: Insterburg (Russia, Chernyakhovsk)-Memel (Klaipėda)

Railway post: Pogegen (Pagėgiai)-Schmalleningken (Smaleninkai)

Klaipėda-Šiauliai Railway post 1924

This is a railway post cancellation track number 5-6 between Memel (now Klaipėda, Lithuania) and Šiauliai. "Pašto vagonas" stands literally for "wagon post", which is the railway post. During the memelgebiet period, 2 different railway organisations have operated in Klaipėda, the southern line which is going to the direction of Heydekrug (now Šilutė, Lithuania)was administered by the german, used the german railway post postmark and the eastern line going to the direction of Šiauliai used the lithuanian railway post postmark.