PANGOON instead of RANGOON

A remarkable datestamp error from RANGOON was recorded on a registered postal stationery envelope sent from BERNARDMYO. On the datestamp, the letter 'R' in RANGOON was mistakenly replaced with 'P,' resulting in "PANGOON." This datestamp error is known to exist on just one recorded envelope.

Reverse of the envelope

The envelope was sent from BERNARDMYO to GERMANY on March 2, 1892, with a postage fee of 2 Annas for standard postage and 2 Annas 6 pies for registration. The "PANGOON" transit datestamp is dated March 12, 1892, and is struck on the reverse of the envelope. Bernardmyo, now known as Mogok, is renowned as the ruby mining district where some of the world's finest rubies are extracted.

Registered PSE from Bernardmyo

Experimental Post Offices before 1950

Type 2

R-13

19 Apr 1913

Type 3

R-9
28 Feb 1946, Kyaikpi, Myaungmya District (Delivery)

R-21
10 Nov 1941, Rangoon (Flying Tiger)

R-32
11 Jan 1929

R-47
3 Jan 1927
13 Dec 1938

R-63
2 Jun 1924, Moulmeingyun

R-68
3 Feb 1950

R-70
19 Aug 1946, Kywebwe

R-98
27 May 1946

R-99
31 May 1946, Tantabin, Insein

R-542
20 Jun 1939

Type 4

R-71
23 Sep 1923, Yenangyaung

R-73
25 Jun 1914,

Type 5 (left) and Type 3 (right)

Type 5

R-4

7 Sep 1945

R-5

14 Nov 1945, Wakema, Myaungmya District

4 Dec 1945, Wakema, Myaungmya District

R-7

29 Sep 1945, Kyaiklat, Pyapon District

14 Dec 1945, Kyaiklat, Pyapon District

R-8

15 Nov 1945, Yandoon

R-9

15 Sep 1945, Zigon, Tharrawaddy District

7 Nov 1945, Zigon, Tharrawaddy District

4 Dec 1945, Zigon, Tharrawaddy District (Delivery)

27 Dec 1945

R-10

9 Mar 1946, Paung, Thaton District

R-12

5 Sep 1945, Minhla

21 Nov 1945, Gyobingauk

R-14

12 Oct 1945, Twante

26 Oct 1945, Twante

R-15

4 Dec 1945, Kungyangon

R-16

8 Dec 1945, Kyauktan, Hanthawaddy District

R-19 

6 Apr 1946, Okkan, Insein District (Delivery)

R-24

xx Sep 1945, Hsipaw, North State Shan

R-29

12 Apr 1945

R-34
14 Sep 1945

R-35

20 Sep 1945, Tantabin

xx Nov 1945

R-36
7 Oct 1945, Dedaye, Pyapon District

12 Oct 1945

22 Nov 1945, Kandawgalay, Rangoon

25 Nov 1945

1 Jan 1946

R-39

xx Oct 1945, Dabein, Insein District

R-40

21 Nov 1945, Kyonpyaw, Bassein District (Delivery)

12 Oct 1945, Kyonpyaw, Bassein District

R-42

4 Dec 1945, Danubyu, Maubin District

29 Dec 1945, Danubyu, Maubin District

R-43

xx Nov 1945, Nyaunglebin (used as delivery postmark)

R-44
16 Dec 1945,

R-50
21 Jul 1946, Lemyathna, Henzada District

Experimental POs of 1950s and 1960s

This post will not be the comprehensive study of the experimental POs during the period of 1950 to 1960 but it will gave some example of postmark and their usage records.  The experimental post offices from early 1950s to late 1960s have the postmark like the example below with different post office number.  The following postmark example shows type 2 of PO 281 dated 22 Sep 1961.  Type has been seen used since 1940s.

Type 2 (left) and Type 1 (right)

The following are the records of some examples with date of postmark and sender's address.

Type 1

PO R-63
xx Jul 1951, Thonze

PO R-81

30 Jan 1951, Myingyan

PO R-89
29 Aug 1957, 27th Road, Between 80 & 81 Street

Type 2

PO 22
22 Dec 1953, Mandalay 26th B Road, Between 81 & 82 Road
22 Aug 1955, Mandalay University College
30 Jan 1956, Mandalay University College

PO 28
17 Jun 1960, Rangoon, Cantoment PO, Fraser Road

PO 46
26 Jul 1953, Moulmein, LM Road
14 Oct 1953, Moulmein, LM Road
1 Jan 1955, Moulmein, LM Road
18 Nov 1955, Moulmein, LM Road

PO 201
23 Jul 1956, Rangoon, 31st Street
25 Apr 1957, Rangoon, Mogul Road (Shwe Bontha Road)
19 Aug 1957, Rangoon, Godwin Road (Lanmadaw Road)
28 Aug 1957, Rangoon

PO 203
23 Jul 1957, Rangoon, Bazaar Street, Kemmendine

PO 271
9 Mar 1961, Rangoon, York Road (Yawmingyi Road)
29 Aug 1961, Rangoon, Mogul Road (Shwe Bontha Road))
16 Jan 1962, Rangoon, Shwedagon Pagoda Road
29 Mar 1962, Rangoon, Mogul Road (Shwe Bontha Road)

PO 281
22 Sep 1961, Rangoon, Thaton Hall, Rangoon University

PO 282
30 May 1961, Rangoon, Mogul Road (Shwe Bontha Road)
11 Jan 1963, Rangoon, Kemmendine, Shwehlaing Road

PO 355
1 Aug 1963, Rangoon, Mogul Road (Shwe Bontha Road)

PO 680
25 Feb 1970, Pakokku, People's Hospital

The list will be extended whenever I found new example to be recorded.

Date slugs in Burmese

All the post offices throughout Burma were distributed with slugs in Burmese for the year part of postmarks since January 1986.  The following two telephone bill payments receipts from Kyonpyaw Post Office shows the Sep 1985 postmark with year slug in English and Jan 1986 postmark with year slug in Burmese.

Most post offices used year date slugs since then.  The following examples shows Botataung Registered postmark dated 8 Jul 1996 and Moulmein College postmark dated 24 Oct 1986.  Both examples have the year slugs in Burmese.

At the major post offices like Yangon GPO are provided with all date slugs in Burmese.  The following postmark from Yangon GPO dated 9 Jun 1997 used all date slugs in Burmese.

But earlier than that, there are some usages of Burmese Wording in the date portion of postmarks.  Interestingly all the examples I have seen are from Rakhine Division (Arakan Division) ရခိုင်တိုင်း in Burmese.  The copies in my collection are Taungup (Taungoke) dated 8 Dec 196x and Myebon dated 28 Aug 196x and are in sue since 1960s.

Telegraph marking with Burmese words may be precursor of such postmarks.  The following examples of telegraph marking stamp are from Central Telegraphic Office, Yangon dated 26 Feb 1962 and Taik Kyi dated xx Jan 1966.

My previous article on inverted date slugs shows how the postmark device and date slugs looks like.  Please browse the article at this link. Following the 1986 year slugs, the next change of postmark is the usages of shiny postmark which are totally in English. I will write another article to cover them up. 

Date slug errors of Burma

Shown below are two examples of inverted date lines (1899), and two cover showing just the month being inverted (1896 and 1949).  Since the date slugs in the circular date stamps are changed daily, such errors were likely corrected the following day. These are some examples of such inverted date slugs I have recorded, there may be more dates out there.

Inverted date lines

23 Mar 1896 (month slug inverted)

28 May 1949 (month slug inverted)

Setting the date slugs.

It is the daily routine of the post office to set the date slugs of the cancelers in the morning.  And each date stamps have to be recorded in the record book.

Postcards to commemorate pre-centenary of Yangon University

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.

"MANADALAY" postmark named wrongly

While introducing new and standardized postmarks in 2018, Mandalay GPO has an interesting event. One of its new postmark comes with the wrong spelling of "MANADALAY" instead of "MANDALAY".  Once public and officials noticed, it was widthdrawn from GPO.  It was used about a month, I believed.  As Mandalay GPO is the high grade PO, it has more then one set of new postmark.  I have also received one postcard with the correct town name which was used on same day.  The wrong and correctly spelled postmarks are compared below.

The new postmarks were introduced on 9 Oct 2018. The new set of postmarks (Burmese and English) were distributed to 778 full service post offices around the country.

Mandalay GPO New Counter Opening

On 2nd July 2018, Mandalay GPO has its official opening of new counters.  Myanmar officials attended the ceremony and officially launch the new counters into operation.  Myanmar Post sell the event postcard to public and provide commemorative date stamp for the event.  Collectors in Mandalay and Myanmar Post officials has an opportunity to grab them.

Front side of the postcard showing the new counters of Mandalay GPO

Rare side of the postcard, with 200K definitive attached, cancelled with commemorative date stamp

Thingyan Festival, new year for Burmese

Burmese new year starts from mid-April and celebration takes place four or five days.  It is known as Thingyan (Songkran in Thailand) and we splash water at others for the cleansing or purification of body.  For the purification of soul, we do good deeds like offering foods, taking care of elderly, setting animals free, etc. This year is 1380 in Burmese calendar, and new year starts from 17th April.  Ko Toe would like to take this opportunity to wish you all happy new year.

On this occasion, I want to share one postcard and postmark Myanmar Post produced for last year celebration.  The postcard was sold at Yasngon GPO on 4 April 2017, and pictorial cancellation was also provided.  Postmark did not specifically mention date.  The postmark shows atar-pot filled with seven kinds of flowers.

Yangon GPO cancellation

Mandalay GPO cancellation

One controversial issue here is the copyright of the design element in the postcard.  Ko Hlwann Hmi and I found out that the couple in the design is a creative artwork of Ko Aung Kyaw Khin, done in 2012.  We have checked with the owner of the artwork, and he said he is not informed by anyone for the usage on the postcard.  The original digital artwork is shown below.

Papa Francesco in Myanmar Postmark

Pope Francis visited Myanmar from 26 to 30 November 2017 during his visit to Asia.  Vatican post office created the commemorative postmark for his trip to Myanmar.  The postmark symbolizes love and peace.

UPU Day, 2016 commemorative postmark

The official postmark was struck on commemorative covers at Yangon GPO on World Post day, 9th October 2016, starting from 9:30 AM.  An official cover was also sold on that day.  MPS, also created it's own philatelic cover and sold to members and collectors.

Cover by Myanmar Post

Cover by MPS

Same Day Delivery marking of 1995

Same day delivery

From Panbedan to Ahlone, 28 March 1995

To Panbedan

Foreign Post cancellation, Yangon-CME postmark

Recently, I have travelled to Myanmar and send some covers to Singapore.  When the letters arrives back to me, I notice that Myanmar Post used two new postmarks on the covers.  The best example is the cover sent from Nyaung Oo post office (Fig 1), it was struck with Nyaung Oo PO postmark on 5^th Jan, new Foreign Post postmark of Yangon on 8^th Jan and Yangon-CME mark dated 8^th Jan.  

Fig 1: Two new postmarks on the stamp

"Foreign Post" postmark (Fig 2) seems to be the replacement of old "Foreign Air Mail" postmark (Fig 3).  "Foreign Post" mark is in a double circle format; the date shown in the center with two stars on the sides.  It is struck in blue, except the date in red.  Its outer diameter is about 4 cm and inner circle is about 2.8 cm.  It is usually struck on the stamp.  Another never seen mark is "Yangon CME" mark (Fig 4), usually struck on the back of the cover.  CME here stands for Central Mail Exchange, which used to be known as Sorting.  "Yangon-CME" mark is struck in black.  Its format is a double circle with the date in the center.  Its outer diameter is around 3.5 cm and inner diameter is around 2.5 cm.  

Fig 2: Foreign Post mark

Fig 3: Foreign Air Mail postmark

Fig 4: Yangon-CME postmark

It is not found on the covers sent from the Mayangon Post Office and Bayint Naung Market Post Office which are in Yangon region.  I found these marks on the covers sent from Nyaung Oo, Bagan, Pyin Oo Lwin, and Chaung Thar Post Offices.

To reference this article, please cite:

Toe Kyaw Kyar, "New issues and developments: Foreign Post cancellation, Yangon-CME postmark", The Burma Fantail, Vol. 12, No. 2, Whole Number 44, pp. 20-21, April 2015.