Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2022 i Stamp Collector

My mum loves sport just as much as I do, so for a few hours during our summer holiday (several thousand miles away from Wembley) we gathered around my phone attempting to watch the Euro 2022 final between England and Germany. The picture stuttered and frequently disappeared, and we eventually resorted to the radio, picturing each kick and tackle as the Lionesses tried their very best to win the major trophy. It didn’t matter that we couldn’t see the dramatic final unfold, the fantastic news that England had won (and avoided the dreaded penalties) was the most important thing and we’d definitely got a reason for a celebratory holiday tipple. And isn’t that the point? After a challenging few years, exacerbated for football fans by England’s near miss at the…

Ukrposhta recently issued a one stamp miniature sheet to celebrate Ukraine’s Independence Day. The sheet features the motto ‘Free. Unbreakable. Invincible.’ and the colours of the Ukrainian flag. The postal service is also planning to issue its first NFT (non-fungible token) stamps based on the design of the now famous ‘Russian Warship’ stamps. Money raised from the sale of the NFT stamp is set to go to the Ukrainian Army. Prakob Chirakiti has been elected as the new President of the International Federation of Philately (FIP) following a meeting at the 76th FIP Congress held in Jakarta, Indonesia. The 2020 elections had been postponed due to the pandemic and so the Vice-Presidents and Directors for America and Europe were elected for a half-term or two years (2022-24), to ensure that…

Dhar in Central India was one of India’s many feudatory states. Its history goes back to c1730. In 1819, the ruler of Dhar signed an alliance with the British East India Company and it eventually became one of the salute states. The British awarded the maharaja a 15-gun salute which indicates that Dhar State was considered to be fairly important. Dhar had a very brief history as a stamp-issuing entity. The first rather primitive type-set stamps were issued in 1897. A more elaborate design featuring the coat of arms of Dhar State was introduced in 1898. As the coat of arms includes two elephants, the second issue will be of interest to thematic collectors. In early 1901, the stamps of Dhar became obsolete. All in all some ten different stamps…

CINDERELLAS Hutt River Province Principality Over the years there have many micro nations around the world, writes Christer Brunström. Sometimes these tiny countries can be located on a map but quite a few are the result of someone’s creative imagination. One of the leaders in this particular field was the Hutt River Province Principality in Western Australia. It all started in 1969 when farmer Leonard G. Casley protested against the wheat quotas assigned to his farm. His many protests led nowhere and on 21 April 1970 he announced that Hutt River – basically his rather large farm – had seceded from Australia and was from then on an independent state. In order to create even more attention for his cause, Mr. Casley transformed his farm into a principality with himself…

Something unexpected happens: certainly, that was what happened to me when a ‘blue lights’ ambulance and Police car whisked me, in an induced comatose state, down the M5 to Bristol Southmead Hospital with a bleed on the brain for an emergency craniotomy operation after I fell in the garden. Weeks afterwards at the follow-up appointment the German operating surgeon told my wife and I that as he operated, he wondered the outcome of continuing … apparently, it was likely I could have been unable to talk, eat, see or even to walk … apparently it all looked pretty hopeless, was it worth continuing? All somewhat dramatic, traumatic but true: I’m not going to say that I experienced some form of life-changing revelation after I made a complete recovery, thanks to…

Richard Scott Morel FRPSL Curator, British Library’s Philatelic Collections Chris West, author of First Class, A History of Britain in 36 Postage Stamps Tina Jackson, author and Stamp Collector Assistant Editor David Bailey, freelance writer, collector and former stamp trader WRITE FOR US Do you have a stamp-related story to tell? Would you like to share your expertise in your chosen field with fellow collectors? Why not consider writing for Stamp Collector? Writing experience is preferred but the most important attribute is a passion and knowledge of your philatelic subject. If you think that’s you contact the editor at: matthewh@warnersgroup.co.uk…

A special postmark to celebrate the success of the ‘Lionesses’ – but would stamps have matched the public reaction better? I was sitting at my desk on Monday, 1 August, the day after England’s Women became Europe’s Football Champions, when an email arrived. Just the first few words of the message appeared in my Inbox: Royal Mail to issue a special …’. My initial reaction was delight, perhaps even incredulity, that Royal Mail had put plans in action to release a stamp, more likely a miniature sheet, to mark the English success at winning UEFA Women’s EURO 2022. Then I opened the message and read – details of a special postmark. We have, of course, seen miniature sheets for sporting achievements in the past, the most recent being in 2019…

SOLD FOR £2,225 Portugal, 700th Anniversary of the birth of St. Antonius 1895 MNH SOLD FOR £445 Fezzan, Special sheetlet of postage due stamps Brak oasis 1950 MNH SOLD FOR £336 USA, 90c blue George Washington 1857-60 used (repaired but very fine) SOLD FOR £370 Belgium, Sheetlet Basilica of the Sacred Heart 1938 without ‘Koekelberg’ cancellation in margin MNH (with cert.) SOLD FOR £667 China, Goldfishes set 1960 MNH SOLD FOR £445 Italy, Visit of the Italian President in South America 1961 MNH SOLD FOR £1,068 France, 2004 Olympics Athens sheetlet, error: missing blue value on five stamps MNH SOLD FOR £340.87 Hungary, letter franked 2kr from Sisak 1871 to Triest (with cert.) SOLD FOR £344 Monaco, For the benefit of War Orphans set 1919 MH Buy and sell on…

It might surprise a few of you to know that in the world of US philately some of the most popular stamps are from the 1901 Pan-American Exposition pictorial issue. These bi-colour stamps were produced to commemorate a world fair held at Buffalo, New York. The Pan-American Exposition and World’s Fair, which was held 1 May to 1 November 1901, celebrated the introduction of technology and its influence across America. To support the event a set of six stamps were produced in the values 1c, 2c, 4c, 5c, 8c and 10c. Our featured stamp is the 2c, which was in recognition of the rail link between America’s east and west, and depicts the ‘Empire State Express’ locomotive. Back in 1901, this four-car train was an icon of modern engineering. It…

PURPLE POSTBOXES, BARCODE VIDEOS, AND POSTMARKS It has been a busy time for Royal Mail, with a series of novel campaigns intended to promote the business, its services and stamps. Back in July, Royal Mail unveiled five special postboxes across the UK decorated in vibrant pink and purple, which included graphics and encouraging messages to teams participating in the Commonwealth Games. The postboxes were located across in Birmingham, London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. Royal Mail were sponsors of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and as part of the deal exclusively delivered all official Birmingham 2022 merchandise from the Games’ website. In August, Royal Mail announced the launch of a new video that enables recipients of mail featuring a barcoded stamp to receive birthday wishes from children’s animated character Shaun the…

AUCTION HIGHLIGHTS PRICES INCLUDE BUYER’S PREMIUM UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED MAJOR NZ RARITY Spink recently offered the Robin Gwynn Collection of New Zealand during an auction held at the Royal Philatelic Society London. Whilst there were many rare examples of the country’s famous designs, the highest lot price went to a complete sheet of twelve ‘Great Barrier Island Pigeon Post’ 1/-green-blue stamps. The 1899 Marotiri Copper Mines stamps were overprinted ‘marotiri/pigeongram’, and the unused sheet featured full selvedge at top and right. Column one had the overprint ‘marotiri’ set to right by ½mm, whilst the overprint on row 2 was offset on the reverse. The piece was described as ‘a major New Zealand and World Air rarity with only 240 stamps printed, most probably a unique sheet.’ The lot description also…

Belgium Belgium is a new country with a long history. It was formed in 1830, following a revolt by the poorer southern provinces against the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Its first King Leopold was a Saxe-Coburg relative of our own royal family who took the throne in 1831. The Belgian Post Office began investigating pre-payment by stamps in 1841, with a visit to London to see how it was done. But it took until 1849 for stamps to appear. These were the Epaulettes – one of the world’s great classic stamp designs with a 10c brown and a 20c blue. They were produced by Jacques Wiener, with advice and assistance from Perkins Bacon and for years it was believed that Wiener – a skilled engraver – had made the…

The INDONESIA 2022 Palmares dinner took place recently, and the major winners were World Stamp Champion: William Kwan, Hong Kong, ‘Hong Kong Designs, Proofs, Specimens and Other Archival Materials’; Grand Prix International: Jan Huys-Berlingin, Liechtenstein, ‘Belgium’s first issue, the Epaulettes’; Grand Prix National: Tono Dwi Putranto, Indonesia, ‘The Development of KLM and KNILM Operation in the Netherlands Indies 1920-1942’. The hyper-inflation seen in Germany in the 1920s is the subject of a special exhibition, entitled ‘When postage cost billions, 100 years of high inflation in Germany 1923’, set to take place during the IBRA 2023 exhibition to be held in Essen, Germany between 25 and 28 May 2023. Following the elections of 18 June, the Romanian Philatelic Federation has a new President and a new Board of Directors, as reported…

In the 1840s, the word ‘internetted’ was used to mean something that was interconnected. It wasn’t until 1974 that the term internet began to be used to refer to the burgeoning internetwork that had been born out of military time-sharing computers. Today, the internet has become so ubiquitous – and so necessary to modern life – that it’s hard to remember a time when it wasn’t there. The internet is a diverse and, at times, surprising beast – and it’s no surprise to find that as a stamp thematic, the internet offers a wealth of possibilities. A great way of managing what is a relatively large thematic could be to focus solely on stamps that contain the word ‘internet’. Some good examples include the Russian Federation’s 1998 Achievements of the…