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Autumn 2010 Newsletter
SOME OF THE ADVANTAGES OF BELONGING TO A REALLY GOOD SPECIALIST SOCIETY
Wendy Orr
Here are just a few of the more interesting pieces of mail that I have had through my door since joining the Hong Kong PS. With one exception, they are the covers of the monthly newsletters that I have received. The red circular postage paid hand stamps on the covers indicate that the postage has been corrected for the airmail rate in addition to the adhesives already applied
Commercial usage of the circular red 3mm hand stamp with ‘POSTAGE PAID’ across the top, straight line date ‘-6 MAR 1983’ across the centre and ‘HONG 1 KONG’ around the bottom.
This cover has received a purple ‘T’ alongside a bar with m/s ‘290’ on top and printed ‘230’ underneath, the reason being the $1.60 QE II stamp and postmark for 1997 were both discontinued and should not have been used.
Larger circular red 3.5 mm ‘POSTAGE PAID’ around the top, with a straight line ‘AIR LETTER SECTION’ across the centre with straight line date ‘3 MAR 2008’ underneath and ‘HONG 1 KONG around the bottom- the blue stamp is for local post only.
Adhesives cancelled ‘16. 8 10’ with bilingual blue strike ‘INSUFFICIENTLY PREPAID/FOR SURFACE TRANSMISSION’ and the blue ‘T’ with m/s ‘200’ over the bar and printed ‘230’ underneath, purple bilingual strike in purple reading ‘INSUFFICIENTLY PREPAID/FOR AIRMAIL TRANSMISSION/SENT BY SURFACE MAIL’ The airmail etiquette has been cancelled by m/s black cross. Don’t ask me what the correct rating for these covers really should be; all I know for certain is that in 1997 it was $3.10 for an airmail letter. (I believe it could now be $3.70 but please don’t quote me as I couldn’t even find it in Proud’s book). This letter, sent to me from the Philatelic Society in Hong Kong, had the usual postage rate for printed matter of $2.40 in stamps.
(Addendum: I now understand that the printer used by The Hong Kong Philatelic Society had changed the thickness of the paper used on that occasion: 0.106 mm (b/w) and 0.122 mm (colour) as against the usual 0.098 mm. This made the Newsletter marginally overweight and some of the letters were picked up by the HK sorting office and redirected to surface mail according to HK postal regulation. However, because of the thicker paper used for the colour insert in the Newsletter, the postage was still not enough to cover Zone 2 to Europe, thus the need for the second cachet. Ordinarily, the $2.40 printed matter air mail would have been sufficient.)
SCOUT CHRISTMAS POSTS
Sandra Poole
The first Christmas Scout posts began in 1981, when the British Telecommunications Act permitted charities to collect and deliver greetings cards each year from 25 November until 1 January. Many Scout and Guide groups took advantage of this concession in order to raise money for charity or to boost their own group funds. Some have been operating ever since or soon after. Perhaps the most successful one at the time was Sheffield: in 1981. It handled 11,000 cards and by 1987 the figure had risen to 864,000.
It was feared that the scout service, with a target of 1,000,000 for the following year, would, in fact, cost the jobs of many temporary postal workers. Nottingham, itself, has never had a scout post, although for a brief period there was one in West Bridgford, which, I’ve been told, operated from around 1989 to 1993. There are or have been many others in the county- Southwell (the only one to provide a free service for pensioners and the disabled), East Bridgford, East Leake, Bingham, Radcliffe-on-Trent, Keyworth, Selston, Tollerton, Warsop and Retford. If you know of any others, please let me know I would also be grateful for any information on the posts operating in Selston and East Bridgford. If you have any of the stamps, on or off cover, I would be glad to see them. Photocopies would do. Contact numbers of anyone involved in running the posts would also be useful.
A NATIONAL COMPETITION ENTRY
Andrew Dove
Dr Andrew Dove won a gold award at London 2010 for his exhibit on New Zealand. He presented the display in person on 9 June to the Greater Nottingham Co-Operative P.S. and kindly agreed to the introductory sheet being reproduced in our newsletter. This gives an idea of what is required when moving up to National & International competition.
NEW ZEALAND, DEFINITIVE STAMPS SHOWING THE HEAD OF KING GEORGE V
King George V came to the throne on May 6th, 1910 on the death of his father, King Edward VII. Although new definitives showing the late King’s head had only been issued 6 months earlier, the New Zealand Government agreed to commission a set showing the head of the new Monarch. The Postmaster-General’s Annual Report published in August, 1911, contained the specification that the new stamps should have one design for all values which could be printed by the Intaglio process. The commission was first offered to Bertram McKennal RA who was already designing new coinage for the Dominion. He declined due to pressure of work. Mr. Harry Linley Richardson was offered the commission and accepted. Richardson was born in England in 1874 and trained at Westminster School of Art before emigrating to New Zealand in 1908 to take up an appointment as an instructor at the Technical School at Wellington.
The first design was based on the Downey photographic portrait used for the first GB issue of stamps which showed the Kings head in three quarter profile. Perkins Bacon, who produced the original die, were not impressed and returned some photographic essays with the die proofs for the proposed new issue.
In 1912, Sir Heaton Rhodes, a prominent philatelist as well as a politician, became Postmaster-General and took a close interest in the design of the new stamps. After experimenting with a design based on the Full Face Queen, he suggested that Richardson produced a drawing based on the 1840 Penny Black. The new design was accepted and dies and plates were produced to allow the new set to be made available in mid 1915. Further values in new designs, also by Richardson, were added in 1926 The stamps remained current until 1935. The 20 years of their currency saw the Great War and the Great Depression. Both of these events affected postal services and rates and this is reflected in the number of new values, papers, printing methods, perforation variations and shades. There were also a large number of changes in postage rates during this period: the first was in September 1915, before the new stamps were in widespread use when a War Tax increased nearly all rates by ½d. This meant that a number of values had no specific use.
This display is designed to give a comprehensive survey of the design, development, postal usage and changes to use of the stamps. It is divided into three parts:
1. Development of the design, production of the plates and overprints: sheets 2 - 50
2. Variations of paper, watermark, sheet markings and perforations: sheets 51-80
3. Changes, variations and varieties of each value including examples of postal usage: sheets 81 – 128
The first section begins with a copy of Downey’s photograph signed by King George V and the artists concept drawings. It includes many of the original drawings and illustrates the development of the design. The production of the stamps is demonstrated by progress, die and plate proofs as well as range of colour trials and sample stamps sent to other Postal Authorities by the U.P.U.
The second section shows aspects of the issue which are common to many values. Examples are shown of the different papers and of the perforating varieties and variations. One result of the method of perforation was the release of some very rare varieties with missing perforations. Examples of all the recess perforation varieties are shown.
The third section shows changes and varieties specific to each value and explains the reasons for them. Changes of printing process are illustrated with die and plate proofs. Mint and used multiples and scarce examples of usage on cover are also included.
For further information, the viewer is referred to:
The Postage Stamps of New Zealand Vols. I, II and IV. Pub. The Royal Philatelic Society of New Zealand
The Kiwi (The Journal of the New Zealand Society of Great Britain)
The New Zealand Stamp Collector (the Journal of the Royal Philatelic Society of New Zealand)
Campbell Paterson Newsletter and Bulletin
SG Congress Cup awarded to Andrew Dove: Dr Andrew Dove is not a member of our Society but has presented displays to both us and the GNCS PS. The news and details of the award appeared in the October issue of Gibbons Stamp Monthly Magazine. Ten speakers presented papers at the Philatelic Congress of Great Britain last July and Andrew Dove was presented with the new Stanley Gibbons Cup for his paper on the Definitive Stamps of New Zealand.
IS IT A STAMP OR IS IT A LABEL?
Sandra Poole
I expect you’ve all seen the ‘large letter’ Horizon label below, but I am reproducing it for the benefit of our friends in Gozo and New Zealand. Issued in May, it replaces those horrible large white labels that have been in use for some time. My local sub-postmaster assures me it is still a label, but that it has been made to look like a stamp! It shows the Queen’s head on a gold background and like the latest ‘security’ machins, it has ‘ROYAL MAIL’ written all over it. The labels are issued to post offices in unattached pairs. When required, the label is inserted into a small machine, the counter clerk keys in the details and, hey presto, the label comes out printed with the amount paid, the class (non-standard first or second) plus the item or service (e.g. Large Letter, Standard Parcel Post).
The bird ‘stamp’ was issued mid-September and is one of a set of six They are the first ‘Post & Go’ pictorial stamps and I first saw them at Stampex. They were only available there and at thirty other post offices, so, as Nottingham was one of these, I decided to overcome my normal technophobia and, in the interests of journalism, to actually purchase one. The transaction was simplicity itself and it certainly beats queueing. (For the uninitiated, Post and Go machines do not just sell you stamps, but they also weigh your mail, tell you the amount payable and issue the correct label.).
A second set of bird ‘stamps’ is due out in January. But are they stamps or are they labels?
EXHIBITING THEMATICS
Sandra Poole
There were only four entries on our competition evening last May, all thematic. There seemed to be a bit of confusion at the time as to what constitutes a thematic competition entry and since then, one or two members have expressed their concerns to me. We have also had several new members over the last couple of years and, although we have no official written society guidelines on this subject, we invite these newcomers not only to put in their own entries but also expect them to judge others’. So I thought I’d try and clarify what the criteria for a thematic exhibit actually are. The statements in quotes are taken from the rules of the Huston Trophy Competition. If you are entering a competition, then study the rules appropriate to that competition, their marking system and the number of sheets required.
First and foremost, a competitive thematic display must follow a well defined plan that shows the development of the theme. “A plan based on classification by issue date, country, type of material, is not considered adequate. Neither can it be replaced by a literary description or generic, introductory statement.” Each section, therefore, has to follow on logically from the preceding one, likewise each page.
“The thematic exhibit uses all types of related and appropriate philatelic material- non-philatelic items cannot be admitted.” So booklets, meter marks, postal stationery and relevant postmarks are all acceptable (and, in fact, desirable, so long as stamps preponderate); picture postcards are not. If you can add proofs, essays, errors etc, that’s even better. Stamps should preferably be from many different countries, not just one, but I would avoid any that are listed in the appendix of Stanley Gibbons’ catalogues. I would also try and avoid those that are cancelled to order. This is just a very basic introduction to thematic exhibiting; I would recommend anyone wishing to enter a thematic class to read the handbook written by Alma Lee entitled ‘Introducing Thematic Collecting’ which we have in our Society Library. We also have rules for various competitions including Huston, Phoenix and ABPS. The ABPS rules may also be viewed on their website: abps.org.uk I would also suggest that would-be exhibitors view as many exhibits as possible, both at large stamp exhibitions and at different competitions.
These are rules for a competitive display; what you put in your own collection is entirely up to you and you should include anything that gives you pleasure. This is true also for displays given to this and other societies.
Eric Croft recently found a 1967 list of 78 members- 7 of these are still members: D.Avery, A.Wood, A.Banwell, K.Brown, A.Sibley, B.Wright and himself. Eric writes: ‘I can recall a good number of the members, but by no means all of them and their names bring back pleasant memories’ He suggested that I put in a few of the names on a ‘Do you remember?’ basis. I am sure some of you must have memories or anecdotes that you could share: send them to me if you do. The list is: R.Bland, G.Bocock, W.Diamond, W.Frankland, K.Hopkinson, A.Willcock and F.Spander? Perhaps there are others you can remember from this period?
Waste Not, Want Not. I see that after spewing all that volcanic ash into the atmosphere, Iceland has cleverly recycled what remained by silk screening it across the three stamps depicting volcanic eruptions that it issued in July!
Not enough stamps about the place? How about some ‘Stamps’ wallpaper featuring vintage stamps from the ‘Collection’ series designed by Catherine Hammerton. It retails for a mere £179 per 10 metre roll. I think I’ll just stick stamps straight on to the wall!
How our children see us!: Kala Poole
DISCLAIMER: While every care is taken during the production of this newsletter, neither the editor nor the Society officers can accept any liability for views,opinions or unintentional publication errors that may occur.
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