The red "Advertising" marking was used exclusively on the expedition film advertising post card and were mailed from Darjeeling and Calcutta, India after the expedition return during the August/September/October time-frame.

   The advertising card was created by Capt. Noel, who was tasked with making a documentary film of the 1924 expedition. The post card includes an image of the 1922 base camp on the Rongbuk glacier that was reused during the 1924 expedition. The post card also includes a "preprinted" note from Noel. There is no evidence that the majority of these cards were ever in Tibet. One exception has been documented in this website. See the combination of the M3b marking and the M4, tractor expedition marking (EV24-M3b-M4_001).

   The 1924 Mt. Everest expedition film advertising post card is the most common post card from any mountaineering expedition. It's been documented that Capt. Noel mailed over 40,000 of these post cards. As you can see from this census, almost all of the post cards were marked with the red advertising marking (M3r). They can be readily found on any stamp auction web site such as Ebay and Delcamp.

   The first cards with the red marking were sent from Darjeeling in August. The earliest known use (EKU) for Darjeeling was 18 August 1924. The three Darjeeling mailing dates I have identified are; 18 Aug, 3 Sept, 4 Sept, 11 Sept, and 12 Sept. I have also seen a couple Darjeeling cancels that may have been earlier than the 18th, but the images were not clear enough to validate

   The second mailing location was Calcutta. The cards mailed from Calcutta were mailed in the October and possibly the September time frame. The earliest known use (EKU) for Calcutta that I have documented is 16 October 1924. There are most likely earlier cards sent from Calcutta and my search continues.

   Just a reminder, this information is based on items I have been able to document. I am sure there is more information out there and my search will continue. If you would like to add to this information, please feel free to contact me at the email address found on the home page.

Advertising post card mailed from Calcutta on 16 October 1924 (EKU)