Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2020 i Stamp Collector

In a bid to keep collectors learning, Graham Winters, the Chairman of the ABPS, has begun a series of videos based around his own philatelic exhibitions, including a guide to his impressive Ceylon KGV Silver Jubilee one-frame exhibit, available to view at www.allaboutstamps.co.uk Grosvenor Philatelic Auctions have announced that Andrew Williams has agreed to remain part of the Grosvenor team as a consultant. Last September the London auction house’s Managing Director, Andrew Williams, suffered a brain aneurysm and subsequent stroke which left him with some long-term damage. During the last months Andrew has made remarkable progress but has now chosen to stand down from his post as he feels that his present medical situation does not permit him to carry out the full range of his responsibilities. A statement from…

The US Postal Service has announced two new stamp subjects for 2020, including a stamp set celebrating the life and work of Japanese American artist Ruth Asawa. The designs for a ten-stamp set honouring pioneering Japanese American artist Ruth Asawa (1926-2013) will showcase Asawa’s wire sculptures, the pane includes twenty stamps, with two each of ten designs, featuring photographs by Dan Bradica and Laurence Cuneo. The selvage features a photograph of Asawa taken by Nat Farbman in 1954 for Life magazine. The USPS also revealed the design of a stamped envelope showing the American flag. A statement read: ‘This stamped envelope features a graphic design of the flag that evokes a rich sense of history even as it presents a recognizable icon in a fresh, contemporary way. Kit Hinrichs created…

2020 marks 150 years since the death of Charles Dickens (1812-1870), widely regarded as the greatest author of the Victorian era. Appreciated for his vast contribution to English literature, Dickens is particularly well known for his powerful and evocative descriptions of Victorian London. Many of Dickens’ novels carry social commentary, exploring themes of poverty and social tension and often taking real people and circumstances, including Dickens’ own, as their inspiration. Unlike other authors of the Victorian era, Dickens’ work appealed to the lower and upper classes, allowing him to enjoy a universal popularity that was rare for authors of the time. Dickens was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire in 1812 and died in 1870. During his lifetime he wrote a large number of novels, penned travel books, edited weekly periodicals and…

AUCTION HEADLINERS The sale of the Edward Morton Collection of Outstanding Quality U.S. Stamps took place at Robert A Siegel recently, and included an imperforate 1c Blue which fetched $90,000. The stamp is said to be ‘an extremely rare sound four-margin example of the Type 1, position 7R1E, which is the only one of the 1,000 positions used to print imperforate one-cent stamps that shows the complete design.’ The presence of the red cancel. the only one o that colour found on examples, only increased the stamp’s rarity. Status International in Australia recently sold a QV £5 orange, letters AC, top value, white paper, which was described as being ‘extremely rare in mint condition as only very few collectors could afford to buy such a high denomination stamp (5 gold…

SOLD FOR £1,977 France, rare stamp scrip Frenche 25c Semeuse on card of Banque Paul Payot Chamonix SOLD FOR £1,335 Belgium, 40c vermilion ‘Médaillon’ Léopold I 1858 MH SOLD FOR £1,068 Democratic Republic Germany, 8p Karl Marx brown-orange, ordinary paper with vertical watermark ‘DDR und Posthorn’ Type YI (with cert.) SOLD FOR £1,080 Great Britain, Penny Black on an Official Form posted from Kinnaird Head Lighthouse to Edinburgh Nov 1840 SOLD FOR £712 Greece, 20l Mercury blue 1861-62 Athens coarse printing MH SOLD FOR £890 Letter from Papeete Tahiti 1893 to San Fernando Philippines via Hong Kong SOLD FOR £725 Australia, Kangaroo £1 chocolate and dull blue narrow crown fine 1915-27 used SOLD FOR £623 Great Britain, Penny Black strip of three with margin cancelled Maltese Cross (with cert.) SOLD…

As a raw newcomer to stamp collecting, my interest arose from seeing in a previous issue of your magazine an image of the GB 1940 stamp centenary which had an excellent depiction of Queen Victoria as seen on the first Penny Black. An hour spent browsing eBay led me to the GB 2015 Anniversary of the Penny Black issue which allowed me to buy an equally good image of the original Penny Black for just £2. Admittedly the stamp has anachronistic perforations; but on my limited budget that will probably be as close as I get to owning a genuine Penny Black with four good margins. I have now embarked on forming a stamp-on-stamp collection, concentrating on images from the Classics era. I was delighted to discover that there are…

At times like these, discussing our hobbies may seem trivial – our safety takes priority – but spending time on our collections could be a welcome distraction. Now could be the time to write up that collection, work through your check-lists, and organise your albums like you’ve always meant to. The new weekly ‘Keeping you collecting’ email features opinion, updates, collecting websites and tips – giving you the inspiration and information to get your week off to a positive start. We do hope you are keeping safe and that you are able to use this time to work on your collection, if so, be sure to sign up to receive the free updates and stay part of the stamp collecting community. Sign up to the free newsletter on our website…

Post and Go stamps from Jersey, Guernsey and Gibraltar have been up and running for quite some time with new issues on a regular basis, but a few things have changed on the non-commonwealth stage, writes Stuart Leigh. Qatar Post were one of the first ‘Foreign’ administrations to issue Post & Go stamps in 2015 and 2 kiosks were on display at the 20th GCC Exhibition in Doha and subsequently installed in the General Post Office in Doha, a further two kiosks were ordered but were not installed and due to a disagreement the first two were decommissioned and a few months later were all returned to the UK. Next to join the Post & Go family was Spain (Correos) in 2017, with their primary Kiosk ES01 permanently installed in…

Many of the VE Day celebrations planned for this year have sadly had to be cancelled as we fight a war of a different kind, but this new set of stamps from Royal Mail give us the chance to look back on the moment the trials and tragedy of war came to a welcome end. The 75th anniversary is all the more poignant as this will likely be the last opportunity for veterans to participate. The events of the war will soon pass from living memory into history, and the eight stamps reflect the sense of relief and celebration many service personnel and civilians would have felt as news of the conflict’s end was announced. The set of eight colourful stamps also touch upon personnel returning from overseas and children…

The demand for ironstone, coal, slate and lead attracted investors to the promotion of canals initially, followed by turnpikes and railways. Where there is industry there is also the need for an efficient postal service and Henry Bishop announced a post to Market Harborough and Leicester as early as 1660. The principal means of notifying the public of such a service was by way of a notice in The London Gazette and the edition of April 1687 advises that there will be a service three times a week between London and Ashby-de-la-Zouch. However the first postmark from there is not recorded until 1795 and it appears that Thomas Richards, the local contractor, ceased in about 1705 and that for the next ninety years the postal service was provided from Loughborough.…

Guernsey Post recently issued stamps depicting mail and packet ships that sailed between Guernsey and the United Kingdom, as part of this year’s PostEurop stamp issue, Ancient Postal Routes. Bridget Yabsley, head of philatelic at Guernsey Post, explained: ‘Before the arrival of air mail in the 20th century, the only option for sending post to the Channel Islands was by sea, and crossing the busy Channel could be hazardous. As a result, the English Government ordered the establishment of the Channel Islands Packet Service; in 1794, two identical fifty-plus foot-long, eighty-ton cutters began servicing the route from Weymouth to the Channel Islands, a passage scheduled to take sixteen hours, which sailed alternately every Thursday. The rates of postage were set at 2d. for a single letter, 4d. for a double…

Four Australian comedians are honoured in this year’s Australia Post Legends Awards, to celebrate their significant contribution to Australian comedy. The funny folk featured on the new set of $1.10 stamps are Magda Szubanski AO, Garry McDonald AO, Adam Hills and Noeline Brown OAM. Australia Post Executive General Manager Community & Consumer, Nicole Sheffield, said: ‘This year’s beloved recipients have entertained and delighted us for decades, not only with their side-splitting performances but also through the characters and programs they have created. I recall many of the shows with such fondness and, given the current climate, plan to introduce them to my children soon so I can enjoy a good laugh again. These performers hold a very special place in the hearts of many Australians, and we’re excited to celebrate…

With large numbers of Spanish and Portuguese adventurers sailing around the Caribbean in the early 1500s, it’s hardly surprising that an explorer from the Iberian Peninsula probably set the first European foot on Barbados and claimed it for the Spanish King. Little more than 160 square miles in area, Barbados forms part of a necklace of islands fringing the Caribbean, just outside the region where hurricanes cause frequent devastation. The Spanish named it Los Barbados, meaning the bearded ones, in reference to the aerial roots of a common plant that grew profusely across the island in those days. Local inhabitants suffered swift annihilation; but the transient Spanish who replaced them did little more than locate fresh water springs and release pigs to run wild and multiply as a source of…

On 18 February 1944 the RAF bombed the prison at Amiens, in German-occupied France, writes David Gwynn. The raid has the honour of being the first low-level bombing raid ever undertaken, although, even today, no-one is not sure why it was ordered and by whom. Amiens prison was full of Resistance fighters who had been captured by the Germans, plus some political prisoners, and two imprisoned Allied intelligence officers. The raid was publicly claimed to have been organised to free as many Resistance fighters as possible, ready for D-Day in a few months’ time. Alternatively, it is thought that the two intelligence officers had to be freed, or failing that killed, as they had secret knowledge of the D-Day plans. The weather that night was probably the worst for flying…

There is a reason for Pitcairn Island’s notoriety. In the early 1930s three books were written by two authors adrift in Tahiti. Charles Nordhoff and James Norman hall had heard rumors of a strange story. They decided it was worth retelling in novel form. Nordhoff and Hall described the seizure of HMAV Bounty by a mutinous crew led by Fletcher Christian, their disappearance, and the remarkable survival of the ships’ captain, Lt. William Bligh. The “Bounty’ trilogy became a worldwide bestseller. Those who have read the three books know what happened to the mutineers. The movies all seem to end just when they seem to have found a safe home on Pitcairn. But was it so safe? The answer is both yes and no. Pitcairn is very mountainous, it is…

In this current century, and in the one before, many have had the belief that travel and trade across the continents of the world did not take place until recent times, such as the last two to three hundred years. How wrong that is. Long distance travel took place regularly thousands of years ago, and not just in warfare. Evidence of artefacts from far distance places confirms that trade in goods was occurring at times when conquest was not the first priority. The cover shown here from 1571 was sent from Antwerp in the Spanish Netherlands and addressed to London, which had importance as the commercial centre of England and later the United Kingdom. There was no official government run system of postal communication in this country until the 17th…

Put simply, the Colosseum is a huge oval amphitheatre, writes Christer Brunstrom. It took ten years to build and could house more than 50,000 spectators. It was used for gladiatorial contests, battles, exotic animal hunts, executions and other similar entertaining, albeit often gruesome, events likely to entertain the Roman audiences. The four-storey building measures 188 x 156 metres and was inaugurated by Emperor Titus in 80 AD. It owes its name to a nearby colossal statue of Emperor Nero. The amphitheatre was badly damaged in the 1349 earthquake and it more or less lost its importance. Parts of the building continued to be used for a variety of purposes but a large part was a ruin. Stone robbers stole building materials which were used in construction work in other parts…

The cancellation or postponement of events due to the Covid19 pandemic mean that some commemorative stamps have been issued marking events that are no longer taking place. The postponement of the Olympic Games, until July 2021, provides the most examples of obsolete, or at least interesting, collectables. The decision to retain the name Tokyo 2020 for the 2021 event means many stamps could still be correct, even if they were issued a year too early. However, a stamp trader explained that such items could soon have a historic significance and might go up in value. ‘The stamps might not be particularly rare in terms of numbers, but the story of the event’s postponement make these issues more interesting and desirable in years to come. If the issue date was in…

This month the Isle of Man Post Office celebrates the 250th anniversary of the birth of William Wordsworth, one of Britain’s best-known romantic poets of all time, by releasing a wonderful six stamp collection. They attempt to capture the essence and the appearance of the Island at the time of Wordsworth’s visit to the Island in 1833, and are presented through period paintings chosen in relation to the Manx scenes discussed in Wordsworth’s sonnets that were inspired by the Isle of Man. Although synonymous with The Lake District, William and Dorothy Wordsworth were strongly associated with the Isle of Man and Manx locations were featured in ‘The Itinerary Poems of 1833’. William himself only spent four days on the Island during July 1833, as part of his journey to the…

Assess it In 2005, an 1868 Benjamin Franklin ‘Z-Grill’, bought in 1998 for $935,000, was traded for $3 million worth of Inverted Jennies. Making that one gramme piece of blue paper worth more than a flat in Chelsea or a Constable painting. The GB250 Index, which tracks the value of 250 rare, British stamps has had a compound annual growth of 13.4% since 1991, and has not dipped in that time. Not even when the stock-market reacts to global events like the current pandemic. By weight, stamps are the most valuable commodities on Earth. At least the ‘right’ stamps are, and lockdown is the perfect time to assess your collection, determine its worth, and what you want to do with it. Arguably, to make big money from stamps, you have…

Not having sufficient financial resources to develop its colony of Mozambique in East Africa, the Portuguese government awarded a number of land concessions to private investment companies back in the 1890s. The Nyassa Company ran two provinces in the northern part of Mozambique from 1891 until 1929. The company did almost nothing to develop the area. A major source of income for the company was the attractive stamps that were issued. Most issues were printed by Waterlow & Sons, Ltd., London. At the time interest from collectors was very strong and the beautiful pictorials sold extremely well. In 1924 there was a set of nine triangular postage due stamps featuring a giraffe, a zebra, the ship São Gabriel and a portrait of Vasco da Gama. Some philatelic researchers have expressed…

Dear Stamp Collector As a junior schoolboy stamp collector in the early 1950s I used to read stories of the intrepid postmen of Tonga whenever they made the headlines in comics including the Hotspur and the Rover. Even alongside such stars as Hopalong Cassidy and Roy of the Rovers, the canoe heroes who paddled out into the Pacific in all weathers to pick up metal drums filled with mail for Tonga won my admiration. The drums had been tossed from passing ships as the canoeists approached. They hooked the drums, lashed them to the outsides of their canoe, then paddled manfully towards the beach of a tiny offshore island named Niuafoou, where an opportunist colonizer named W. G. Quensell had established a mail handling service for correspondence and small packages…

Art nouveau style artist-drawn postcards have long been considered the zenith of postcard collecting with Alphonse Mucha and Raphael Kirchner the best-known names, writes Richard Stenlake. Mucha postcards are rare and expensive, but Kirchner’s to me are much more interesting and varied, and cheaper too! Raphael Kirchner was born in Vienna in 1875 and attended the School of Art there. His first postcard series, ‘Wiener Typen’, appeared in 1899. Up until his death in 1917 he had produced hundreds of postcard designs, usually in themed sets of six. Let’s be clear about this, Kirchner drew beautiful women. Wikipedia suggests his cards are ‘mildly erotic’ and his most commercially successful series were the gentle ‘Geisha’ set, but many other Kirchner cards are more racy. My first illustration is from the ‘Femmes…

This summer we should all be sitting down to another Olympic Games, but will have to now wait patiently until next year, writes Brian Austin. In 1996 Benham produced this special cover featuring, and signed by, former British Olympic Gold Medal winners. As you can see, it may like a coin cover, but in fact in the cover is a reproduction of a 1908 Gold Medal, which was reproduced specially for the cover. From memory I think it was the one won for the Tug of War by the City of London Police Team. Each cover was postmarked with the full set of stamps issued in 1996, plus then taken to the USA to have their special stamp added and postmarked on the first day. The main reason though why…

The first measure of ‘greatness’ is the novel’s literary merit: it is a unique blend of philosophy, romance and action, with extraordinary insights into human nature and our capacity for intense inner lives. The other is size. Just as lengths of things are often compared to London buses, books get compared to War and Peace. It contains 570,000 words (depending on the translation), six times the length of most modern novels (but a quick read compared to Pakistani novelist Mohiuddin Nawab’s serialized fantasy Devta, which runs to eleven million words). The novel essentially tells the story of three aristocratic Russian families, the Rostovs, the Bolkonskys and the Bezuhovs, during the Napoleonic wars. Tolstoy began writing it – or at least researching it, with great thoroughness – in 1863. A version…

Throughout recorded history the inhabitants of St Kilda, a tiny archipelago on the western fringe of the Outer Hebrides, relied entirely on bonfires set alight on high cliff tops as their means of communication with passing sailing ships. In relatively placid weather during brief St Kildan summers, ships would occasionally lower boats to row ashore between shallowly submerged rocks, bringing barter goods (tobacco invariably included) and taking off ship letters, hand-woven tartans and knitted woollen goods in exchange. For brief periods in the 19th century British Army contractors arrived to load boats with bales of fulmar feathers (prized as fillings for army mattresses); and Atlantic trawlermen also rowed ashore to barter for medicinal ointments the islanders concocted from seabird dripping as a cure for chesty coughs, and to protect hands…

Ancient history is filled with intriguing people who have made significant contributions to world culture. One such person is Aesop who is believed to have lived in Ancient Greece (620-564 BC), yet very little is known about this man who is credited with the writing of a book of fables. Indeed it is not certain that this famous writer ever existed despite the fact that Aesop’s Fables is one of the world’s most famous literary works. One of Aesop’s fables features the well-known phrase ‘Killing the goose that lays the golden egg’, and his fables have been recalled on a range of stamps, making the fairytale theme another interesting sideline. Sadly, at least for the wildfowl involved, killing the goose or duck is still a popular activity today, and in…