Postage Stamp Chat Board & Stamp Bulletin Board Forum
 

Poland postal cards Cp53 & Cp54 (Fischer) are preprinted for food orders. Cp53 was issued July 27, 1932; Cp 54 issued October 15, 1932. The 5 groszy pays the printed matter rate within Poland. While I've seen War Ration stamps and such, I'm wondering about the circumstances leading to these postal cards. It seems odd that one would request food in the mail as part of a national plan. Are similar postal cards seen from other countries?

My best effort of translation of the reverse of the cards is:
ORDER
According to telegraph order form on date ___________________
Please send me food parcels:
(chart located here...)
1) The amount of ___zl ___gr I’m sending you by money order
2) I sent you the amount of __zl __gr on:
3) Send everything by postal collection order:
(the equivalent of payment by cash, check, or credit card?)
Attention: Cross out the unnecessary
Reverse of Cp53 and Cp54
[img][img]]

Here is the front of Cp 53:

Here is the front of Cp 54:

It says on the front "... please send in food parcels: ...". The rubber stamp on the address side of one of the cards seems to be that of a butcher shop.
I suspect that in the early 1930s there was a special, and likely faster, parcel service for food orders (possibly of a finer quality that the local shops would ordinarily provide, or from a remote place with no shops) by mail.

Jan-Martin

Thank you Jan-Martin. Have you seen similar postal cards from Germany or other countries?

The following example is postally used, to Belgium, from a stamp dealer. Likely not used for the purpose for which it was designed. It also wasn't given the privilege of "printed matter" rates (10gr at the time for foreign mail). Interestingly though the date on the reverse was Nov. 30, 1933, it was actually postmarked March 2, 1934.

No, I haven't. That's why I can only suspect what might be the case. And of course, the card sent to Belgium was not used to order sausages - instead, the sender "requests politely the sending of prospects (i.e. information material) by 'Libre Exchange'". "Libre" means "free", but if the sender meant to write "livre" instead, and just made a mistake, it could have meant "book exchange". Not sure what this was. The recipient made a short remark in French that prospects and statutes were (to be?) sent.

It even looks like the sender put off posting the card at least twice - the original date may have been 30 May 1933!

Jan-Martin

Thanks Jan-Martin. The unused postal card is valued at 30 zloty; the used card at 300 zloty. Unfortunately I don't believe this sort of usage is what would have additional value! Thanks for your help.