Flight Number H 63 b

In 1937, while postal officials awaited a newly ordered postmark design, the 1936 wide font postmark was reconfigured by removing the flight number from below the date. Its use was only for a couple preflight days in Frankfurt. The Frankfurt post office serviced all collector- and dealer-prepared philatelic mail for Hindenburg’s first 1937 North America westbound flight to reduce the workload for the onboard postmaster. On May 6, Hindenburg burst into flames during its landing at Lakehurst. This envelope was in a sealed mail bag in Hindenburg’s postal storage room and, after the fire, found in the wreckage and taken by rescue team members as a souvenir. This is 1 of 6 recorded reconfigured postmark examples to survive the disaster. Note the green smear of melted girder undercoating that dripped onto this example.