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Summer 2012 Newsletter

CLOSURE OF THE SCOTT BASE P.O., ROSS DEPENDENCY

Brian Clayton

On 1 April 1987, the New Zealand Post Office separated into NZ Post (and separately Postbank and Telecom) and soon after reviewing its corporate profitability decided to close its Scott Base Post Office, Ross Dependency, Antarctica, which had opened on 11 January 1957. Later a statement was issued to the effect that the SBPO cost $100,000 to run for $5,000 worth of sales and furthermore, the Dept of Scientific and Industrial Research was unwilling to keep meeting its $42,500 share. The NZ Postmaster General added that the suggestion to increase revenue by more frequent issues of Ross Dependency stamps could be seen as exploitation of the philatelic market; only 20 different stamps had been issued in 30 years from 1957! Indeed, since 1987 only about 110 further stamps, at a set a year, have been issued; nevertheless, the postal history is rich and diverse.

The last SBPO cancelled mail was dated 30 September 1987 using the then current canceller (in use since the SBPO opened) as shown on the cover below.

On 1 October 1987, outward mail had a SCOTT BASE POST OFFICE boxed cachet applied along with a special cachet with a Maori inscription (in black or mauve) as shown on the following cover.

These cachets were officially intended for use on the one day only, but a few examples of later use exist.

Since the closure of the post office, mail from Scott Base has been classed as Urgent Freight and the base summer and wintering over leaders became responsible for mail handling. DSIR Antarctic Division, Christchurch was treated as a private mailbag holder for Scott Base. Outward mail from the Base was posted through the shop in the Scott Base canteen where it was franked by an Automatic Stamping Machine, using Frama serial number F.340 and fitted with a special Scott Base logo. The ASM was owned by the Armed Forces Canteen Council and operated under licence from NZ Post for staff and visitors at the Base to use to pay for postage. Mail was then bagged and forwarded to Christchurch, by air or ship, where it was cancelled on arrival and put into the distribution system

The cover below shows franking impressions on label on cover, this one signed by MP Ruth Richardson, who is quite famous in NZ, dated 30. IX. 87, Christchurch 7 Dec 1987. The cover was no doubt cancelled to order for the visit as the ASM was not officially used until 1 October.

Direct franking impressions were also used as shown on the airmail cover below, dated -1. X. 87 with Christchurch OMB (open mail bag) cancel 27 Nov 87:

Interesting cachets, signatures and postal dates, many scarce and some rare, appeared in the period from 1987 to the opening in November 1994 of the Ross Dependency Agency, Christchurch Post Office. But that is another story, which I shall include in a future display on the Stamps and Postal History of Ross Dependency.

HOW I BECAME A TROLLOPSARIAN

Sandra Poole

It all started when Steve Speak gave me a cutting for the newsletter. It reported that a postman who retired in 2007 was aiming to photograph every post box in the UK- all 115,000 of them (or 116,088 according to another account!). He is a member of the Letter Box Study Group and so far he has photographed about 2,500, often having to crouch down to record the manufacturer’s name at the base of the box. Assuming that he started in 2007, he is working at the rate of 500 a year, so let’s hope he lives for a further 225 years, so that he can complete his task in time!

Inspired by this project, I thought it would be interesting to find out a bit more about those in Nottingham, concentrating first on those who actually manufactured them. Bending down to decipher what is often indecipherable due to corrosion and general muck attracts innumerable strange looks, but in the endless pursuit of knowledge, I still made a hurried study of around 45 local boxes, mainly in the NG1, 2 and 7 areas. The most common name in this sample was the Carron Co. of Falkirk, which was founded in 1759 and went into receivership in 1982. I found 20 examples- 17 bearing the EIIR cipher, 2 with that of George V and 1 of George VI. There were 5 boxes from Machan Engineering, Stirlingshire- all of these had ‘ROYAL MAIL’ under the Royal cipher instead of ‘POST OFFICE’ as in the case of other manufacturers.

There were 4 boxes from the Lion Foundry, Kirkintillock (1893--1984). Andrew Handyside, Derby had the PO contract from 1876-1933. I found one from that foundry with QV cipher and two anonymous boxes, so-called because of an oversight (some oversight!) in which the royal cipher, crown and ’POST OFFICE’ were omitted. I also found one with a George V cipher founded by McDowell, Steven & Co, Falkirk (c1910-64) and a Victorian wall-box manufactured by WT Allen & Co., London. The others were illegible without a mop and bucket!

But more interesting, perhaps, to philatelists are the varieties. 45 boxes out of 116,000 is a minuscule example, but I still found quite a few differences: large and small apertures, plus a very narrow one that I saw in London; the Victorian cipher in plain or fancy intertwined letters; height variations; additional cipher on the back; manufacturer’s name at back or front; ‘POST BOX’ above or below cipher and see previous photo for variation in positioning of cipher, size of crown and spacing of letters.

The Post office commissioned a new design of pillar box in 1980 and the Type K (see first photo) was the result. It remained in production until 2000. The first post box in England was erected in Carlisle in 1853; a replica is shown in third photo (above).

(Barbara Inger has told me that the oldest working post office in the world is at Sanquhar, Scotland and dates from1712.) In !897, the small anonymous pillar box in The Park Estate was cleared ELEVEN times a day: 5, 9, 10.45am. and 12.45, 2, 3.55, 5.10, 6.40, 7.30, 10.10 and 10.55pm. (From Park News). Letter Box Study Group: http://www.lbsg.org http://edwardbetts.com/postboxes/index.html -Every UK post box (2008)

STAMP WALL PAPER

Brian Button

At which of the local National Trust Properties can you see this wallpaper?

The answer can be found in Clumber Park in the Gentlemen’s Toilet in what was the Head Gardener’s House and is now Barker's Restaurant.

(I wonder whether Bryan had enough time to distinguish all the different plate numbers!-Ed.)

SEAFARERS’ MAIL

Chris Tennant

I have been collecting Shipping Federation material for at least 30 years but knowledge of this new (to me) etiquette had completely passed me by. In 1974 the Universal Postal Union approved the use of a special label to identify seafarers’ mail as had been suggested by the International Labour Organisation.

The UK Post Office agreed to recognise this symbol for marking such mail but was not prepared to create any new category of international service or to give any priority to this mail.

The Post Office also declined to carry stocks of these etiquettes so the printing and distribution was to be undertaken by the British Shipping Federation who planned to supply every seaman with an initial stock of 25 labels each. Inscribed “Courrier des marins / Seafarer’s Mail” (is the apostrophe in the right place ? – it is at times like this that you miss David Banwell !), the etiquettes (37 x 14 mm) were printed black on white in rouletted sheets of 50 (10 rows of 5).

It is believed that the first printing was in Geneva in 1975 and the second in London. Labels are also known with an additional top line in Hindi script. From the scarcity of material, the use of the etiquette seems to have died out fairly quickly and no recent covers have been seen, although a machine printed version of the design is known on a German cover from 1978.

I would be interested to learn of any other relevant material or information. In 1975 the British Shipping Federation merged with the Chamber of Shipping of the United Kingdom to become the General Council of British Shipping.

(Chris, an authority on GB revenues, was consulted by Stamp Magazine regarding a question from one of its readers. Luckily, he was able to give a satisfactory answer, despite the fact the item in question was not, in fact, a tax stamp.-Ed.)

SPACE- THE FINAL FRONTIER

Alan Squires

I have to admit to being OCD, (obsessive/compulsive disorder), but with me it’s not a disorder, more a highly developed fine art! I have to have things done just so. When it comes to stamps and collecting ….. well lets go back to the beginning.

In 2006 I was given a stock book with a few GB stamps in as a birthday present and it all started from there. Stamp fairs and e-bay soon became my favourite hunting grounds. The collection grew from a few stamps to well over 5,000 and counting. My single stock book became a dozen, plus FDC binders. I was running out of space on the bookshelf and my desk seemed to be getting smaller as albums had to be laid down on top of each other.

Then came another, more serious problem. Each purchase I made only had a small number of pages allotted to its country. I stopped collecting South Africa as there was no more space, Canada was full to overflowing and other countries were out of space. To make space for new additions meant moving stamps further along the stock book and into the next stock book and so on. At one point I had to make space for some Cayman Islands purchases. This entailed moving 75% of my collection on to get one set in at the beginning of the alphabet.

I needed a radical solution. Ring binders seemed to be the answer, but the cost was going to be great. I calculated I would need 6 ring binders with 50 pages in each to re-house the collection. I started saving for the great changeover. It was no use buying them one at a time as I wanted to house my stamps in the same order that they appeared in Gibbons catalogue. This would make it easier to locate both the countries and their Gibbons entries

Finally I had the finances and placed my order.It would be easy, I reasoned, to expand any countries by just adding new pages into the binder as and when they were needed. What could be simpler? Nothing could go wrong this way.

The binders arrived and I set about putting the sheets into them. OCD said each one had to have 50 sheets, no more, no less. With Gibbons in front of me I started my task of transferring the collection a country at a time to their new magnificent homes. It took several sessions over a number of days to complete the task. I took to the computer to make a new index so I could find countries in the collection easily. The stock books will be placed in the next auction we have, as I no longer require them. I had a quick look through the stock books to make sure I had not missed any stamps. Nothing but blank pages and then, to my horror, I discovered British Antarctic Territories. Still one extra page could easily be fitted into the first binder. However, this meant there were now 51 sheets in the first binder, but I could just move the last sheet on to the next binder. I knew it would be that easy. The last sheet was 1 of 4 sheets belonging to Cayman Islands. Move one on, or all 4. That would mean only 47 pages in the first binder. A dilemma had struck.

I decided to leave things as they were and try not to worry too much about the uneven number of pages in each binder. After all, there is plenty of spare space in each binder. OCD? Not really, I just can’t sleep at night trying to come up with an answer. And the nervous tic is back again.

SOCIETY MEETING REPORTS

Nazi German Winter Relief Organisation by Rex Dixon, 1 June 2012

Rex Dixon introduced a most fascinating insight into the social aspects of Germany in the 1930s and through the Nazi period. Most collectors of German stamps have some of the semi-postal stamps, which are in SG as ‘charity’ or ‘winter relief’. They were first used in 1924 at 3 times the face postal value, which automatically caused rarity, especially the higher values. As the country was recovering from the hyper-inflation with high unemployment, the charity work was of great significance. The display developed into the work and fund raising of the charity, with rare examples of publicity material, collection receipts, a lottery ticket and even a collection tin. The huge amount of money passing through the organisation had a great impact at the time. The charity work continued during the war and had an influence on the annexed and occupied countries.

The Berlin Olympic Games of 1936 by Tony Bosworth, 6 July 2012

Tony Bosworth gave an exciting and informative account of the Games. With the 2012 Games in everyone’s sight, it was a great opportunity to take a look back to the most remarkable Olympics of all time. The 1936 Games saw a major change in the public acceptance of the importance of the Olympics. With the government of Nazi Germany seeking propaganda and publicity at every opportunity, the Olympics gave them exactly what they were after, and we can see that many of their innovations have continued to this year. The Games had the Torch carried from Greece and lit by a ray from the sun, the Olympic Bell brought to the new stadium with athletes in a parade, some saluting Hitler, at the grand opening. Our Speaker had the memorabilia to display: postcards, special Zeppelin mail… even the canteen menu. But this presentation was delivered by a speaker with an outstanding knowledge of his subject, and a sense of humour, which greatly enhanced our enjoyment.

SOCIETY MEMBERS' NEWS

Congratulations to Adrian Ritoridis for winning the Postal History Class at the Phoenix Trophy Competition in May. He was just one point away from being overall winner. Adrian was also the winner of our Society’s Huston Trophy and his entry will now go forward to the Huston Trophy Competition on September 29, along with entries from Dennis Boot, Doug Stubbings and Brian Clayton.

Congratulations also to the other winners at our competition evening: Dennis Boot (Traditional) and (Postal History) and Doug Stubbings (Thematic)

Congratulations to Chris Tennant who, through the Revenue Society, has co-published with Ed Hitchings a 60-page book entitled ‘Tax Discs of the British Isles’. Comprehensive, informative and illustrated in full colour.

DISCLAIMER Whilst 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 which may occur.

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