Leap Year : : 29 February 2016

[Keith S. Chambers]

It only happens twenty-five times in each century, that odd day on the calendar, 29 February. What a great opportunity to sneak in some postal history to your mail art this year.

At the end of this month, Monday, 29 February 2016, you can gather your out-going mail art, get yourself over to your local post office and ask those nice people at the counter to hand cancel your cards and letters with the station's unique hand cancellation mark with the date.

Ready to make the leap?

[Ruud Janssen]

sounds like an interesting challenge to let our mail be stamped on February 29th......

[Ti Ar Raden]

Ready! But I usually ask to hand cancel myself! :D

[Keith S. Chambers]

Really, I never thought to ask if I could cancel away myself . . . not sure how they would take that. At my local post office, different clerks have differing attitudes about hand canceling, most don't mind, but [one clerk in particular comes to mind] there seems to be a limit on how many letters they're willing to hand cancel. But I will push the limits . . .

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Excellent idea, Keith! 'Hope it isn't a Strike Day at HELLenic Post :-)

Will do, and send to you, too !

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Thanks Keith for this idea, I sent off a big batch of mail art yesterday, Feb.29, 

to see if the Greek Post will make the "rare" postmark. I  also sent one to myself

so I might have a rare postmark on a Greek postage stamp. Domestic mail in Greece

is advertised as "one-day-delivery" and that is surprisingly what happened!

This was mailed yesterday, and arrived in the mail today, March 1!!!

We place the DAY, then Month, then Year:  29.2.2016

and "ΧΑΡΙΛΑΟΥ" is for my local post office here in the "HARILAOU" district.

"ΕΛΤΑ" stands for the Hellenic Post name.

[Heleen de Vaan]

Yes!

A Greek 29 Feb 2016 postmark from Katerina:A French 29 fev 2016 postmark from Dean:

An American 29 Feb 2016 postmark from Toni: 

Hah, Post office kidding us :-)
They stamped the 29 Feb postmark not on the postage stamp but on the back side of the envelope:

Thank you very much, MomKat, Artist-in-Seine, ToniPoet and all who have sent Leap Day mail art!!

Your complete Leap Year mail art (including the mail art I've received from FinnBadger and Ti Ar Raden) I'll post on a later day in one of the other matching groups - 29 times thanks to you all!

[Ruud Janssen]

Did this arrive Heleen?

[Heleen de Vaan]

Yes! 
Yours arrived well also, Ruud, thanks a lot!

Sorry for not posting yet... Here it is!
I already have scanned your card to post in a 'what is she staring at' blog (to be created in (hopefully not too faraway) future), and by that forgot the great postmarks... Yours and the cancellation stamp by PostNL.

Also the old stamp showing the Stevedore / Dokwerker is great, and matches with this year's 75th anniversary of the February Strike, a few days before Leap Day. 

Thank you very much, Ruud!!

[Ti Ar Raden]

The above feathers stamp from France is from me and the date was made by a La Poste date stamper instead of a cancellation stamper.

[Heleen de Vaan]

Ti Ar, many apologies and all credits to you!! I don't know why I was so confused (probably too much work to do and posting too late in the evening).. 

That wonderful stamp and 29 fevrier stamp I received from you, together with your wonderful goldfish mail art! Your mail arrived wednesday 2nd already, so it traveled fast! Thank you very much, mersi bras!!

p.s. I wi

ll post your great goldfish on my realweirdanimals blog on or around the first day of spring, because then it also is NowRuz, Persian New Year, and for that day Persian people buy a... goldfish!

[Ti Ar Raden]

No problem Heleen :D and thank you for blogging. It is time-consuming and boring :D. I am glad the card was delivered. I went to the wrong post-office desk, put the wrong mark on the stamps, consequently I was worried that my cards might end in a drawer. But good will did miracles.

[Heleen de Vaan]

I should blog Dean's 29 February mail here, too.

This is the front side, a great collage of many stamps and historical (yes! we're in the Postal History group!) non-29-feb postmarks:

And this is the back side, with the postage stamp thanks to which La Poste carried Dean's mail on the 29th of February, to deliver it at my place two days later:

La Poste should have been cancelling the stamp... Alas, no 29 Feb postmark...