Today in Postal History

Although we cannot see the other side of this card,
it was not a picture post card nor was it a
government issued postal card with an indicia for postage.
I believe is was a privately printed card for just such use.
Such cards have been available elsewhere for correspondence.

This postal card was franked with an Austrian
10 heller carmine definitive issued in 1906 (Scott 92).
The card went into the mails in Reichenberg
with a nice CDS strike to send it on its way.

Reichenberg, now Liberec, is in what is now the Czech Republic*
about 100 km northeast of Prague on the Polish border.
This was in the Sudetanland which was annexed by Germany just prior to World War II.*

The destination was Nagasaki, Japan, where it arrived June 10.
Nagasaki is on the southwestern coast of the island
of Honshu near the most westerly part of southern Japan.

The second faint Japanese CDS is dated June 25.
Perhaps this indicated a delay in delivery.

Note the Japanese characters pencilled in blue by postal personnel at the left.

*Thanks to Knud-Erik for the additions on Reichenberg.

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