Some time ago, I have noticed a range of new covers which are closely related to the Expo 58 happening. I found the first cover of this range with the cancellation of European Pre-Cancellations.

The set of covers have been issued by the specialist in philatelic items at the European Council in Strassbourg, Mr. Paul Staedel. Mr. Staedel has issued several catalogs as well, which was detailing all cancellations and happenings around the CEPT Europe and related activities.

By the way, Paul Staedel business is today still continued by his son, click on the following linkto have information about the website of Staedel. The set that interested me, was all with combined happenings between Strassbourg and the Expo 58, hence the mixture of cancellations, stamps, etc.

Based on the catalog of Mr. Paul Staedel, I will re-use his own catalog references, in order to help any collectioner to identify the covers within his collection. All the below texts, information, etc, are from the catalog of Mr. Paul Staedel.

All below scans will be reviewed to be make them larger and more visible

Catalog cover of Mr. Paul Staedel

I copy herwith the following text out of the catalog, which is related to the covers given below. The text is roughly translated out of French: ... already mentioned that Pro-European philatelic happenings organised by the different European organisations present at the Expo 58 (like CECA, OECE, European Council) has provided the possibility to make so called mail connections (French 'liasions postales') with an interesting historical background. The several temporary Postal Offices treated the philatelic items the same way as the FFC (First Flight Covers), meaning that at arrival, the covers were cancelled with arrival postmarks. Also at departure from the Postal Office, a first day type cancellation was applied. This was also the case at the arrival of postal covers at the European Council office located at Strassbourg...".

I have listed the covers in the alphatic order of the references.

Cover LE01

Postal Connection between the European Council at Strassbourg with the cancellation of the happening 10th Session of the Consultative Assembly ('10e session de l'Assemblée Consultative') of 28/04/1958 and the Europa CECA at Expo 58. Arrival Cancellation of the CECA. White cover with text in green olive.

Cover LE01a

Connection between the European Council at Strassbourg, departure 2/05/1958 and the arrival at Expo 58 on 9/05/1958, 8th anniversary of the existence of the CECA organisation. Cover with green cachet and text in dark blue.

Cover LE02

Postal Connection between European Council at Strassbourg, and the OECE at the Expo 58. Arrival postmark of the OECE at the back of the cover. Cover with cachet in green olive.

Cover LE03

Postal Connection between European Council at Strassbourg with departure of 23/06/1958, which is the date of the Vote on the Seat of the European Institutions at the European Parlement (French 'Jour de Vote du Siège des Institutions Européennes à l'Assemblée Parlementaire Européenne'), and the United Nations at the Expo 58, cancellation of the National Day of the United Nations of 26/06/1958). Cover in green olive.

Cover LE04

Postal Connection between Strassbourg with the cachet of the Congress of the Permanent Committee of the European People combined with the House of Europe on 11-13/07/1958 (French 'Congrès du Peuple Européen - Comité Permanent - Maison de l'Europe') and the Europa organisation at Expo 58. Special Cancellation of the European Pre-Cancellation Congress at Expo 58 (30/08/1958). White Cover with text in bister.

Cover LE05

This cover depict the same departure from Strassbourg but combined with the arrival of the first day of the stamps of EUROPA on 13/09/1958. White cover with green olive text.

Cover LE06

Postal Connection with departure from Expo 58, and from the Europa organisation and during the happening of the European Pre-Cancel Congress (30/08/1958). The cover arrived at Strassbourg during the start of the European Exposition on 6/09/1958. White cover with bister text.

Cover LE07

Postal connection departed from the European Council organisation on Expo 58, cancelled on 02/09/1958 and arrived in Strassbourg on 13/09/1958, day of the stamps issue EUROPA. White cover with cachet in light grey.

Cover LE08

Postal Connection with departure from the House of Europe in Strassbourg (official first day of EUROPA stamps on 13/09/1958) and the arrival at Expo 58 on 14/09/1958 but with the FD cancellation of Europa, dated on 15/09/1958. The cancellation of that date has not been reporter yet, but has existed effectively (see also under Europa section)

Cover LE09

DEparture from Expo 58 on 13/09/1958, special FD cancellation with Belgian EUROPA stamp, and arrived during the 2nd part of the 10th Session of the Consultative Assembly ('10e session de l'Assemblée Consultative'). The 10/010/1958 cancellation type is the first time used, also because of the issue of the first 8F Service stamp of the European Council in Strassbourg. Tax stamps were applied, since the organisation at Strassbourg did not want to apply the FD cancel with the first service stamps on covers other than those issued by the same organisation.

Cover LE09

This is one of the rarest covers in this serie, since the departure cancellation has been issued on specific cases (because unknown), and the arrival cancellation is the last day at 23h of teh Expo 58 happening. Nice cover.