1968 Opening of the Polish Airline LOT line Warszawa - Wilno - Leningrad

This is an interesting first flight card sent in 1968 from Warszawa/Warsaw, Poland to Vilnius, part of the Soviet Union back then. There is a nice commemorative cancellation with the inscription "Otwarcie Linii Lotniczej PLL LOT Warszawa Wilno Leningrad" meaning: Opening of the flight line PLL LOT Warszawa Wilno (Vilnius) Leningrad (now St. Petersburg, Russia). PLL is "Polskie Linie Lotnicze", the Polish Airline and LOT is the name of that airline.
It seems like the sender sent it from Warszawa to get this special postmark to Vilnius as "poste restante" but for some reason did not pick it up. There is a arrival cancel of Vilnius opp. Lit. SSR and sent back to Warszawa. The sender didn't fill out the returning address where it should have been but the Polish Post have noticed later (that's probably why it is handwritten in red "retour" above the inscription "retour inconnu" which means: return address unknown) and sent back to Racibórz, where the sender live. It must have been such a "trouble maker" card from the postman's view but certainly interesting for us collectors.
Racibórz is a Polish town just few kilometers from the Czech border which also has a very interesting postal history going through Austrian, German, Czech, Polish rule but unfortunately this blog is about Lithuanian philately so I won't discuss it.

Kaunas 1934

Postally speaking, this cover might not be a particularly interesting one but the fact that it has been sent from the Direction Générale des Postes et Télégraphes de Lithuanie (Directorate General of the Post and Telegraph of Lithuania), makes it attractive.  Sent in 1934 from the central post office in Kaunas to the headquarters of the L' Union internationale des télécommunications or in English: International Telecommunication Union (I.T.U.) which has been created in 1865 but since 1947 a part of the United Nations.

Air post 1922

Since I've already posted all the stamps of the Lietuvos Vaikas issues in this blog, there are actually only 4 triangle air post stamps left umposted. So I thought I might wanna post the rest to complete it. There is something about these triangle air post stamps that makes them very attractive... I just can't describe it well.
These stamps were originally intended to be issued for the commemoration of the establishment of the air postal service on the 25th of June 1921 but they were never issued. The incription "Oro pašto įsteigimas" (Air post opening) was modified to "Oro pašto ženklas" (air post stamp) by overprinting the last word. The date 1921 VI 25 (bottom left side of the illustrated airplane) was overprinted by a silhouette of a city skyline. 3 stamps were issued first on July 16 1922 with the value of 1, 3 and 5 Auksinas ("Auksinai" in case of pluriel). Then after the currency denomination, "Litas" replaced "Auksinas" and the one with the overprint "1 Litas" has been issued on October 10 1922.

Raguva 1937

This is a cover sent in 1937 from Raguva, Lithuania to Cicero, IL in the US. Raguva is a small town in Panevėžys county with a population of little over 600. The author of the book writes "Ciecero ILL" in the address but it is most probably Cicero IL. The town's second biggest ethnic minority (after the Hispanics) are the Poles which explains the presence of Lithuanians.

Klaipėda 1906

This is a beautiful embossed new year greeting postcard used on 1st of January 1906 within the city of Memel (now Klaipėda, Lithuania). The minimum 3 Pfennig franking is surprisingly not so easy to find according to my experience.

Coat of Arms series - 2

 2000 issue with the coat of arms of Raseiniai, Tauragė and Utena

 2001 issue with Lazdijai, Biržai and Veliuona

 2002 issue with Anykščiai, Prienai and Birštonas

The coat of arms of Anykščiai features Šv. Jonas Nepomukas (St. John of Nepomuk), the patron saint of bridges. He was Czech (Sv. Jan Nepomucký) and was the symbol of the Catholic Counter Reformation in the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania.

Klaipėda 1920

This is a postcard of Sandkrug (now Smiltynė), a part of Memel (now Klaipėda), sent from Memel central post office in 1920 to Tilsit (now Советск/Sovetsk, Russia) in East Prussia. The card is correctly franked with 30 Pfennig according to the postal rate at time.

Vilnius 1937

This is a Polish postal stationery sent in 1937 from Wilno (now Vilnius. Lithuania) to Brussels, Belgium,  somehow spelled "Brussel" which is the Dutch spelling. It has a nice machine cancel with a slogan "zwalczymy ciemnote" (let's fight ignorance) which is probably trying to encourage people to go to school or to get an education. The value imprinted is 30 Gr. with the illustration of magnificent castle of Mir, now in Belarus.