Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2023 i Stamp Collector

Since the great US stamp museum opened to the public on July 30, 1993, more than 10.6 million people have visited. Many millions more have visited online. The museum has showcased 125 exhibitions in its gallery spaces over the past 30 years, including its current line-up of 17 exhibitions. It also hosts an additional 65 virtual exhibitions that present collection objects and stories remotely. The opening of the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum was the culmination of a 107-year quest to find a permanent home for the US’s philatelic and postal history treasures. The National Philatelic Collection was established at the Smithsonian Institution in 1886 with the donation of a sheet of 10-cent Confederate postage stamps. Gifts from individuals and foreign governments, transfers from government agencies and occasional purchases have increased…

The U.S. Postal service is issuing Life Magnified, a massive 20-stamp issue consisting of highly magnified images that showcase the strange, otherworldly beauty of living element invisible to the human eye. The images have been made possible by the use of electron microscopes, which are now ubiquitous in laboratories. The stamp images, which have scientific as well as artistic value, have been designed by USPS art director Derry Noyes using existing images. The Life Magnified stamps are being issued as Forever Stamps, meaning that they will always be of equal value to the current First Class Mail one-ounce price. Issue date 10 August, usps.com/shopstamps…

Four new stamps from Jersey Post celebrate the island’s landmark Elizabeth Castle as a historic monument. Elizabeth Castle (Jèrriais*: Lé Châté Lîzabé), was constructed in the 16th century on a tidal islet, near the Parish of St Helier. Sir Walter Raleigh, who was Governor of Jersey, named it in honour of Queen Elizabeth I - although some have suggested he might also have named it after his own wife! Elizabeth Castle has had a colourful history that includes sheltering a fugitive King Charles II during the English Civil War, operating as a prison in the Seven Years’ War, being used as a barracks hospital in the 19th century and being refortified by German forces in WW2. In 1923, the British Government relinquished the Castle to the States of Jersey as…

River Wildlife is a beautiful new set of stamps from Royal Mail that celebrates the wonderfully diverse wildlife that inhabits the UK’s natural rivers and streams. The ten stamps show images of the fish, birds and animals that make their home in British river waters, and have adapted either to live beneath the water or in close related habitats that depend on the river for critical life support. Rivers are variable environments, and the unique variations of each river system creates further variations in the life forms that inhabit it. Many forms of river wildlife depend on a life cycle in or near water for their survival. From the smallest beck to the widest river, the UK landscape includes more than 380,000 kilometres of rivers and streams – an incredible…

A SCARCE SYDNEY VIEW Spink’s recent ‘Stamps and Covers of the World’ sale included what is thought to be the only known unused example of the New South Wales 1850-51 1d carmine value from the ‘Sydney Views’ set. From plate 2 and printed on hard bluish wove paper, the stamp was described as having the hill in the picture unshaded, and ‘close margins virtually all round, unused without gum; tiny pinhole in center otherwise fine’. SOLD FOR £16,000 STRAITS SETTLEMENTS Grosvenor’s recent summer sales included a group of eight imprimaturs of the Straits Settlements 1882 Revenue values to $25. The sales totalled more than £1 million and according to the London auction house ‘the bidding was hot, the prices hotter still, as three auctioneers battled to control waves of online…

Over recent years the Spanish Postal Administration, Correos, have been issuing seven or eight sets of Post and Go stamps every year, and at the end of the year in December they create a special presentation folder with a collector strip of each issue, writes Stuart Leigh. The collector strips comprise four stamps with rates of A, A2, B and C. Currently these are: • Rate A: €0.78. For ‘normal ordinary national letter or postcard, up to 20g. • Rate A2: €0.88. For ‘standard ordinary national letter or postcard, from 20 to 50g. • Rate B: €1.65. For ‘standard’ ordinary international letter or postcard addressed to Europe (including Greenland), up to 20g. • Rate C: €1.75. For ‘standard’ ordinary international letter or postcard addressed to the rest of the world…

This attractive spirited lady, who looks like she has just walked out of a Jane Austen novel, has an unusual distinction. Adèle (or Adélie) d’Urville is the only woman to have a breed of penguin named after her. There are 18 recognized breeds: the Adélie penguin is recognizable for its long tail and white rings around its eyes (which render it particularly cute). She also has a territory named after her, Adélie Land in Antarctica. This and the penguins who live there were discovered by her husband, explorer Jules Dumont d’Urville, in 1840. D’Urville was a bookish, quiet young aristocrat who joined the navy because he wanted to explore the world. He soon got his desire. On his first voyage, around the Aegean Sea, he became involved in an archaeological…

Many modern stamps from the Caribbean commemorate a maritime tradition encompassing everything from dugout canoes belonging to indigenous people to modern refrigerated cargo vessels and colossal cruise ships. Five ships occupy a special niche in this maritime and philatelic history: the Lady Drake, the Lady Nelson, the Lady Hawkins, the Lady Rodney and the Lady Somers. Both stamps and items of postal history provide collectors with many souvenirs of years of service by the Lady Boats that carried passengers and freight between Canada and the Caribbean beginning in 1928, and ending in 1952 when the two liners that had survived the Second World War were sold. The Lady Boats were ordered under legislation passed by the Canadian government in 1927 to modernize the its merchant marine fleet. Authorities hoped to…

The contents of letters from past centuries vary from the mundane, usually, to tales worthy of any murder mystery. The letter which is the subject of this month’s article definitely falls into the latter category. The letter was written from Arlington Street in London on 4 January 1755 by John Fuller and is addressed to his brother, Stephen Fuller, at Rosehill in Sussex. John Fuller was elected as one of two Members of Parliament for the Yorkshire seat of Boroughbridge on 20 December 1754. Owing to his infirmity he was elected in absentia, helped by the patronage of the Duke of Newcastle, who collected constituencies as we might collect stamps and controlled 17 MPs at the time. As an MP, John Fuller was able to send his letters free of…

A true philatelic rarity will be displayed at this year’s Stampex. Gold PTS Member Stanley Gibbons will be displaying their British Guiana One Cent Magenta at Stampex from 27 to 30 September. ‘We are delighted that Stanley Gibbons are bringing the One Cent Magenta to Stampex,’ said PTS and Stampex chairman Simon Carson. ‘As the world’s rarest and most expensive stamp, it is wonderful to have it as part of our show and to be able to share it with our community. The British Guiana One Cent Magenta was last showcased in 2021 after it was sold at auction in New York for a massive $8,307,000. Known as the world’s rarest and most expensive stamp, the piece was previously owned by the shoe designer Stuart Weitzman. It also stands out…

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation, with some 220 million people representing a wide variety of ethnic groups and religious beliefs. English is the official language but the vast majority of the population use Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo and other languages and dialects in their daily life. It is a country of vast contrasts. People in the north are mainly Muslims, while Christianity in its many different forms dominates the southern areas. In Lagos, the nation’s economic capital, there is an increasingly prosperous middle class, while many live in abject poverty. Britain became deeply involved in Nigeria in the 1850s and the British Navy then occupied the Lagos area in 1861. It was followed by the establishment of a British protectorate of most coastal areas in 1885. In 1900 both Northern…

So, an unusual choice for this month’s cover, writes Brian Austin, and why have I chosen an Isle of Man First Day of issue postmark I hear you ask? Well, none of the painters on this 1973 issue had any obvious connection with the island. The link is that 4 July was the last day of the ‘British Postal Administration’ on the island. Which basically means that from this point they were issuing their own stamps. For this issue, this Douglas FDI postmark is connected, but there was also a matching pair of Douglas and Whitehaven special postmarks. I have always assumed that Whitehaven was chosen as it was the nearest mainland town. In addition, there was also one of the rare Post Office Commemorative covers for this issue, which…

It was in 1856, some nine years before King George V was born, that the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) and brother Prince Alfred, later the Duke of Edinburgh, were given examples of new 6d stamps. Enthused by the gift, Alfred soon became a dedicated collector and began working on his own collection. But it would be King George V, Alfred’s nephew, who would turn the assorted albums into a world-renowned collection. Born in 1865, some 25 years after the beginnings of the postage stamp, George quickly became an enthusiastic stamp collector, after inheriting the collection from his father, who had bought it from Alfred before his death in 1900. The Duke of York, as he was known before he came to the throne, soon became Honorary Life…

Modern Sarawak begins in 1838, when British adventurer James Brooke landed in Kuching with his ship ‘Royalty’. The area was currently in revolt against the Sultan of Brunei; Brooke helped him put down the rebellion and was rewarded with the governorship of Sarawak in1841. After suppressing piracy in the region and coping with another revolt, he was given full sovereignty and became Rajah of Sarawak in September 1841. The ‘white rajahs’ ruled Sarawak until 1946 – pacifying the tribes of the interior, suppressing headhunting and increasing the size of the territory by purchases and treaties. Sarawak became a British Protectorate in 1888 – but the stamps continued to show the various generations of the Brooke family, rather than the reigning monarch. WW2 changed everything. As the British Army withdrew to…

From caves to mines, from crypts to subways, a subterranean thematic is both challenging and fun. Such a vast topic also has natural links to other collecting themes, such as transportation, history, and geography. Caves make a great starting point for the theme, as they can be natural or man-made. Some of the world’s most spectacular cave systems are both – starting life as natural structures, which humans then expanded and adapted for their own use. Lascaux Caves in south-western France are perhaps one of the most famous and spectacular examples of cave systems. Used by pre-historic hominids, the art which adorns the walls of these caves continues to awe and inspire. Lascaux has been celebrated on postage stamps many, many times, but France’s 1968 and 2019 releases are especially…

My regular reader (hi!) may recall a couple of articles here a few months ago on usages of the GB King George VI stamps. Well, this month and next will be a sort of follow-up to that, taking a look at the next definitive set chronologically – the ‘Wildings’ of Queen Elizabeth II. As with the earlier articles, to keep it compact I’ll be concentrating on ‘solo usages’ with one stamp paying the whole rate, although this time with an occasional foray into multiple usages. There were no outright colour changes during the period of use of the Wildings, but they do, of course, have a number of other features that weren’t a factor with the George VI stamps. They come with three different watermarks, and there were issues with…

The Swedish Philatelic Federation has reported that an example of the rare German Audrey Hepburn stamp will be on display at the TRELLEBORG 2023 exhibition this month. The Swedish-German bilateral exhibition will take place from 15 to 17 September and will play host to an example of the famous unissued stamp showing Audrey Hepburn with a cigarette holder. The stamp design was rejected by members of the late actor’s family but several examples avoided destruction and now command huge prices. The exhibited stamp is on loan from the current owner through Heinrich Köhler GmbH, who also sold that particular stamp in 2005 for €58,000.…

Royal Mail have revealed images of ten Special Stamps being issued to celebrate 65 years of the children’s charatcer Paddington, the beloved marmalade-loving bear created by Michael Bond. Six stamps in the main set are taken from Ivor Wood’s strip cartoons of Paddington, originally published in the London Evening News newspaper in the late 1970s. In 1975, illustrator, animator, and writer Ivor Wood was instrumental in transforming Paddington from a beloved literary character into a star of the small screen. Working with animation company, FilmFair, Wood designed and directed the first Paddington television series for the BBC. Four stamps presented in a Miniature Sheet capture moments from this TV series. David Gold, Director of External Affairs and Policy, Royal Mail, said: ‘Paddington continues to bring cheer to generations of children…

Almost three years after Iceland Post announced that it would stop issuing stamps, the postal authority has revealed the design of a four-stamp miniature sheet produced to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the country’s first stamps, known as shilling stamps, which were released in 1873. The minisheet of four self-adhesive stamps includes two values at 50g and two at 100g, and features drone photography of fire, ice and the northern lights, capturing the ‘variety of Icelandic nature’. Photographer Ragnar Th. Sigurðsson said: ‘Diversity in the Icelandic nature plays a central role, the interplay of fire and ice on the one hand, unparalleled contrasts in the landscape and the aerospace on the other, the flashing northern lights.’ Iceland Post announced that it would stop issuing stamps in October 2020 in a…

My Stamps – Sustainability from Åland Post is a new issue that highlights Åland’s sustainable and environmental work, coordinated by the barkraft.ax network. Set up in 2016, barkraft.ax coordinates Åland’s development and sustainability agenda: ‘Everyone can flourish in a viable society on the Islands of Peace’. Åland Post is part of the network, whose goals include striving for happy people, ecosystems in balance, biological diversity and creating sustainable consumption and production patterns The issue was illustrated by graphic designer Elin Eriksson, whose own life circumstances made them consider the impact sustainable practice might have on the future. ‘It was tricky to come up with an innovative approach to the theme and not fall back on old clichés relating to future/environment/solidarity, as it’s such a well-worn topic,’ said Elin. ‘It just…

On 22 June 1998 Royal Mail launched a new product, the Business Sheet. Aimed at the moderate user of stamps, the sheets comprise 2nd or 1st class definitives, with 2nd Large or 1st Large definitives available from 2003, and more recently the ‘barcode’ versions. In a format slightly larger than A4 folded into sections, each sheet had 100 of the standard definitives or 50 of the ‘Large’ versions, but now all comprise 50 of the stamps with data matrix code (bar-code). Since their launch the sheets have been printed by The House of Questa, Enschedé or Walsall (later Cartor). The stamps have reflected the variations in design and colour, while the text on the top panel has also changed over the years. At first the matrix (excess top paper around…

Playing cards is a most popular pastime and has been so for centuries, writes Christer Brunström. Some play for money while others enjoy a game of cards just for the fun of it. I was reminded of this fascination when I recently acquired a set of six extremely attractive and colourful old-time poster stamps advertising playing cards. It all began in the Swedish city of Norrköping in the 1850s. A man called Frithiof Åberg worked as a travelling salesman for a garment manufacturer. In addition to making a variety of clothes, the industrialist also had a sideline operation producing playing cards. On each of his rounds Mr. Åberg brought along a number of decks of cards and he noted that they were easy to sell. In 1858, he decided to…

Do you want your thematics collections to live long and prosper? In which case, with Star Trek Day celebrated on 8 September, let’s risk Spock’s viewpoint that ‘insufficient facts always invite danger’ and take a trip into the world of Star Trek-themed stamps. With time only to dip into the galaxy of possibilities, we’ll jumpstart our intergalactic philatelic expedition to the farthest reaches of the world’s postage stamps with the Royal Mail’s 2020 official Star Trek issue. For a full account, check out the December 2020 issue of Stamp Collector, but the commemorative set of 12 first class stamps, issued on 13 November 2020 and illustrated by Freya Betts, depicted the captains from six principle TV series, plus additional crew members, with background details from their respective shows: Captain James…