Monday, December 19, 2011

Imnaha Stamps website back at www.imnahastamps.net

Long story short, I had problems renewing the domain name for my web site, so I registered www.imnahastamps.NET instead. I haven't made updates in a while, but it gets a decent amount of traffic, so I figured it was worthwhile keeping it up and running.

Some things to check out if you aren't familiar with it:

1. Definitive KBC number list
2. Examples of military insignia on covers
3. Unit-specific military cover articles (VNN, VNAF, Airborne)
4. ARVN military IDs and certificates
5. Comprehensive Viet-Minh overprints sub-site

Enjoy! (don't forget to update your bookmark)


Sunday, December 18, 2011

Season's Greetings

Best wishes for a Merry Christmas, and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

Similar greetings were sent in 1962 from ARVN Brigadier General Van Thanh Cao and his wife to Major Giertsen of the Strategic Hamlets Division. The card was sent postage free via APO 143.

General Cao headed up 'Operation Sunrise' that oversaw the creation of three strategic hamlets in Binh Duong Province earlier that year. Ultimately, around 14,000 such hamlets were created throughout South Vietnam and populated with forcibly relocated peasants before the program was dismantled in early 1964.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Help Wanted

I need help completing my collection of North Vietnamese military stamps on cover. I have some ideas for a series of articles and maybe an exhibit, but I'd like to have an example of each before I get started.

I don't think this the rarest of the NVN military issues on cover - I'd probably give that distinction to the very first military issue, one of the ocher-colored medal stamps, or perhaps this stamp's twin, the olive-colored waterwheel stamp with the medal completely shaded. However, I found examples of each of those on cover, so maybe I'm wrong. For some reason the brown 'invalids on waterwheel' stamp has eluded me.

I'm looking for a cover like this one:


It has to be tied with a genuine postmark that has a legible year date prior to 1975, although a contemporary date from 1959 or the early 1960s would be terrific. Other than that, I'm not too particular on condition or anything else.

Let me know if you have one you can sell or trade.

You can reach me at imnaha at optimumonline dot net or by posting a comment to this blog entry.

Thanks!