Tran Hu’ng Dao was an imperial prince, statesman and military commander during the Tran area in the 13th Century (Wikipedia). A single stamp with a 150D nominal and perforated 12.5 was issued on October 2nd, 1958. Here is the official stamp bulletin that was published by the Vietnamese Stamp Agency on occasion of the release of the stamp.
Here is the mint stamp
Mint block of four (Perf.12.75)
Here is a cancelled to order stamp
It took years for the editor to find a postal used letter that features this stamp. Here, finally, is a mixed currency franking of old and new Dong. On March 1st, 1959 the Old Dong was devalued by 1000:1 which meant that the postage of the Tran Hu’ng Dao and Handicraft stamp represented 1.15 New Dong. So together with the Hai Phong Harbour stamp for 5xu the overall postage amounted to 1.2 New Dong. The air mail letter to France was sent in December of 1959. The standard letter rate to a friendly communist Eastern European countries amounted to 20xu in New Dong, which means that a letter to an unfriendly capitalist country cost six times as much!
Registration Nr. 100130
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