Trying to ID a postage stamp from a movie...

[Nexus6]

I've been working on this in my spare time for a while now & I've hit a minor snag. I'm doing a small display from the movie: The Hunted.

What's got me stumped is the postage stamp on the top envelope here:



Here's a screen-cap I zoomed & tried to enhance a bit (CSI I'm not):



After being frustrated with the screencaps for a while, I decided to try something (to see if I could get any clearer results). I played the DVD on my HDTV, & took photos of the screen with my digital camera. It seems to show a little more detail:

The propmasters could have made a fictitious stamp up, but I think that would typically be too much trouble, & they most likely just bought a stamp & stuck it on there. So, anyone have any ideas as to what stamp it could be? Getting the actual stamp would be unprecedented, but I'd be just as happy with a clear photo to mock one up.

And before anyone asks, I've already consulted with the members of a stamp-collector's message board. They were very helpful, but I didn't get any hard leads from them.

I would think that the stamp would be from 2002 - 2003 (the time-frame during which filming occurred). It could be earlier, since they don't specify in the film when the letter was received, but the details (in the accompanying letter) indicated it had been recent. It could be from almost any country (but again, likely, US).

Any light bulbs?

And thanks in advance for any assistance on this...

 

[dbhs]

I haven't seen the movie so I don't know any context that these play in the story line. This info would be helpful. The flag in the circle at the bottom left is the Netherlands. My guess is that this would be a stamp from the Netherlands. I took a look here going back a number of year but didn't see that stamp. Stamp catalog : Years List [Country: Netherlands] you can try other countries if the Netherlands doesn't make sense in the story. If the letter was written in a particular year (in the story) it's possible they got a stamp from that year to make it more realistic. You can look that up in the website I linked.

Hope this helps. Too bad the writing on the stamp doesn't come out - that would help a lot.

If you can nail down the country, try searching here (by country then by year). https://www.postbeeld.com/app I didn't see it under Netherlands.

 

[SupMyNerfHerder]

At first glance, the dark image in the stamp struck me as a vintage roadster or race car, but I couldn't find a match.

I must take issue with the claim that the envelope and/or stamp are Dutch - yes, the red, white, & blue rectangle does resemble a Dutch flag, but in fact it's a pretty standard recognized international symbol for airmail envelopes, and includes the words "Air Mail" in English, French, and Spanish. When I was much younger, I used & received very similar envelopes when writing family and friends. For example:

So let's forget the Netherlands angle...

Now, check out the circular stamp over the return address upper left hand corner - it's a US ARMY A.P.O. (Army Post Office) stamp. If you can make out the number, maybe you can track down the original base or theater of operations (perhaps the movie's plot contains the answer - I did not see it).

And if you can make out any dates on either of the two circular A.P.O. date stamps, you'll be able to narrow down the release date of the mystery stamp.

Good luck!

Dan

 

[Nexus6]

If you can nail down the country, try searching here (by country then by year). https://www.postbeeld.com/app I didn't see it under Netherlands.

Yeah, I've been using ^that^ search engine for a almost two weeks. Lots of good info, but I didn't find any answers (yet).

I must take issue with the claim that the envelope and/or stamp are Dutch - yes, the red, white, & blue rectangle does resemble a Dutch flag, but in fact it's a pretty standard recognized international symbol for airmail envelopes, and includes the words "Air Mail" in English, French, and Spanish. When I was much younger, I used & received very similar envelopes when writing family and friends.

You're absolutely correct, it's a standard [discontinued] air mail envelope.

Now, check out the circular stamp over the return address upper left hand corner - it's a US ARMY A.P.O. (Army Post Office) stamp. If you can make out the number, maybe you can track down the original base or theater of operations (perhaps the movie's plot contains the answer - I did not see it).

I thought of that as well, but I'm pretty sure it would be against some kind of law for them to use an ACTUAL APO stamp in the film. As such, it appears that they've put a fictitious number after the APO, as it appears to only be 4 numbers, when it should be 5 (like a modern zip code).

And unfortunately, I can't make out any of the dates in the APO marks. I'm starting to go cross-eyed from looking at them. :wacko

Thanks for the input guys! Anybody else got any bright ideas?

 

[Shylaah]

Aw, yeah, this stuff'll make ye blind!!

The area I marked in Pink.....looks like it might be a date??
....and the first word in that line looks like it might be 'My'....??
..and in the center portion, it looks like two or more people "doing something"...the ones in the blue circle maybe have umbrellas??

Found this Army Custom Postage....since the envelope in the pic has the APO on it....does the army have their own special issue stamps?? I couldn't determine exactly what this was??......

Also, this book, if you could find a copy of it at your local library...
2009 Postal Service Guide to U.S. Stamps

Maybe not exactly 'bright' ideas, but the only ones I had

Shylaah

 

[SupMyNerfHerder]

Point noted on the APO zipcode - and by the same token, who's to say the fictitious APO stamp date has any real life correlation to the postage stamp.

Shylaah - I think if those were 2 people in the photo or painting, they would have to be either bobble-heads or LEGO figures, because their proportions seem WAY off!

Here's what I'm seeing - a variation on this 1930s race car theme:

and this one (particularly the bottom left stamp):

And since the envelope appears dusty & aged, who's to say the stamp is not intended to be from the early 40's?

Since this has become an exercise akin to making out shapes in clouds, I'll throw this in as well: there are two yellow-orangish streaks along the top and the bottom of the stamp. On the top the streak fades to the right and on the bottom it fades to the left. In my mind's eye, they are hot-rod style racing flames, but of course I could be spectacularly wrong. :lol

It would be very cool if one of us could positively identify this stamp as an excercise in collective intelligence and deduction.

Hey, NEXUS - you should run this querry in the Paper Props sub forum - those guys ae experts at massaging the most minute details out of the blurriest images and documents...

Dan

 

[exoray]

And since the envelope appears dusty & aged, who's to say the stamp is not intended to be from the early 40's?

The 40's doesn't fit the movies time line... It revolves around The Delta Force (est 1977), and I believe is takes place in 'current' times, thus the stamp should be near current issue if real...

 

[SupMyNerfHerder]

Oh, and another thing...

If the sender is a US serviceman stationed abroad (hence the airmail envelope), I'd focus on stamps from Japan, South Korea, West Germany, and Greece - all countries that had significant US forces stationed permanently after WWII. In fact, here's a pretty strong case for Greece:

In which case I'd have to abandon the race car theory and start from scratch. :angel

Dan

 

[Shylaah]

I love a good mystery!!

The envelope was sent from an APO, so the stamp would be a US Postage Stamp. ...about APO/FPO

If the APO postmark on the letter is faked as Nexus6 suggests and they left off the one digit....it still starts with 0 which would indicate Europe (deduced from info in APO link^) It's def not a 3 or a 9 that the Americas and Pacific would be.....
EDIT: never mind, t's a 6....looks like 6771.....??

It was sent airmail, so wouldn't they have had to use an airmail stamp? I think they did back in the day when we had airmail, but I don't know if that did/does apply to APO mail.....?
Most airmail stamps had pictures of airplanes on them.

Loved SupMyNerfHerder's "making out shapes in clouds" analogy!! ...(and the Lego people :lol ....well I did say they m i g h t have umbrellas :confused
Now I maybe can see a plane in the picture....that old kind with the wings up on top....a bi-plane??

The perforations on that stamp look awfully big!?
But I was noticing they look big like that on "pictures" of stamps--like these Maybe the stamp was printed and cut out, and therefore could be completely fake??

The wavy lines/flag, I'm pretty sure is one of ours
Like this or this

Shylaah

 

[Nexus6]

@ Shylaah, I hadn't thought of a lot of those ideas, so they're "bright" enough to me! Good looking out.

@ SupMyNerfHerder, exactly right, the APO is likely unrelated to the postage stamp. I don't discount Shylaah's "umbrella" idea, & I also am intrigued by your car motif. I'll do some searching with that idea as well.

In addition, the storyline & contents of the letter contained in the envelope infer that the stamp would have been current to the time period in the film; that is to say, with an issue date somewhere around 2003.

ALSO, I see where you are going with the blue wavy line graphic, but if you'll look HERE you can see that the lines are just part of the air mail logo on the envelope. (I thought of posting this thread in the Paper Props forum, but I always felt that forum was more for sharing finished paper props, as opposed to asking for help with a proposed one. I'll give this thread some more time, & if nothing gets figured out, maybe I'll ask the mods to move it there.)

@ Shylaah, the first digit in the APO looks like a 6 to me, so you've got better eyes than me.

I'm going to try to make it to the local library tomorrow, to see if they have a reference book for stamps/stamp-collecting.

In the meantime, I appreciate the ideas, keep'em coming (as long as you feel like it, that is); any one may lead to the answer.

 

[Shylaah]

@ Shylaah, the first digit in the APO looks like a 6 to me, so you've got better eyes than me.

No, I can't!! (my name means BLIND!!= Shyla org from Latin!?!, or so I've read)

Anyway, looks like I was addendum-ing my post while you were posting, and I was saying that I see now that the number in question IS a 6 just like you thought.....

Shylaah

 

[SupMyNerfHerder]

NEXUS, you really nailed the envelope - how did you find it? Props! :thumbsup I always enjoy being proven wrong if it means I can pick up some new useful or useless knowledge in the process!

Shylaah, *IF* these are people under umbrellas, I hardly think they would make very good subjects for a stamp, given that their heads are turned away from the camera... And I hold firm to my theory that these are vehicle wheels, given the symmetrical L-R distance to the middle "glob" and the correct perspective between the front and rear axles. Maybe not a race car. Maybe a carriage or an early armored car... Well, maybe not those, since NEXUS says the storyline takes place on or about 2003. But definitely a 4-wheeled vehicle. You can also see the transition from the darker lower background to the lighter upper background, which resembles very much the horizon in the race car photos I posted. That provides scale and context, so again, if I were NEXUS, I'd be looking for a car...

Dan

 

[patsmear]

It looks like a train pulling into a station to me, with people standing on the platform.

Pat

 

[Nexus6]

NEXUS, you really nailed the envelope - how did you find it? Props! :thumbsup I always enjoy being proven wrong if it means I can pick up some new useful or useless knowledge in the process!

Umm, yeah, the answer is days, & days, & days, & frakking DAYS looking through google images; & one day, there it was. I was dumbfounded.

And I will be spending time looking for stamps with cars. :thumbsup

And umbrellas.

And train/stations.

:wacko :wacko :wacko :wacko :wacko

 

[Nexus6]

Now that I think about it, just because the stamp is new, doesn't necessarily mean the photo on it has to be new. Commemorative stamps get made all the time...

 

[exoray]

It's not US Airmails stamp from what I see...

Here is a page where you can download a PDF of all US Airmail stamps from 1918 - 2009

Air Mail Stamp Album

 

[SupMyNerfHerder]

Another point...

Movie prop masters are by and large not philatelic experts, so one shouldn't automatically assume they knew that APOs used only US postal stamps and not the local stamps from the base's host country, let alone airmail stamps vs. first class stamps.

And yet another point...

In the main photo, we see an envelope with a different stamp just behind & above the one in question. There's a remote chance that if we can identify it, it might lead us to the mystery stamp:

And one final point: if the image was that of a train parked at a station, then what I see as wheels would all have to be people, and judging by most steam or diesel locomotives' size, they'd be standing way out in front of the train, in the near foreground, out of respect for scale. I have yet to see photos of locomotives with a line of people posing that far out in front of it - with or without umbrellas! :lol

Here's the last far-fetched contribution I'll make before heading off to bed:

Dan

 

[Contec]

According to Wikipedia the movie is taking place in canada (british columbia) so it might be a stamp from there.

 

[n0x23]

It looks like the top portion is an airplane flying from right to left, pulling a banner.




.

 

[lint]

I've a feeling when we actually discover what is on the stamp we are all going to have a laugh.