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You are here: Home / Provisional Postmarks / Lunno (Lith. Lunia) 1919

Lunno (Lith. Lunia) 1919

October 24, 2010 By Vytautas Doniela

Lunno (Lith. Lunia) is a town 45 km south-east of Gardinas (Grodno), presently in Belorus. In WWI, it was entered by German infantry on September 6, 1915 engaged in the battle for Vilnius. During the German withdrawal from the East, Lunno area was controlled by the dissolving Tenth Army, followed by units of the Grenzschutz.

In czarist times, the town had a post office Lunno. During German occupation it had a branch Lunno within Postgebiet Ob.-Ost, which opened on July 1, 1916 and closed down on October 31, 1918. Lunno also had a resident Feldpoststation 136 active from September / October 1915 until late 1918. In addtition, from September to late October 1918 the Lunno district was serviced by Feldpost 62.

A mandate to establish a Lithuanian post office at Lunno was given to Jonas Kucharčikas (Ivan Kucharčik) dated February 7, 1919 but it is not clear when the facility was in fact opened. Due to the district’s hand-over by the Germans to Polish administration Jonas Kucharčikas was officially discharged as from April 1, 1919.

For stamps, Lunno seems to have been dependent on the Lithuanian post office at Gardinas (Grodno) and was provided with stamps of the “second stage” of the earliest printings, namely, the 10, 15, 40, 50 values of Second Vilnius Issue. Having no regular postmarker, for cancelling Lunno made use of a violet seal-like cachet with the cyrillic inscription “LUNNENSKAYA…”.

When Gardinas was supplied with the First Kaunas Issue, a small quantity was passed on to Lunna as well.

There is no evidence of any other provisional markings. Generally, cancels from Lunno were of a philatelic nature, and blank covers were fictitiously addressed at a later stage. So far, there is no record of authentic mail from Lunno having passed through factual postal channels.

Known provisional markings:

No date, philatelic cover ( to Grodno), Vilnius II 10, 15, 40, 50 [colln. Doniela]
No date, philatelic cover (to Erfurt), Vilnius II 10, 15, 40, 50 [colln. Brazdeikis]
No date, blanc covers, singles, Vilnius II 10, 15, 40, 50 [several collns]
No date, blank cover, Kaunas I set [colln. Doniela]
No date, singles, Kaunas I set [colln. ?]

Filed Under: Provisional Postmarks Tagged With: provisional cancels

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