Archangelsk - Vardø Steamship Route: A Fantastic Rarity but...

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In the previous Blog post, I returned to the theme of Collector Damage. Here is an item which  made me think about it again.

It's a Money Letter containing 50 roubles addressed to Archangel with an Archangel receiver cancellation on the reverse. 

From the original 1905 letter still contained in the envelope, it's clear that it was put on board the Vardø - Murmansk - Archangel steamship at the small port of Teriberka on the Barents Sea ( see Dr Raymond Casey, "Ship Mail from North-West Russia" in British Journal of Russian Philately, Number 63, 1986, pp 14 - 28). 

Since it was handed to the ship's postal clerk, it was supplied with a Money Letter etiquette # 81 which reads "Murmanskoe 1 Parokh P. O" - Murmansk 1[Steamship Number 1] Steamship Post Office. This label may be unique. 

And as a Money Letter it was then sealed five times in wax and the seals are also inscribed with the identity of the Archangel Murmansk Steamship Post Office and, if not unique, they are very rare. The cancellation on the front of the cover is recorded.  But it's still a scarce cancel. 

In a recent Heinrich Koehler auction, two matched Registered covers posted on this steamship in 1915 sold for 36 000 €uro (hammer price). Yep, 36 000

And now for the Bad News -  you have already noticed, I am sure. At some point someone very carefully cut out from the back of this envelope the stamps which franked it. You can be 100% sure that the value of those stamps was and is of the order of 10 cents in any currency.

The Good News is that the person with the scissors did not then throw the envelope in the bin.

Added 3 August 2105: This item has now been Sold

Russian Mail after the Treaty of Brest - Litovsk

There are probably many postal history collectors who pick out Registered postcards from dealers' boxes. They are not common and they are often interesting. The one above is very interesting.

Despatched from ARCHANGELSK 18 6 18 it is franked to 42 kopecks which, according to Epstein's table of Tariffs, is the correct RSFSR Foreign Registered postcard rate introduced in March 1918. The word "Zakaznoe" is written in ink below the stamps and below it, in pencil, is the Registration number 923.

The card is addressed to Minsk. It has travelled straight down the railway from Archangelsk through Vologda and Yaroslavl to end up in Moscow, where it has been censored - see the circular violet cachet to the right. It has then travelled on to Minsk where an ordinary Cyrillic receiver cancellation (bottom right) indicates its arrival on 25 7 18. However, Belarus was at this time under German occupation (accepted by Russia in the Treaty of Brest - Litovsk of March 1918) and in the middle of the card there is a German censor mark, a W in a circle. On the left, some (German) postal official has written "Minsk" in Roman next to the Minsk in Cyrillic.

By the time this card arrived, Archangel was under British Occupation - they entered the town at the beginning of July. The sender may have known he needed to send this card before it was too late. If anyone wants to attempt a translation of the message in the Comments box below, they are welcome to try.