Zanzibar: Dark Narrow Portuguese Street & Island Book Shop Leap Year 29 Feb (Vintage RPPC 1960)

vintage real photo postcard showing a bustling street scene in stone town, zanzibar. the front captures the famous dark narrow portuguese street with its traditional high white buildings, open wooden shutters, and several bicycles parked along the sides. a hanging sign for the island book shop (book sellers and stationers, jafferali and co) is clearly visible on the left. local residents and shoppers in traditional and western attire are walking down the narrow alleyway. the lower border includes the printed caption dark narrow portuguese street, zanzibar with the serial code r.s. 9.
the back of the postcard is highly interesting for philatelists due to its rare leap year postmark. it features three beautiful zanzibar postage stamps cleanly cancelled with a circular zanzibar postmark dated on the leap day, 29 february 1960. the stamps include a 40 cents pictorial showing a traditional dhow boat and a 20 cents blue stamp featuring the portrait of sultan sir khalifa bin harub.
the card is addressed to fraeulein ilse dolemeyer at gaussstr. 15 in stuttgart-w, germany. it contains a long personal travel message handwritten in blue ink in german, also dated from zanzibar on this exact leap year date of 29 february 1960. published by k. t. rawal, box 287, zanzibar, and printed in great britain.

size: ~ 9 x 14 cm (1 cm ~ 0.39 inch)

postally used in 1960

condition: very good...please also refer to scans which show complete front and backside of postcard

ansichstkarte, ak, postkarte, postcard, carte postale, tarjeta postale, 葉書, africa, indigenous, natives