| This Saturday we will have a program on Fakes and Forgeries by Bruce Johnson. Bruce will have examples for you to examine. He will also go into detail on identifying stamps and will inform you on what books to consult. Bruce is a long-time stamp dealer and has many years of experience identifying stamps and forgeries for dealers and auction houses. I have seen this presentation and found it fascinating. It will be on February 22nd at 11:00 AM. |
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After a conversation with a fellow postal history collector on how interesting the research can be I have decided to repeat a stampless letter I posted 10 years ago. I have copied much of what I posted back then and most of the information is from 10 years ago, but I have added a few items as I learned a little more. |
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So, as the story goes..... A long time ago in an internet far far away I bought this letter from a collector in Belgium as a French letter from 1723 that he described had some sort of medical importance to the letter. Years ago you could refine your search on Ebay under Postal History by putting in the search bar 17** and everything listed from the eighteenth century would pop up, which was often times nothing. That is how I got some really old stuff. Now you have to put in each specific year. So I recently, (now 10+ years ago), brought the letter to a meeting at the Minnesota Postal History meeting and found out it was not French, but it was Latin, but not modern Latin. I plugged the words from the wax seal into google and that appeared to connect to a castle in Germany. I scanned it and posted it to the a couple message boards, Stamporama and Stamp Community Forum. I have found message boards to be great for collecting opinions and Information. You have to figure out what is just a wild ass guess and what is good information. I also read message boards on classic cars and it is even worse there where I find most of the information wrong or guys agreeing with the person that finally gave the right answer, but the late comers just repeat what he said trying to look like they actually know something. As far as this scanned letter goes someone on a message board was certain that the symbol on the letter was a symbol used by the Pope. At that point I sent a scan to a friend of mine that is a nun in Milwaukee. Jeannie replied that she was on vacation and that did not know ancient Latin, so she sent it to a friend that is a monk in Chicago that she knew from the seminary. He knew that the symbol had nothing to do with the Pope. He did decipher the letter and told me it had to do with ordering swaths of cloth for a new flag in Aachen. Someone from England that was a vacationing in California finally translated it for me. He found my message on Stamporama. |
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So, to sum it up. I bought a 300-year-old French medical letter from a man in Belgium that turned out to be a German legal letter translated by a British collector in California that a New Yorker told me was written in Latin while the nun was on vacation in Australia. That my friends, kind of sums up why I love collecting postal history. (Jeanne did send me a postcard from Australia.) |
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Here goes the translation. |
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LATIN TEXT |
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Nos consulos, Scabini et Magistratus Regna sedis ac libera Imperialis Urbis aquensis, hisce notum facimus et attestamus, quod hac civitas Divina sanonto gratia, adhuc saluberrimo solatus aeve, quodque in illa nulla grassetus contagiosa sues, cum itaque Dominus Simon Schmitz hujus urbis Mercator sinc in Italiam transmittat duas satina pannorum in hac urbe et vicinia confedorum, signalas 1 et 2, quarum cum consistat in una parte cyaneorum, vividium carmlorum, tubrosmus et nigrorum, altera satcina vero in lex partibus pannorum intermixti coloris; Hinc omnes es singulos injuscumque status debite requisimunt dictas savcinas ubiuis cascorum transquehi permittant, quod et nos familiter demevevi non derimus. Datum aquis grans hac 30 a July 1723. |
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J.W. Strauch |
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Secret. |
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TRANSLATION (with interpretation) |
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We consuls, Scabini and magistrates under the throne of the kingdom and free imperial city of Aachen, say known today and attest that this city under the benefit of Divine Grace, still healthy in its bidding, are aware that there graze contagious swine herein; so when Simon Schmitz the merchant lately in this city is to send from Italy two packs of satin cloth in this city and the vicinity of the confederation, branded with signals M-A-C-+ 1 and 2, which consists of a single portion with blue, vivid carmine, tuberose and black, the other part of the cloth is satin of mixed color; Hence, all the states are each hereby ordered and duly called to permit the satin to pass unpillaged under his prior permit, which we have not really changed and with which you will be familiar. Given at the port effective from this 30th day of July 1723. |
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J.W. Strauch |
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Secretary |
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If you have anything that you want shared let me know at pjflaherty58@gmail.com |
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