I postmarked this maximum card on 20 Sep 2010 and I mailed it as a postcard (no envelope):
See how I created a maximum card in the process of mailing a postcard from USA to Romania?
Well, I used the concordant stamp on the picture side, and I put all the other stamps on the address side.
The picture side was glossy, so I carefully rubbed with hard dishpad, just enough to rough up the surface needed.
I also rubbed a little the glossy zazzle stamp.
The picture postcard is my custom-created postcard, printed by winkflash.com from the photo I uploaded to them.
The postmark is applied with my own MPP canceller (Mailer's Postmark Permit) #67.
The stamp is also my design.
http://www.zazzle.com/leon_iancovici_esq_romania_postage-172868310591662719?rf=238693463283865848
Anybody can do that. Only US residents can get MPP, though.
:)
After I created that design (from the stamp in the maximum card, with "3 philatelists"), new information surfaced about 2 more Gold Medallists at recent FIP Exhibitions, so the current total is 5 maximaphilists.
That will increase, in time, of course.
What will remain forever unchanged is that my friend Leon Iancovici was chronologically the 2nd in the world in this elite group.
Officially, a Zazzle stamp (= personalized stamp = personalised stamp = customized postage = P-stamp) does "not require to be postmarked", because the code is supposed to be decoded by the scanner of the Post.
But my interpretation is that it's still OK to have it postmarked on (nice, polite) demand, should the postal associate cooperate.
[Translation: THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH POSTMARKING/HANDCANCELLING A PERSONALIZED STAMP!!! - USPS should adopt THIS rule! :)]
Sometimes, I get to postmark myself with the USPS canceller, at the post counter, "under the supervision" of a nice, cooperating, open-minded postal associate.
Or, I can postmark it myself - it's easy for me to convince myself to carefully postmark it with my MPP canceller.
Notice that I wrote "ADDITIONAL POSTAGE ->" - never assume that the postal associate will flip the postcard.
Here's another example, where I didn't initially write "ADDITIONAL POSTAGE", and some unflipping postal associate has returned the postcard to me for insufficient postage!!!
It never crossed his/her mind that the missing 41 cents stamp is ALREADY on the postcard, just on the picture side, for philatelic/maximaphilic purposes.
Moreover, I already handcancelled that 41c stamp with the USPS canceller - but the postcard and the stamp were glossy, and the ink was low on the canceller. STAZ-ON would be a superior brand of ink for glossy surfaces.
So the red ink stamp above my panda stamp is barely visible. Which proves again that I could be better off postmarking with my own MPP device. I can pre-ink at will.
I have crossed out the USPS note for insufficient postage, as instructed at the second Post visit, and I resubmitted the postcard with arrows pointing to the other side.
