Today, Feb 25, I have received, after 6 days, this great (perhaps unique in the world in this exact configuration?) maximum card, from my friend E. in France. Merçi beaucoup, Madame! :)
I specifically asked her the favor of finding a Mont Saint-Michel stamp and affix it solidly (not just "salivating" at it, if it's not self-adhesive) on the PICTURE SIDE of a matching postcard. Not to fall off, in the mailstream.
Instead of sending me just a normal postcard, franked and stamped on the address side, she managed to create a maximum card for me, while she was "at it".
Normally, a French maximaphilist obtains a normal (or pictorial), round handcancel/postmark on such a Mont Saint-Michel maximum card project.
Well, I got a clean, non-smeared, non-smudged, spray-on inkjet, linear, machine postmark.
I like it very much! :)
She did (almost) exactly what I suggest all my partners and friends from around the world to do, as explained here:
After you read the above web page, please click on Home, to see more.
Normally, I ask my friends to try to get a handcancel/postmark, because there is only a small chance that an automated postmark will end up being clear and clean of ink excess. Or the machine might skip it altogether.
The same kind of maximum card sent as postcard is possible in USA, if you deal with open-minded postal associates. But my friends from Germany tell me that there it is verboten. Cannot do that.
Instead, in Germany you have to provide full postage on the address side, and maybe, if you're lucky, the postal clerk will postmark your stamp from the picture side, too.
Most of the time, though, you have to just drop it in the mailbox and it probably will not become a maximum card as you hope. :(
"Mont Saint-Michel (English: Saint Michael's Mount) is a rocky tidal island and a communein Normandy, France (Le Mont-Saint-Michel). It is located approximately one kilometer off the country's north coast, at the mouth of the Couesnon River near Avranches. The population of the island is 41."
More people live in Pitcairn Islands:
"The islands are best known as home of the descendants of the Bounty mutineers and theTahitians who accompanied them, an event retold in numerous books and films. This story is still apparent in the surnames of many of the islanders. With only 50 inhabitants (from nine families), Pitcairn is also notable for being the least populated jurisdiction in the world (although it is not a sovereign nation). The United Nations Committee on Decolonisation includes the Pitcairn Islands on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories.[2]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitcairn
Thanks for teaching me about maximum postcards. I had no idea. The card with the matching stamp on the front is striking. Getting mail is so much fun! Happy PFF!
ReplyDeleteI really like maximum cards but have never made my own. I almost did some last Christmas. Maybe next Christmas...
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