FRENCH FORCES IN THE BALKANS 1917 Army Commander Division French Army General Paul 30th, 76th, 57th, 156th French Infantry Divisions, 35th Italian of the Orient Henrys Infantry Division, 11th French Colonial Division, 3rd & 4th Greek Infantry Divisions GENERAL PAUL HENRYS Henrys commanded the French army on the Salonika front (L'Armée d'Orient) in the final year of the First World War. On December 31, 1917, the General took command of the French Army of the East and he took a considerable part in the final successes of the Allies in the East. During the months of July and August 1918, he organized and directed the victorious operations in Albania obliging the Austrians to cleat the Piave and to bring back to this secondary front two or even three good divisions, according to General Franchet d'Espérey. In September, at the time of the general offensive, an effective support with its two divisions of infantry of the Serb armies forced the capitulation of 75,000 Bulgarian soldiers in Uskub. This led to the capitulation of Bulgaria, which signed the armistice with the allies on September 29, 1918. RED MACHINE CANCELLATIONS Where firms needed postage in addition to a fixed-rate machine franking mark (usually 50c at that time), they applied the cancellation to the stamps, which 'pre-cancelled' them at the same time, thus facilitating the work of the postal employees, especially in the case of bulk mailings that did not require additional, normally unnecessary, processing for machine-stamped business mail, generally for rates not possible with the franking -machine, such as tariffs for other countries.
ESSAY JULES HENRI POINCARÉ 1854-1912 was a French mathematician, theoretical physicist, engineer, and philosopher of science. He is often described as a polymath, and in mathematics as "The Last Universalist," since he excelled in all fields of the discipline as it existed during his lifetime. CHAMBON MACHINE CANCELLATION This machine was trialled in a few Paris and provincial offices in 1911-12, but was not used ant further because it was too unreliable and wore out too quickly. It was used sporadically in some of these offices up to 1920-21, mostly as a relief machine at times of heavy work-load.
No 297 cote 75 F N.1 Monsieur Longui' ocheno Cosne nièvre RECTO: Posted: PARIS J (PLACE de la BOURSE) 6/7/63 Ambulant mark: PARIS à CLERMONT 6/7/63 Received: COSNE 7/7/63 TP CONTRÔLE This was the oval seal that since 1854 checked the quality of the sheets of the MONNAIE de PARIS. It was a brand of the Mint that appears on all paper to be used for printing stamps. It was affixed to the paper before it entered the stamp printing shop. Located on the north-east and south-west corners of the sheets to be used, 300 stamps in two panels of 150 were printed (15 lines of 10 stamps). Normally this seal was stamped in the margins, but in this example it has over-spilled onto the corner stamp
PREFECTS A prefect (French: préfet, plural préfets) in France is the state's representative in a department or region. Subprefects (French: sous-préfets) are responsible for the subdivisions of departments, known as arrondissements. The office of a prefect is known as a prefecture and that of a subprefect as a subprefecture. Regional prefects are ex officio the departmental prefects of the regional prefecture. Prefects are tasked with upholding the law in the department in which they serve, including controlling the actions of local authorities to ensure adhesion to national guidelines. They are authorised to sue local collectivities in the name of the state. Prefects are appointed by a decree of the President of France when presiding the Government’s Council of Ministers, following a proposal by the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior. They serve at the Government’s discretion and can be replaced at any meeting of the Council of Ministers. The post of prefect was first created on 17 February 1800 by then-First Consul Napoléon Bonaparte. Their roles were initially similar to those of the pre-revolutionary intendants. Prefects were initially charged with supervising local governments in their department, ensuring that taxes flowed to Paris and supervising conscription at the local level. LYON PREFECTURE PRINTERS’ WASTE Printers’ waste generally refers to stamps that appear to be errors but are not, because of their origin. Most recognized errors are sold over the post office counter and are later sold to dealers or collectors. Printers’ waste, however, is misprinted material (either by accident or intent) that was intended to be discarded. It is also possible that printers’ waste was produced as part of the cleaning process, where paper was run through the printing plates to clean off excess ink. Such material enters the philatelic market through either carelessness or theft.
The ½ CENTIME EN PLUS mark/overprint was used to denote additional ½c taxes paid on some printed matters when the stamps of such value did not exist. They are not really an overprint, despite what Yvert calls them, as they could be applied on the stamp or near the stamp, or tying the stamp. They are only collected on complete wrappers or large fragments. They are priced unused by Yvert, and they do exist as well centred overprints on mint stamps, but these were produced for philatelists (probably through the intervention of Arthur Maury, who might even have got hold of a hammer to strike the “overprints” himself). These should not have been made available as mint stamps as the “cachet” was meant to be applied on actual wrappers whenever required, not on mint stamps and not sold like this. It may be seen that Yvert (current edition - 2023 - page 204 at the end of the chapter for the Newspaper Stamps) prices them as mint, and price only the 4c as used. These prices appear strange. It is unlikely that the 3c deserves such a high valuation compared with the others. As for the used stamps, there should not be much difference between the values, although the lower values -1 & 2c - should be more common that the higher ones - 4 & 5c. 1884. Timbres-poste de 1877-80 (Sage) Surchargés. Dentelés. La POSTE ENFANTINE These small size “Sage” stamps come from a popular toy of the time called “La Poste Enfantine” (Children Post Office). A box set provided all the implement necessary for a child to set his own miniature post office, including a miniature cardboard counter, and all necessary equipment, including paper, envelopes, bogus postmarks, stationery envelopes and stamps. You can find the Sage types at the end of the 19th century, and later the Blanc and Semeuse/Sower types were also used. They are quite collectible especially in good condition as are these and can fetch good prices up to something like 50 or 75€ for the scarcer ones.
