The philatelic manipulations of the late VIKTOR INDRA In his article on the above subject, which is published in the AIEP magazine of May 2006, Andrew Cronin writes “After his death (Viktor Indra) in 1988, I eventually acquired some of his material from Carpatho-Ukraine, Mongolia and Tuva. Upon careful examination, I then discovered that he had the most unfortunate habit of “improving” the cards and covers that he addressed to himself as returned registered mail.” After having studied the article of Mr. Cronin I looked with a fair amount of suspicion at every item showing the address of Mr. Indra , who lived in Olomouc Czechoslovakia. It appeared there are good reasons for this attitude. The following items were pictured by Mr.Cronin
Let us consider this registered cover. The first observation to be made are the Czechoslovak stamps on the cover. These stamps were not valid in Čop at that time.. The registration label is from Czechoslovak origin and was used by the Czechoslovak Army. It is very doubtful whether these registration labels survived the Hungarian occupation period and apart from that this type was never available at the post office of Čop. The Čop postmark itself seems to be alright. The manuscript date must have been added later. See the date in the Čop postmark on the cover pictured here below. If the cover really went to Štĕpánov u Olomouce is also doubtful. Most probably the whole letter is fabricated and the date stamp of Štĕpánov is a strike on request of Mr. Indra, whilst he himself mounted the R-label.
Let us first of all compare the strike of the Čop postmark on these two covers with the one on the cover with the Czechoslovak stamps. The strike on the covers with the 200 NRZU stamp have a worn look about them, even though dated 06-08-1945 and 08-08-1945 respectively, with the name Cop (ЧОР in Cyrillic) consisting of three blobs. How can that be possible when we have a clear strike op the top letter dated 15-08-1945. The inference must surely be that the COP canceller was discarded at a later date in worn condition and was used by Mr. Indra to concoct the two “ registered” covers, with him also drawing in red pencil the two “ R” designations No.82 and 112. Also the “ ЗАКАЗНОЕ” remark on the above right hand letter is added by Mr. Indra as can be concluded from further investigated covers shown on the following pages.
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