15 Years World Federation of the Democratic Youth

North Vietnam, 15 Years World Federation of the Democratic Youth, November 10th, 1960, Michel Nr. 150; A single stamp with a nominal of 12 xu (standard domestic letter rate) was issued in perforation 11:0. Below is the official Xunhasaba bulletin that was published on occasion of this stamps issuance.

Here is the mint stamp.

Postally used stamp. Postally used stamps are at least ten times rarer than cancelled to order stamps.

Below is a mint pair of the stamp. The left stamp shows a printing flaw, probably caused by a small object falling on the printing plate, that looks like the dove is losing an egg.

Here is a letter mailed on the First Day of issue to Theo Klewitz in West Germany. The letter clearly travelled through the mail but it was only franked with 12 xu which was well below the required 50 xu air mail letter rate to Western Europe. however, no postage due was indicated or collected. This was caused by the sender writing”Cong Hoa DC Duc” at the bottom of the address which stood for East Germany. The standard letter rate to fellow socialist countries was only 12 xu so in the eyes of the postal clerk the postage was just fine.

Interesting mixed currency franking sent by Xunhasaba in May of 1960 to England. England was an unusual destination at the time. The letter which contained the bulletin depicted above carried one of the Democratic Youth stamp, two additional stamps in new currency and one August revolution stamp denominated in Old Dong. The 500D stamp was devalued by 1,000:1 in March 1st, 1959 so was only worth 50xu in 1960. The overall franking hence amounted to 82xu.

Mixed franking from March of 1961 featuring the 12xu Democratic Youth stamp plus the 4xu HCM stamp from the prior year for an overall postage of 16xu. The standard letter rate (up to 20g) was only 12xu so this letter must have been heavier.

Very rare registered express mail letter mailed to Klewitz featuring a block of four of the stamp. The letter also bears the 30 xu im-perforated domestic bird set from 1966. Im-perforated stamps on postally used cover are very rare. The overall postage of 1.66 Dong was just a tad above the required tariff for a standard 20 gram registered express mail letter to West Germany.