Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2020 i Stamp Collector

Guernsey Post recently issued a special set of commemorative stamps designed to blend modern-day celebrations with elements taken from stamps issued during the Second World War. The Occupation of Guernsey began at around 8.30pm on Sunday 30 June, with German troop numbers roughly equalling the number of remaining islanders who had to endure hunger, poor medical attention, and fear. After five long years, surrender of the Channel Islands eventually took place during the early hours of 9 May 1945, the day after Victory in Europe, VE Day. Malnourished, but nevertheless joyous, crowds gathered on St Peter Port seafront and harbour as the first British Troops landed. Bridget Yabsley, head of philatelic at Guernsey Post said: ‘Liberation Day in Guernsey is celebrated each year on 9 May, and is a hugely…

It’s a simple premise, but one that can help us keep in touch with the wider world and gain new stamps for our collection along the way. The www.postcrossing.com website challenges people all around the world to send postcards to other enthusiasts, and in turn receive postcards from others. Postcards are being sent between thousands of different people each and every day, so whilst the world is not quite as small as it used to be, the project seems like the perfect way of getting stamps from around the world and receiving post from all corners of the globe. ‘Postcrossing was started fifteen years ago by Paolo, back when he was a student in university,’ Ana Campos, the Community Manager for the Postcrossing website tells us. Founder Paulo Magalhães simply…

SOLD FOR £1820 Switzerland, Pro Joventute 1953 (for the benefit of youth) proof on strong paper SOLD FOR £890 USSR, used abroad in Mongolia 1924 charity children aid revenue postmark SOLD FOR £890 Zanzibar, British India 1a plum stamp overprinted ‘Zanzibar’ blue MH SOLD FOR £761 South Korea, 30h Christmas 1957 sheetlet MNH SOLD FOR £694 France, 2f Merson violet & yellow 1900 MNH (signed & cert.) corner of sheet SOLD FOR £689 Belgium, Letter franked 75c delivered by Red Cross and scouts at the beginning of WWII (June 19th 1940) SOLD FOR £556 Oldenburg, Forgery 3SGr by Sperati on a wish card send by Sperati 1955 SOLD FOR £445 Italian occupation in Corfu, postage due 100Dr MNH 1941 (signed & cert.) SOLD FOR £453 North Vietnam, 0k200 (value of…

A genuine example of the renowned Inverted Jenny went under the hammer in November 2007 for a $977,500,000, writes subscriber Keith Gross. The stamp came from a pane of 100 sold to a post office customer in 1918. Before officials could recover the errors, the buyer let a Philadelphia stamp dealer have the pane for $5,000. The dealer doubled his money in a few minutes by selling on to an investor for $20,000. Successive owners have, since then, removed singles, pairs and blocks from the original chance purchase, and all made huge profits. I have settled for a stamp depicting the successor aircraft to the Curtiss Jenny. It is a 1923 24-cent carmine US airmail issue and sells at around US $150 mint. Back in 1923 anyone wishing to send…

The Faroe Islands, at Nordia 2017, issued their first Post & Go stamps, in association with International Security Printers, Cartor, a set having the title of The Faroe Islands in Colours, three strips were available, writes Stuart Leigh. A strip of four Local Letter rate up to 50g of DKK 9.5 (Danish Krona) and a collector strip of four (Letter up to 50g DKK 9.50 - DKK 16.00 - DKK 17.00 - DKK 19.00). Also, a strip of four Letter up to 50g DKK 0.25, as a promotional ‘give away’ at the exhibition. All the strips carried the Nordia 2017 overprint. The stamps were printed on stock (blank rolls) produced by Cartor utilising an existing design of a forerunner of Post & Go – Franking Labels. Known as ‘Frankies’ produced…

The de Havilland DH 106 Comet was the world’s first passenger jet aircraft, and with its aerodynamic shape, and technical innovations it was a landmark in aeronautical design. During World War Two, it was agreed between the United States and Great Britain that production of multi-engine aircraft for British use would be split between Britain producing heavy bombers, and the United States who would concentrate on transport aircraft. However, it was soon recognised that after the war the British Empire and Commonwealth would have a vital need for aviation systems to continue its very existence and self reliance, and that under this agreement Britain would be left with little manufacturing capability for producing suitable aircraft. In contrast, the US would be able to produce civilian aircraft based upon military transport…

Issued with an additional value over and above the postal rate of a normal stamp, semi-postal stamps are sold to raise money for a chosen cause. In recent weeks Australia has issued its first stamps of this kind, with a special set raising money for the country’s flood relief charity following the dramatic floods that left much of Queensland under water. Over the past century many other worthy causes have been helped with the sale of stamps. The first semi-postal stamps were issued in the Australian colonies of New South Wales and Victoria in 1897 to coincide with the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. The stamps had a postal value of one penny but sold for 1 shilling, with the additional proceeds going to ‘Consumptives Home’, a facility for sufferers…

London has been the epicentre of Royal Mail since time immemorial, or at least since 1635 when King Charles II issued a Proclamation establishing the Letter Office with Thomas Witherings as the first Postmaster. With nearly all mail coach routes starting from London, which is still reflected in much of the transport network today, the processing of mail in London itself forms a theme which can be captured in letters and documents of subsequent centuries. The first postmark, named after Henry Bishop the Postmaster General in 1660, came into use in London in the following year and 1680 witnessed the start of two local posts in London by Robert Murray and the better known William Dockwra. So successful was the latter that it was closed down in 1682 as an…

Guernsey stamps to feature competition winners Guernsey Post has revealed the twelve children who have won a design a-stamp competition and will see their designs featured on one of two forthcoming stamp sets, #GuernseyTogether and #AlderneySpirit. The campaign, which was launched by Guernsey’s Post philatelic team earlier this month, invited schoolchildren across Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm to create stamp designs, which should relate to the current pandemic in a positive way. The designs for the stamps, which are due to be released in late summer following approval of Her Majesty, The Queen, were chosen from over 200 entries by independent judges, Tom Langford, commissioner for Guernsey Arts Commission and managing director of award-winning design and advertising agency, The Potting Shed, and Al Mitchell, who has been with the Guernsey-based…

The Isle of Man Post Office’s ‘Carry Us Through’ stamp set recognises and celebrates the Island’s community, key frontline delivery workers and health care professionals, acknowledging acts of kindness, unity, care and positivity during the Covid-19 pandemic. The ‘Carry Us Through’ stamps highlight the message that Love, Faith, Care, Compassion, Work, Community, Words and Science will #CarryUsThrough these unprecedented times. A donation from the sale of the stamps will be made to the Manx Solidarity Fund. The collection of eight stamps has also been designed as an official thank you to everyone who has followed the rules of the current crisis so our key workers and our community - including doctors, nurses, health workers and volunteers the world over – can #CarryUsThrough. The concept was created by Ben Glazier who…

The brief time span during which the postal use of Cape of Good Hope triangulars flashed across History’s turning pages occurred at a moment when adhesive postage stamps first achieved worldwide prominence as the emblems of mass international communication. The same years spanned the birth of stamp collecting as a recognized hobby, though in the Cape Triangular’s early, even middle years of issue, there were no stamp collectors to hail its arrival. The stamp did, nevertheless, generate much newspaper comment at the time of its birth for the innovative audacity of its shape. For example, under the heading: ‘Peculiar Penny Postage Stamp’, several November 1853 British newspapers reported the introduction of an odd stamp in the dark and distant colony of Cape of Good Hope. Up to that time news…

I wrote before about how Edwardian postcards are often the only photographic record of relics of the early Industrial Revolution, writes Richard Stenlake. That’s not the case for factories and works operating or starting up post 1900 as the historian can often find images in county directories or works brochures and local authorities sometimes would produce brochures to celebrate the opening of facilities such as sewage works. We take these for granted, but at the time these were big steps forward and the source of much civic pride. Sometimes these new municipal operations would appear on postcards too, especially the construction and opening of waterworks schemes. Prices for these start at around £3 to £6 for basic images of a new reservoir. Construction scenes and views of temporary workers’ villages…

The ‘Thirty Years’ War’ was essentially the result of one man’s fanatical ambition – and of the religious divides of the time. Ferdinand Habsburg was (absentee) King of Bohemia, and wanted to make this Protestant country Catholic. This did not go down well with his subjects, who rebelled – the actual start of the rebellion was when two of Ferdinand’s men were thrown out of a second-storey window in Prague Castle. A year later, Ferdinand became Holy Roman Emperor, with power over much of Central Europe. Still fighting the Bohemian rebels, he now set out to impose Catholicism on the whole of his domain. He enlisted the support of Spain, and looked to be succeeding, but this was too much for Protestant Denmark and Sweden, who entered the struggle, the…

London’s Postal Museum holds what is probably the only complete 240-stamp sheet of Penny Blacks still in existence; the last of the 286,700 sheets printed in 1840 before the switch to the Penny Red-Brown at the end of that year. We can feast our eyes on the famous sheet during the museum’s opening times; but any wild fantasies about owning even half a sheet of those iconic stamps will have wait until after you have successfully picked at least five winning balls in the National Lottery. Here we offer a selection of recent auction results as a taste of the market and a sense of the deep pockets required by anyone bidding for multiples: block of four with ample margins fetched £6,400; block of six ditto went for £13,000; block…

Etymology is a great word! In fact, so is ‘derivation’. Etymology being the account of how a particular word came about, the derivation of a word. Quite literally the word’s birth. The reason for mentioning this is that I’ve been musing on the unusual ‘origins’ of the featured 1842 1d red entire which was sent from France to England. You’ll be aware that such covers with an English franking are rare and this one is coming up for sale in a David Feldman auction on 1 July 2020. It got me thinking about the origins of our hobby. Not the person, or persons who started it. Because that seems to be up for debate, with various differing stories of who, when, and exactly where, although most seem to agree it…

At present, a fifth of the way through the 21st century, communication is near instant with the many forms of related IT. However, the use of telephone, telegram and post has not died, and may never do so for some years to come. We philatelists and stamp collectors certainly hope so. With the Great War 100 years ago came difficulties with sending letters, parcels and packages, especially if a war zone was involved in transit. Europe was in turmoil, and by 1917, there had been almost 2½ years of war, with uncertainty by then as to which particular Christmas it would be over by. The Great War had been ravaging Europe with stalemate in some areas, the trenches, to the ebb and flow of battles with land taken and then…

The Italian company Aeroespresso Italiana signed an agreement with the Greek government in 1926 to carry mail by air from Greece to Italy, Rhodes and Turkey. The company had been founded in 1923 but it was only in 1926 that it operated its first flights. There were three issues of stamps but in this article we’ll spotlight the set of seven values issued on 10 October 1933 and printed by Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co., Ltd. It is quite a handsome set of stamps. The stamps paid the airmail rate on mail carried by the airline on its routes linking Greece with Italy and Turkey. This is indicated in Greek on the stamps. The set tells a lot about aviation history in general so let’s take a closer look at the…

2020 marks the 150th birth anniversary of world-renowned golfer, Harry Vardon, who won the British Open Championship in 1896, 1898, 1899, 1903, 1911 and then in 1914, at the age of 44. He also won the US Open Championship in 1900. Vardon was born in Jersey on 9 May 1870. He became an apprentice gardener aged thirteen and started to take an interest in golf when a course was built nearby. Vardon didn’t receive any professional lessons but, in his late teen years, he entered a few golf tournaments. It wasn’t until he saw his younger brother making a career out of the sport that he decided to follow the same path. Vardon got his first break in the golfing world in the Caddies Competitions run by the Committee Club…

Get in touch Send your feedback, thoughts, collecting tips and information to us. Write our letter of the month or ‘Subscrbiber’s Favourite’ and we’ll send you a selection of new stamps from around the world. You can also share your views on the lively Stamp Collector facebook page. Post: Stamp Collector, Warners Group Publications, 31-32 Park Row, Leeds, LS1 5JD Email: matthewh@warnersgroup.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/stampandcoinmartmagazine LETTER OF THE MONTH THANK GOODNESS FOR STAMP COLLECTING Dear Stamp Collector I have certainly found more time to focus on my stamp collection in the last few months as those of us of a certain age avoid any outdoor excursions. The lockdown has, of course, been difficult; no grandchildren to keep me on my toes and daily briefings on television which often leave me scratching…

There are some good first day covers which don’t look like first day covers and this is one of them, writes Brian Austin. To explain myself, during the 1970s the National Army Museum produced a collection of commemorative single stamp covers, from memory there were five or six series, with twelve covers in each, covering things like anniversaries of battles and new regiments, this cover could easily sit with these, but while the Army Museum covers are normally worth £1 to £2 each and this one is worth £20. This 1976 American Bicentenary First Day Cover was produced by the forces and has been given a special ‘1776’ June Campaign special postmark. The number of official covers for this issue was quite limited with only six being produced. The star…

A virtual stamp festival? What does that mean? How can I take part and what do I have to do? These are just some of the questions asked by readers and collaborators since we began planning and discussing the ‘Summer of Stamps’ Virtual Festival which will be taking place on the allaboutstamps.co.uk website in July and August. In short, the festival will be an online celebration of our hobby, giving collectors a chance to buy new items from a range of trusted dealers, learn from the experts with a range of videos and articles, and enter a one-page competition in a bid to be the recipient of the first ever All About Stamps Medal. We’re also working on some very special festival souvenirs, which are sure to become very collectable…

With over 10,000 episodes broadcast, featuring more than 5,000 characters, it’s likely you’ll recognise some of the faces on the latest stamps from Royal Mail, even if you don’t tune in to the popular soap for every episode. First broadcast on 9 December 1960, the drama set in the fictional Lancashire town of Weatherfield quickly became the most popular programme on British television, as viewers tuned in to catch up with the lives of characters such as Elsie Tanner (played by Pat Phoenix), Ena Sharples (Violet Carson), and Minnie Caldwell (Margot Bryant). Today, the soap opera is the longest running television drama in the world and is broadcast up to six times per week, though the Covid-19 pandemic meant recent episodes have been more thinly spread. Street stamps Back in…

We are all going to come out of this lockdown much better quiz contestants. Video calls are uniting families and friends separated by the Covid19 restrictions, and quizzes are a popular activity of an evening and over the weekends. With that in mind, here’s a quiz question for you: What connects a Belgian king, an English princess, a Russian world chess champion, and three philatelic world records? Give up? The answer is: epaulettes. That’s right. King Leopold I of Belgium was famous for wearing epaulettes, Princess Charlotte of Wales married the man with the epaulettes, chess grandmaster and world champion Anatoly Karpov collected epaulettes, and there are three world records involving epaulettes. So if you get asked to come up with a quiz question, and you’re feeling uncharitable towards the…

The issue of postage stamps in roll form was a significant step forward in the development of our postal services, providing as it did a labour-saving potential to both the Post Office and to the large number of firms who took advantage of automatic stamp affixing machines. The idea of stamps in rolls, however, is not a recent one, although the Post Office did not issue them until 1912. In the Treasury Competition of 1839, one of the four prizes of £100 went to the designer of a machine for issuing embossed 1d stamps from a roll of 240. During the latter half of the 19th century, Victorian inventors produced many ideas and designs for coin-operated stamp vending machines, some of which also dispensed paper, envelopes or postcards. 1884 seems…

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