Since the story about the Postal Offices is quite complicated, I'd like to set up a special section about it.
First of all, the map of the Expo 58 with the location of the four Postal Offices.
There were three distinctive periods about the number of Postal Offices:
- prior to the Expo 58: from 8 July 1957 till April 1958
- during period of the Expo: from 15 April 1958 till October 1958 - post the period of the Expo 58: from 20 October till ....
In general, the cancellation used was a circle of 31mm, with at the top the words "Bruxelles - Exposition" and at the bottom "Brussel - Tentoonstelling". In the middle of the circle, you had 3 data: a number, a date(+ hour) and a letter. The combination of the number and will be explained hereafter.
Example of such a cancellation:
- 1. PRIOR TO EXPO 58
During the period before Expo 58, there was only one Postal Office on site. Its main task was to deal with all the requests for the building companies on site. It was located in the cellar of Hall XI of the Heyzel Expo Building, just in front of the future Helicopter port.
Its number was 1, and it used up to 5 letters: A, B, C, D and E. The most common letters used were A and E in that period. However, finding cancellations before 15 April 1958 and with any letter is not easy. The letters B, C and D were used occasionally.
The most known cancellation in that period is the one used for the FD of the Atomium stamps of Belgium, see herafter (letter C):
Special note: FD cancellations exist with the letter 1R as shown below. We are at 4 February and as such 2 months earlier than the official availability of the the letter R. To be explained:
- 1. DURING EXPO 58
Rare card with a cancellation of the four existing Postal Offices: 1Q, 2M, 3B and 4F:
Besides the existing Postal Office 1, 3 other were set up (see above map for there locations). The most common was the Postal Office 1 since it was centrally located at the entrance of the Expo 58 (Hall 5).
Postal Office 1 had besides the existing 5 first letters, another 17 letters: series F to H, J to N, P to W and Y. For small boxes, a Roulette cancellation has been used as the one shown below philatelic use on last day of Expo 58):
The Postal Office 2 could use 12 different letters: from A to H and from J to M.
The Postal Office 3 and 4 only had 8 letter combinations: from A to H.
Some examples hereafter:
- 3. Post EXPO 58
On the last day of the Expo 58, 19th October, the postal offices 2 and 4 have been closed. The postal office 3 has been closed on 8 November 1958. Only the letters A, B and E might be used till than.
The Postal Office 1 remained open till the destruction works were completed. There should be a date for this, but I was not able to find it yet. However, it certainly was not before 28 February 1959, see also scans below. At least the letters A, B and C were used.
