I've attached a page from ACSC Postage Due catalogue describing the differnent perforation options. I have also attached a PDF of EzPerf, a digital perf gauge I use which gives me much better (and demonstrable) accuracy on perforations. As you can see the perfs are 11.25 x average 11.55. What are your thoughts as to what this stamp is (catalogue number)?

The SS Bremen A German ocean liner launched in August 1928, the Bremen undertook her maiden voyage from Bremerhaven to New York on July 16 1929. She was of 51,656 tons and 286.1 metres in length, and carried over 2,100 passengers and 966 crew (Pic 1) She arrived in New York in 4 days, 17 hours, 42 minutes, taking the west-bound Blue Riband speed record from the “Mauretania”. On her return voyage, she took the east-bound Blue Riband in 4 days, 14 hours, 13 minutes. She was the only ocean liner to achieve two speed records on her first two voyages. She completed 190 transatlantic voyages, and was the first ocean liner of her size to traverse the Panama Canal. A variety of postmarks are known, but manuscript and stamped cachets were applied for mail posted outside Germany. A Catapult Mail service, using a Heinkel He 12 seaplane mounted between the funnels (the catapult is just visible in the photo above), was in use from 1929 to 1936, when the speed of the Zeppelin “Hindenburg” made the service redundant. Catapult covers don't form part of my collection, as they are quite gaudy and usually covered in an abundance of cachets (reminiscent of the Tonga "Tin Can" covers). My preference lies with non-philatelic trans-atlantic mail. The earliest cover I have is a registered cover from the USA to Belgium, dated January 10 1930. (Pic 2) This postcard was posted from Bremen on January 15 1930, the return voyage of the USA-Belgium registered cover in Pic 2 (Pic 3) The abbreviation “D. Bremen N.D.L.” means “Dampfer (steamer) Bremen, Nord-Deutscher Lloyd”. The note is interesting. The writer says “will land Friday”. The card is postmarked January 15 which was a Wednesday, indicating that the card was posted half way through the journey, and accordingly would not arrive before the writer had landed in New York, as no catapult mail flight has been recorded for this voyage Circular date stamps were also used, as shown on the postcard dated May 3 1932 (Pic 4) It has a CDS cancel which translates to “German-American Seapost, Bremen New York, Steamer Bremen”

I don't know when this letter came to be in my house, but I found it today. It's a love letter from a Melbourne girl to a US Marine in 1943. Fortunately, the marine had an unusual name, so this is the story! Letter dated 7 Aug 43, Tuesday night (7 August was a Saturday, 7 September was a Tuesday and the letter is postmarked 8 Sep 43, so she was so giddily in love she got the month wrong) from Win (?) Wilson, 1 Killeen Avenue, Brighton, Vic. “My darling, you’ve just been gone for ten minutes - but I thought I’d write this short note instead of waiting till tomorrow. I hated to see you go tonight - that’s how I feel every night but it felt worse this time Johnnie - I love you so darling - please always take care of yourself won’t you? This is a senseless sort of letter sweet - but it was just to tell you that - how much I love you so goodnight now Johnnie - always Win” The first two images show the front and back of the envelope. The third looks like a partial red-lipstick kiss on the folded letter and the fourth is the letter. It didn't take much digging to find that the marine was Cpl. John T. Wojtkowiak, Jr., of 2934 9th Street, Wyandotte, MI. Incredibly, his picture is on Facebook (pictures five and six) with this write-up: ""GUARDING THE BEAUTIES: PFC Albert E. Joreid, Jr., USMC, of 112 Rockway Boulevard, South Ozone Park, NY, left, and Cpl. John T. Wojtkowiak, Jr., of 2934 9th Street, Wyandotte, MI, stand guard at the dressing room door as two of the showgirls head for the stage to give a performance. The photo was taken at a recent Marine–Australian party somewhere in the South Pacific. "Australia9 April 1943. Albert Erling Joreid was born in Queens, New York, on 10 May 1923, and grew up in Ozone Park with his parents, Albert and Stella, and younger sister Ellen. He attended John Adams High School prior to enlisting in the Marine Corps in January 1942. Joried had his baptism of fire at Guadalcanal with Company A, 1st Marine Regiment, and spent several peaceful months in Australia, where he helped organize (and fight in) inter-unit boxing matches. Perhaps his record with morale-boosting measures won him the best guard duty in the First Marine Division – protecting the showgirls' dressing room during a vaudeville performance. Joreid's break from the war was all too brief. He would go on to fight at New Britain and make the landing at #Peleliu – but never got farther than the beach. He was hit by a shell and killed on 15 September 1944. John Wojtkowiak was more fortunate; he also fought at Guadalcanal and New Britain, but transferred back to the United States before Peleliu. He was honorably discharged in October 1945, and passed away on 22 March 2000.Photographed by Cpl. George Sylvester. Official #usmc image no. 57502"

This 1938 cover, from New Zealand to the USA, is attractive but not spectacular. However, the recipient's name stood out when I saw it. Reginald Denny was a successful Hollywood actor. The cover was sent from Model Aircraft Supplies in Christchurch, which begs the question why they would be writing to an actor at an address other than "c/- MGM" etc. The reason is that Denny was a mad aircraft hobbyist, who opened a hobby store on Hollywood Boulevard in 1935. It makes perfect sense for the shop in Christchurch to write to him. Denny also established "Radioplane", a maker of military target drones. (An interesting bit of info here, in 1944 an army photographer took some shots of a Radioplane employee named Norma working on a drone. Norma later changed her name to Marilyn Monroe!) The cover is franked with SG91 and SG92, both have which are scarce with inverted and reversed watermarks, but these seem "normal". The two red marks across the airmail label makes this a jusqu'a cover. Jusqu'a means "up to", or in philatelic terms "as far as". The cover is marked "via Air Mail to England". The jusqu'a markings were applied when the cover arrived in England, and the cover would then have continued it's journey to the US by sea. Unfortunately, there are no other markings on the cover. So we have a cover to a movie star doing his "other" job, with a link to another movie star before she was discovered. Not to mention that it's a fascinating little piece of postal history.

The term "Postal History" was coined by the great Robson Lowe: "Postal history is the study of postal systems and how they operate and, or, the study of postage stamps and covers and associated material illustrating historical episodes of postal systems" That's quite a mouthful, that can be abbreviated to "what can this cover tell me?" There is a belief that Postal History relates to very old material. I'd like to show that a relatively common cover from WWII can tell a fascinating story of it's travels and it's times This is the cover (Image 1) Posted from Halle in Germany to Bourges in Occupied France, on 13 June 1943. The addressee was Monsieur Poulain, the Assistant Director of the SNCAC, or Société Nationale de Construction Aéronautique du Centre. I have not yet been able to find biographical information on M. Poulain. The cover shows the correct postage, 25pf for international postage, and 30pf for Registration, and carries a Halle Registration label alongside the French notation "Recommandé" (Registered). SNCAC was a French aircraft manufacturer, created when three privately-owned aircraft manufacturers, Farman, Hanriot and Loire-Nieuport (all famous for their WWI aircraft), were nationalised in 1936. The SNCAC at Bourges was placed under German control after the occupation of France in 1940, and by 1943 was producing the Siebel Si204 light transport plane for the Luftwaffe. Meanwhile, the Siebel factory in Halle in Germany was producing the Junkers Ju88 high-speed medium bomber under licence from Junkers, and did not have the capacity to produce both aircraft. Hence, the production of the (somewhat less important) transport aircraft was entrusted to the SNCAC. So far, we know where the cover was posted, where it was sent, the method of postage, what the sender and recipient were working on and why. We also know that it would have contained something of importance to be Registered, rather than a "hello from Halle!" correspondence. All this from the front of a cover.