North Vietnam, For Military Service Personell, September 25th, 1966, Michel Nr. M11; A single stamp with no nominal value and in perforation 11.0 was produced by the Tien Bo Printing House in sheets of 100 stamps.
Here is the mint stamp.
Large units of this stamp are rarely seen. Here is a mint block of four.
The editor has yet to see a postally used specimen of this stamp off cover. So virtually all of them were cancelled to order like this pair of two stamp from the bottom right corner of the sheet. The cancellation date is one day after the first day of issuance.
The stamp is scarce in mint condition so forgeries do exist. Luckily they are not very good, so easy to recognize. Below is an imperforate forgery in a different color and printed on smooth white paper. Note that the year “1966” is missing on the right.
The same forgery exists printed on rougher, liter toned paper and usually presented as an imperforate sheetlet.
Postally used letters with this stamp are exceedingly rare and only a handful of them have been recorded. Most local letters were destroyed in the multi-decadal war, by the tropical climate and recycling due to raw material shortages. This specimen (full contents preserved) was sent from Ha Bac to a member of the military located in Song Be (note the Hom Thu number in the address line).
Very rare local letter sent from a member of the military (note the Hom Thu number in the sender line) to Ha-Bac. The letter was cancelled with what looks like a military cancel (“KEH”) in 1967.
Here is a somewhat peculiar letter with the stamp that was sent to Hungary. Military or Invalid Free Franks were only valid inside North Vietnam. Letters that were sent abroad had to be up-rated paying the standard tariff for foreign letters. Nevertheless, some genuine covers with free franks sent abroad are known. Not every postal clerk was apparently familiar with the postal regulations. Also, the 12xu domestic tariff (the nominal value of each free frank) was identical to the tariff abroad for letters sent to fellow socialist countries (like Hungary) so the free frank did in fact cover the full postage. However this cover looks decidedly suspicious. It carries a number in the senders line that looks like a Hom Thu number but the three last lines of the address in Hungary and the remark “Thu di Hunggari” were added with a different pen and in a different handwriting. Also, while most Vietnamese cancel during the war were of pretty poor quality and often hard to read, this cancel looks more like a smear and is totally illegible. Usually at least a fragment of the cancel can be made out. So the editor thinks that it represents a forgery that was made up using an old envelope. Given that genuine covers trade for around $750 a piece make sure you examine any offers very carefully.
More easily identifiable forgeries also exist. Here is a cover bearing two forged blue stamps on a letter to Thai Binh. The stamps are larger in format (45mmx25mm) than the original stamps (39mmx23mm), look washed out and have a perforation that looks more like a mechanical gear. The cancel is devoid of a town name and also is washed out.
Registration Nr. 101371
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