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Problems › 153
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2026-09-08 | Public write-up recorded |
Two holiday postcards are addressed to Miss Edna Mist in Piggott, Arkansas. HCP1412 bears a 24 November 1908 cancellation and a Christmas design. HCP1410 bears a New Year design, the open date Dec. 29, and a cancellation whose year is 1909. Its weak month is not secure enough to reconcile with the handwritten date.
The writing fields contain numeral-like, hooked, barred, and letter-like signs. HCP1410 has seven rows, while HCP1412 continues for eleven rows into an embossed lower field. A faint HCP1410 picture-field passage lacks a stable baseline; its ordinary border sentence is separately transcribed. Below is the source-shape record for both address-side fields. What do they say?
Handwritten source rendering; line breaks and uncertainty retained
HCP1410, seven address-side rows:
R1 [open date: Dec. 29] | F 9 3 2 8 LONG-d : - | 3 R2 CURL-C 4 U-COMP 6 LONG-d | 8 4 DIV | CURL-S 4 7 2 | X 7 1 EQ R3 7 4 DIV H 2 9 | OB 1 EQ | EQ 4 | EQ 3 CURL-C K-HOOK R4 3 | CURL-S 4 U-COMP 6 LONG-d | 8 4 DIV | CURL-S 4 7 2 R5 3 OB 3 6 6 | 8 4 DIV | [FILLED-OVAL] 2 DIV | DIV 4 R6 CURL-S 4 7 2 | DIV 3 6 6 | 7 y | EQ CURL-S [H: source-damaged] 4 4 6 R7 3 EQ | 4 U-COMP [DIV with an attached descending slash/flourish]
HCP1412, eleven address-side rows:
R1 7 y LONG-d 2 1 9 | F 9 3 2 8 LONG-d R2 3 1 7 | CLASS-02 2 DIV DIV 3 8 CLASS-02 R3 1 6 4 8 CLASS-02 | F 3 8 2 | 3 8 R4 EQ CURL-S H 4 4 6 | 3 | 1 7 R5 CLASS-02 4 3 8 CLASS-02 | DIV 4 | CURL-S 4 7 2 R6 LONG-d 4 OB 8 | DIV H 2 9 2 R7 X 7 1 EQ | 3 OB 4 U-COMP 6 LONG-d R8 6 3 K-HOOK 2 | DIV 4 R9 K-HOOK 8 4 OB | 3 F | y 4 U-COMP R10 1 9 2 | CLASS-02 4 3 8 CLASS-02 R11 DIV 4 | CURL-S 4 7 2
Miss Edna Mist, Piggott, Arkansas.
Picture-side border of HCP1410: I would like a line from you all.
Shape labels are descriptive: EQ is two horizontal strokes, DIV a short bar with displaced marks above and below, OB a barred oval, CURL-C and CURL-S hooked forms, LONG-d a tall d-like form, and U-COMP a hook joined to a short dash. F, H, X, and y describe resemblances, not assigned letters. FILLED-OVAL abbreviates the source reader’s bracketed “filled/slashed oval” on HCP1410. CLASS-02 replaces the single label G used in the archived HCP1412 transcript; that report gives no separate outline description for it. The two aliases remain distinct here, rather than asserting a visual equivalence from the words they might form. Brackets retain the source description or damaged-ink qualification.
Wide transcriptions scroll sideways within this box.
| # | Solution | By | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Solution 153-1 A reading, written up in full | @offgramercy | ACCEPTED |
Still open: One damaged sign and faint picture-field strokes on HCP1410 remain physically qualified; its precise mailing day is unresolved
Submit a source correction or a defensible reading of the remaining passage.