LITHUANIA : SOVIET PERIOD
FRANKING METER MARKS (POSTAL METERS)
Cover from Kaunas with a franking meter mark, 1972.
Original print size of this image: 15,655 x 11,261 cm (is something more as the postal item)
The text of the postmark - here some sharpened- is bilingual and the content is typically 'Soviet':
ИСПОЛКОМ [ISPOLKOM], Executive Comitee, КАУНАССКОЛО [KAUNASSKOGO], of Kaunas, ГОРСОВЕТА [GORSOVETA], City Council.
On internet we find 'International Postage Meter Stamp Catalog/Union Of Soviet Socialist Republics':
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/International_Postage_Meter_Stamp_Catalog/Union_Of_Soviet_Socialist_Republics.
In this 'catalog' the franking meter mark of this cover is to classify under GROUP D: Upright octagon. These postmarks are from 'Perm machines', usually printed in black.
Subdivision of this group:
- Sub-group DA: "ПОЧТА / СССР” [POCHTA SSSR] at bottom
- Sub-group DB: “КОП” [KOP] at bottom
- Sub-group DC: “РУБ” [RUB] at bottom
- Sub-group DD: Blank at bottom
The cover here is type DA, and again a sub-division:
- DA1. Francotyp “C” (MV), 1950: ПОЧТА is curved and double outer frame line and inner box around value figures
- DA2. Perm “C” (MV): also ПОЧТА is curved and with single-line outer frame
- DA3. Perm : ПОЧТА at bottom is straight and sides with "К".
A. inner box complete
B. inner box open at centre of sides - DA4. Perm (MV): ПОЧТА at bottom is straight and sides are blank without “К”.
A. star at top negative (hammer & sickle white) B. star at top positive (hammer & sickle black) - DA5. Perm (MV): ПОЧТА at bottom is straight and blank at top as well as sides
The cover here is clearly type DA3 A: ПОЧТА at bottom is straight and sides with "К", inner box complete.
LITERATURE:
- Afzender... : Sovjet-frankeerstempels van Litouwen / Jan Kaptein. - HBG 2002 ; 40. - p. 23. - [about Soviet franking meter marks of Lithuania]
- On internet: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/International_Postage_Meter_Stamp_Catalog/Union_Of_Soviet_Socialist_Republics