When I travel around Myanmar, I visited post offices in cities, towns and villages. I have seem different types of posting boxes used at different post offices. Some post offices are still using posting boxes British colonial time. This post is to list down different types of posting boxes and share with readers. Enjoy!
Wall-fitted posting box
Wall fitted posting box. (Chauk PO)
The posting box is embedded in the post office wall.
Wall fitted posting box (Yangon GPO)
Wall fitted posting box (Mandalay GPO)
Hanging Type
Cylindrical posting box (Poppa PO)
Rectangular box type 1 (Ngaphechaung PO)
Rectangular box type 2 (Heho PO)
Rectangular with semi-circular arch box (Yangon Air Port)
Standing
Cylindrical Type (NyaungShwe PO)
Rectangular Type (Bagan PO)
Rectangular with semi-circular arch type (Kamayut PO)
The meter stamp used in 2001 at Yangon GPO has ungraved rectangle with the opening for value figure. According to the international postage meter stamp catalogue, it was appeared to be Frama "EPS" (MV).
It has been recorded in the Meter Stamp Society's quarterly bulletin Vol 63, No 3, Autumn 2011 page 11. The screenshot for that report is shown below. The bulletin can be downloaded at the Meter Stamp Society website.
The whole cover with this meter stamp is shown below. The foreign postage at the
time is 30 Kyats for the letter up to 20 grams. On the envelope, there
is the hand writing saying the total postage of 33. Not sure what is
extra 3 Kyats for. PSE has postage of 2 Kyats and the PSE was uprated
with meterfrank of 31 Kyats, making up 33 Kyats.
Another such meter stamp was recorded in The Burma Fantail, the Journal of the Burma (Myanmar) Philatelic Study Circle, Vol 2, No 3, July 2005, page 31. It is assumed that the die was removed or covered. And claimed the die was repaired. The screenshot of the report is shown below.
A Certificate of Posting is your proof that you have posted the item declared on the postal network. It has to be issued by post office with the charge. In Myanmar, as far as I have learnt, you can get the certificate of posting only at the Yangon GPO. One certificate can certify up to three unregistered letters or items.
The current rate for issuing one certificate is 200 Kyats. According to my records, the rates are as follows:
200 Kyats : 2017 May 25 to Present
100 Kyats: 2011 November 30 to 2017 May 24
5 Kyats : 1997 December 1 to 2011 October 29
50 Pyas : 1991 March 1 & April 1 to 1997 November 30
10 Pyas : 1976 May 1 to 1991 March/April
Some certificates I have collected in my collections are displayed for your viewing.
On 4th Jan 2020, Myanmar Post issued a set of three stamps for 72nd anniversary of Independence Day. This year, the stamp designs are based on the photo greeting cards produced by the Ministry of Information. The original greeting cards are distributed among the Government. All the stamps featured the national races of Myanmar and Independence Monument.
Stamp Designs
Technical Details of Stamps
Date of Issue : 4 January 2020
Printer : Security Printing Works (Myanmar)
Printing Process : Offset
Stamp Size and Format : 42 mm x 30 mm (Horizontal)
Color : 4
Perforation : 14
Denomination : K200 three designs
Sheet Composition : 50 Stamps per Sheet
Quantity : 300,000 pc per design
Stamp Designers : Zay Yar Lin
Design 1 (left) used same design of one stamp issued during 2016. The independence monument seen in design 1 and 2 (left and middle) is the monument from the Mahabandoola park near the Sule pagoda. The monument in the design 3 (right) is also known as the Pinlon Union munument, which is located at Pinlon.
Two simple commemorative postmarks were used on the first day of issue. One in Burmese and the other in English. My personal view to this is unnecessary to have two different cancellation. It will be better to include both languages in one chop (I know there was a proposal of such).
I witnessed the stamp sale on the first day at Yangon GPO. All the empty FDC at Yangon GPO are sold out within first few hours. One official empty FDC are sold at 200 Kyats to public. MPS is selling its FDC at 200 Kyats to its members, and 300 Kyats to the public for fund raising purpose. Joining MPS can save 100 Kyats for every FDC purchased.
Happy new year to visitors of my blog! I am wishing you healthy and prosperous year ahead.
On the new year day, 1st Jan, I visited Yangon GPO to purchase the official postcards issued by Myanmar Post to commemorate the pre-centenary of Yangon University. Yangon University was opened in 1920 and they celebrates their 100 years birthday in 2020. Pictorial cancellation was provided by Myanmar Post on that day.
I observed two different varieties of postcards. It difference both on the front and back. The comparison of two version is shown below. I have learnt that there were two batch of printing during the production stage. The first batch comes with Designer name in Burmese and the second batch in English. Some color variations and formatting of texts are also easily noticeable.
Varieties of postcards
As the stamp was yet to issue, most collectors used Diamond Jubilee of Yangon University stamps to get the cancellation.
Commemorative cancellation
U Aung Ko commented on the design faults of postmark and shared his view. The Gantgaw flowers on the stamps and postmark during the previous issues represent the years they celebrates. For example, three flowers for 75th anniversary, with one flower representing 25 years. The new postmark has additional flower. And the Gantgaw flower has only four petals, but the flowers on the postmark has five each. These should be take into account during the postmark design process.
