Several of the visitors to this web site have wondered how a Norwegian became so interested in Bulgarian philately and history, but that is a rather long story... On this page, however, I can prove that I am definitely not the first Norwegian to collect Bulgarian stamps! - Or perhaps we should say TRY to collect stamps... Read on!
This is an FDC cover for the 1939 issue for the 60 years anniversary of the Bulgarian postal services (Mi #358/59) 14 May 1939 (14.V.939). 41 different FDC cancels were used for this special issue: 6 in Sofia and 35 others in major Bulgarian cities. This cover is from the city of Kazanlik, uprated and sent as registered mail to a Kurt Fehn in Oslo, Norway. The cover was posted the following day (15.V.939), and arrived in Oslo 20 May (20.5.39).
Postage rate was 7 Leva for letters up to 20 gr plus 7 Leva for registration, totally 14 Leva.
The problem was that Mr. Fehn seemed to be unknown to the Norwegian post in Oslo. The cover was handstamped Retur and Ukjent/Inconnu (Unknown), and returned by the Norwegian foreign post office (Bureau d'echange d'Oslo) 26 May (2-ring cancel with hatching dated 26 V 39). The returned cover then reached Sofia-Gare in Bulgaria 30 May (30.V.39) before ending up back in Kazanlik 31 May (31.V.39)...
- and now the cover is back in Norway again.... ;-)