Embedded Files
Autumn 2016 Newsetter
MACCLESFIELD AND THE RAILWAY LETTER POST.
VIC HOLLAND
(Autumn 2016 Newsletter)
By way of a preface, I should explain that the original version of this article was published earlier this year in the Newsletter* of the Macclesfield Model Railway Group, of which I am a member. Macclesfield is my home-town, and my interest in railways has been lifelong. The article was written as a result of my pursuit of this hobby alongside philately (*Reproduced here by kind permission of its editor- Ed)
Two important developments helped to revolutionise written communications in the UK in the nineteenth century. The first was the introduction of the Uniform Penny Post in 1840. Hitherto, conveyance of mail was slow. The price was high and distance-related. As an example, I have in my collection a letter dated 1804, which cost 4d to send from Macclesfield to Altrincham. The charge for a similar letter to London would have been 8d.,a considerable sum in those days. The advent of the new system in 1840 enabled a letter weighing less than ½ ounce (14 grammes) to be sent anywhere in the UK for 1d.
The second development was the coming of the railway. Within a few years, fast long-distance travel became possible in a way that the mail coach could never match. Not only did the Post Office switch to this system to speed the mail, but the railways themselves began to offer their own parcel carriage services, using labels of various types.
An urgent item could then be handed in at another station on that operator’s network on the next available train. This was very useful if, for example, the sender had just missed the last daily collection offered by the post office.
One problem in the early days lay in defining a ‘letter’, over which the post office had exclusive conveyance rights. Ingenious ways were used to circumvent this monopoly, such as tying letters up with string, thereby converting them to ‘parcels’. The matter was ultimately resolved in 1890, when a General Order was announced, which allowed the railway companies to operate a letter conveyance service, for which a surcharge (initially of 2d) over normal postage was payable. A letter not exceeding one ounce in weight, bearing appropriate postage stamps and a new railway surcharge label, could, on handing in at a station, be carried by train to the nearest station to the addressee, for either collection or onward postage.
A standard design for the label was drawn up, and each individual railway company (of which there were over 70) printed its own version bearing its name. The system began operation in February 1891.
In Macclesfield at that time, three different railway companies were operating. The LNWR ran services towards Stockport from Hibel Road station, the Macclesfield Committee ran trains along the Macclesfield, Bollington and Marple line from Central station, and the North Staffordshire Railway operated trains towards the Potteries from both. Examples of the labels used by these operators are shown below.
Unused labels can still be found in specialist dealers’ stocks, although used examples with a specified postmark are scarcer. Complete used covers (envelopes) bearing these labels together with normal postage stamps are expensive and very difficult to find nowadays.
In Macclesfield, administration of the old MB&M line was transferred in 1907 to a new body, known as the Great Central and North Staffordshire Railway Committee, necessitating the production of new 2d labels bearing that name. Inflation also reared its head, and charges were increased in 1920 to 3d, and then to 4d later in the year. This was managed in each case firstly by manual surcharging or overprinting of residual stock with the new value, and then by printing new labels. An example of a 4d overprint on a 3d label is shown below.
The railway grouping in 1923 brought new LMS and LNER 4d ‘green’ labels. However, their use was beginning to decline by this time, and parcel stamps, exemplified here, were used instead. I have been unable so far to find either an LMS or an LNER ‘green’ label used in Macclesfield.
For anyone wishing to learn more about this subject, a publication entitled 'The Railway Letter Stamps of Great Britain and Ireland 1891-1947', by Roger de Lacy-Spencer (Moorside Publishing Ltd., 2000) is strongly recommended.
USED JAMAICA SPECIMEN OVERPRINTS.
IAN JAKES
(Autumn 2016 Newsletter)
A few weeks ago, a member of Nottinghamshire Philatelic Society who wishes to remain anonymous sent lots of information to me about Specimens and revenue use of Jamaica postage stamps, some of the images and information being new to me. I wish to take this opportunity to thank our member for taking the time and trouble to write to me. Our member asked a question of his (or her) own: why are some Jamaica postage stamps bearing genuine postal cancellation overprinted SPECIMEN? The following scans of used Jamaica stamps are all overprinted with the Samuel J5 SPECIMEN hand stamp. The first two have pine watermarks and the set of five have CC watermarks.
The 1976 edition of "Specimen Stamps of the Crown Colonies 1857-1948" by Marcus Samuel states on page 136…’a purple hand stamp, type J5… was used in about 1922 on sets of the current issue… and almost certainly prepared for presentation.’
Everard Aguilar states on page 51 of "The Philatelic Handbook of Jamaica, Volume One" published in 1960 that he had only seen the J5 SPECIMEN overprinted on twelve stamps issued in 1921 and 1922. Aguilar then goes on to describe twelve stamps all bearing different values, some bearing the M.C.A. watermark and some the script C.A. one, some being key plate issues and others being pictorial issues. This must be the presentation set described by Samuel. No member in British West Indies Study Circle has ever seen this presentation set so far as I am aware. Everard Aguilar, having been born in 1913, was only a child in 1922. He was, however, a member of a Very Important Family. The VIP who received this presentation set could have been a member of his wider family. Further philatelic information about the Samuel J5 overprint appears on page 14 of the 1984 supplement to the Samuel book. In this article, James Bendon reported the abnormal use of the J5 hand stamp on items in a collection of postal and postal fiscal stamps of Jamaica, dating from 1860 to 1937, which was almost certainly formed by an official of the Jamaica Post Office. Mr. Bendon produced a list of all the stamps in this collection, all overprinted with either a UPU or a Samuel J5 SPECIMEN overprint. All Jamaican stamps covering the period were in the collection, but only in simplified form, watermarks and shade differences being ignored.
The late Bob Swarbrick wrote a letter in 1988 to clarify the position. Swarbrick stated that in the 1920s, Jamaica Philatelic Society had the idea to build up a reference collection of all Jamaica stamps. Specimens of the early stamps were donated by the membership (hence damaged and used specimens), which were all overprinted using the Samuel J5 SPECIMEN hand stamp. Swarbrick continued by saying that he had quite a few J5 SPECIMEN stamps, but that they remain ‘unloved and unwanted.’ This statement could be explained by C.C. Gunter, (Jamaica Philatelist 1938: 27), where he speaks of "Colonial Governors have been known to distribute stamps… to local individuals who have assisted in the selection of stamp subjects or been otherwise interested…in each such case the stamps are overprinted ‘Specimen’…in purple ink".
A PHILATELIC MINI SHEET
DOUGLAS HARVEY
(Autumn 2016 Newsletter)
In 2006, a joint issue from Canada and the United States commemorated the voyage in 1606 of Samuel de Champlain, which played a key role in the French exploration of North America. The issue was primarily to publicise the Washington 2006 World Philatelic Exhibition.
The mini sheet was issued jointly by Canada and the United States. However, unlike most joint issues, this sheet has stamps of two countries and two currencies. The 39c USA stamp was valid for minimum letter post as was the 51c Canada stamp, but the sheet cannot be used in its entirety in either country. So it is only of interest to philatelists. In the USA it sold for $1.67, with only 78c of valid postage.
The two sheets were intended to be identical, but they can be distinguished. The Canadian sheet has a bar code printed in the lower left corner, which is not present on the USA sheet.
I would be interested to know if any readers can identify any other mini sheets which have validity split between two countries.
TOURIST POSTS PART 3
SANDRA POOLE
(Autumn 2016 Newsletter)
Shown below is another, Spanish Tourist label, affixed to a postcard and posted in a green, ‘Post by Me’ wall box, outside the shop from which it was purchased. I don’t know how much the ‘stamp’ cost, but I suspect it was 1.50 euros, which seems to be the going rate for tourist ‘stamps’ in Spain. Unless you especially want to use these stamps, I suggest you buy your stamps from a Post Office, where you will save quite a bit of money (about 35 cents). A lot of people don’t realise these tourist stamps are not the standard ones or that they cost more money.
Whilst in Spain, I discovered yet another tourist post, ‘City Post’-more about that and ‘Post By Me’ in the Winter Newsletter.
WHEN IS A COLLECTION COMPLETE?
ALAN SQUIRES
(Autumn 2016 Newsletter)
The answer to the above question would be easy to answer if you’re collecting stamps from a country which no longer exists, like the British Occupation of Italian Colonies. But with countries issuing stamps every year, it becomes more difficult and when the collection is postal history we may have to narrow down our parameters.
So when is a collection finished? A friend tells me he has finished collecting Concorde for two reasons. First, the aircraft is now only a museum piece, (how sad), and secondly, his display has now reached the magic 200 items. He gives displays to other philatelists and no longer bothers looking for extra items. His collecting theme has now changed.
I am also in a position where I have enough items from the areas that I collect to mount displays if asked. So I stopped looking for new items. Or so I thought. At a recent stamp fair, I approached a dealer I have bought from many times in the past. He quickly said ‘British Antarctic postcards?’ to which I was about to say ‘no’, when he handed me some items.
They were nice and would have added to my display collection and I have to admit my resolve to build up my Ascension collection to be a separate display weakened straight away.
I purchased two of the British Antarctic postcards.
Looks like Ascension will have to wait a little while longer. And I really thought my British Antarctic display was complete.
MISCELLANY
(Autumn 2016 Newsletter)
The World’s First Cinderella Stamp Congress- Report by S. Poole
The Congress, 16-18 September at the RPSL, was a resounding success with around 300 attendances over 3 days and 14 countries represented. It was organised and hosted by the Cinderella Stamp Club with help from the Samler Foreningen Baltespannarna, the Swedish Cinderella Stamp Club, which was celebrating its 50th Anniversary. To coincide with the congress, Stampex had 72 frames of Cinderella material from the collections of CSC members.
The congress held a welcome reception from 5:00 to 8:00 pm on the first evening, with wine and a buffet generously sponsored by Grosvenor Auctions. There were also 50 frames of members’ cinderellas to view. The evening was a great opportunity for attendees to chat and get to know each other and I was delighted to meet, at last, the Editor of the CSC journal, as I do the proofreading before it goes to press. He is from the USA.
Saturday morning was devoted to revenue collecting, the afternoon to Scandinavia cinderellas, with both invited and attendee displays These were followed by an auction and later still by the Congress dinner at a local restaurant- 3 courses, a welcome drink, wine and coffee; all for £25 and it was very good.
On Sunday morning, we had invited displays from Chris Harman (Chairman) and Charles Kiddle, poster stamp expert and poster stamp catalogue compiler. In the afternoon, we saw 7 members from several countries sign the Maurice Williams’ Roll of Notable Philatelists- a great honour, and this was followed by more displays until the close of Congress at 5:00 pm. Dealer, member and Society tables were available over the weekend for the sale of revenues and cinderellas. Lundy Post office also operated over the period, selling stamps, covers and postcards; a special Lundy/ congress/cachet was also available. Coffee and tea were served in the morning and in afternoon. People were free to do what they wished at lunchtime and a group of us went to a local pub, where good food was served. It was also a good opportunity to socialise.
Quality souvenirs, some provided by Sf. Baltespannarna, were given to congress visitors at every session and also at the Congress Dinner. I received nine. But what I shall remember most of all was the general buzz and camaraderie. The organisers did a great job.
Souvenir mini-sheet produced by Sf. Baltespannarna. The stamps are obviously copied from the genuine red proof of the Holte Land Post shown alongside. The ‘HOLTE’, however, has been replaced by ‘HERLEV’, a town not far from Copenhagen.
Souvenir postcard from the Congress Dinner
The Soft Side of Royal Mail.
For twenty-five years, the same postman, age 48, had delivered letters to the residents of a small Devon village. He didn’t hurry, as he liked instead to stop and chat to those he met whilst on his round. But this summer, Royal Mail decided he wasn’t doing the job fast enough and were ready to replace him with a faster model. But the villagers were not having that and organised a successful petition to save his job. Royal Mail bowed to public opinion, reconsidered their decision and agreed that the postman could stay on his original round.
Largest Jigsaw.
In the Spring 2013 Newsletter, I reported that a lady in Bristol had completed a 27,000 piece jigsaw in a world record time of 17 months. She was about to embark on one of 32,000 pieces. I have just learned that another enthusiast, with 200 helpers, recently completed in two weeks one with 33,600 pieces- the largest commercially available jigsaw puzzle - only to discover 4 pieces missing! It measures 1.57m x 6.5m and weighs 17kg. (S.P.)
Illegal Stamps.
In the last newsletter, I wrote about the illegal re-use of stamps. Later, I found the following horizon label. In the bottom right hand corner you will see ‘single use only’ in postmark form. I wonder whether this was prompted by people actually re-using the labels or whether Royal Mail just thought they might ! (S.P.)
Customs Import Duties – Alan Squires.
My wife received this card from Royal Mail with our post.
REASON: THERE IS A CUSTOMS CHARGE, AMOUNT DUE: £11.34 PLUS: £8.00 ROYAL MAIL HANDLING CHARGE
The item in question was a hand made guitar plectrum for our son-in-law. Total cost was US $15.00. At the time this would have been about £10. I have no problem with the customs charge, but the handling charge does concern me. Simply putting a small package on a shelf and delivering a postcard and the few seconds of administration time for £8, I’m not sure whether to be impressed at how little it costs or to be indignant at how much it costs? We should have sent the present on to him, but he lives in Canada and would probably have to pay more customs charges to collect it. Luckily, we are going out for a visit in a couple of weeks time, so we will take it with us.
Snail Post.
On leaving our golden wedding party on 30 July, our son told us to expect a parcel in around 6-8 weeks time. At the beginning of October, not long after we returned from our holiday, I received a call from my sister-in-law, asking whether we had received the mystery present and what was it. I had forgotten all about it and said I’d ring our son later. I continued gardening and was just packing up, when I spotted a packet, barely visible, hidden amongst some tall wallflower plants. It had obviously just been thrown over the wall and left to be found some day in the future. No card was left and we were away anyway. Perhaps the driver couldn’t open the outer door, that some passer-by had closed; but others had managed. I extracted the packet- it was sodden in parts and was covered with a lot of happy looking snails (they are not too particular about their diet) and the outer wrapping was full of holes where they had dined. Photos were taken and I eventually managed to access the contents. Surprisingly, these were completely undamaged, mainly because they were extremely well packaged. But to leave a parcel out in the open, exposed to the elements, really does beggar belief. It was lucky we hadn’t gone off on a world cruise! The parcel was ‘delivered’ by a private carrier; thank goodness we still have Royal Mail! (S.P.)
Aren’t Postmen Wonderful?
Andrew Pearson sent me a news item that he thought would be fun for the newsletter. A visitor to Iceland had enjoyed a stay with a family at their farm near Budardalur and on his return home, he decided to send a ‘thank you’ letter to his hosts. Unfortunately, he could not remember the address or the family’s name, so he wrote the town and country names and drew a rough map on the envelope and added some helpful notes, eg. ‘a horse farm, with an Icelandic/Danish couple and 3 kids and a lot of sheep’ The letter was delivered!
Andrew also pointed me in the direction of ‘Reddit’, where the envelope could be viewed and people had posted their comments. My favourite was: ‘I used to work at an ISP and I asked a customer to send us some info to our support address support@ispname.com.au .They wrote the info out on paper, put it in an envelope, wrote the email address on it and posted it. It arrived!’ (S.P.)
MEETING DISPLAY REPORTS
"Birds and Nottinghamshire Postal History": Alan Marshall, 21 October 2016
The evening opened with a thematic display with a difference. Alan had confined the display to stamps depicting birds which were printed in a single colour or which illustrated printers' errors. Of particular interest was a detailed study of the 1966 GB issue of British Birds (SG 696-9). The 'Concise' catalogue reports 14 error varieties and most were on display. Also from the 1897-8 Imperial Chinese 'Bean Goose' issue were genuine stamps and forgeries. The remainder of the display consisted of items from many countries.
In part 2, a selection of correspondence which passed through the postal system in Nottinghamshire was displayed. The earliest letter was dated 1664 when the spelling of 'Nottingham' had not been finally established. An unusual item was a Mulready envelope bearing a penny stamp. Many of the items had the complete letters included, and some additional post office cachets were shown. The markings applied at the Bingham office were also the subject of a detailed analysis. Douglas Harvey thanked the speaker for a splendid display and mentioned his enthusiasm for the local post office service. (D.H.)
"British West Indies", 23 September 2016
Ian Jakes arranged the evening and invited two guest speakers, George Dunbar and Peter Fernbank. Ian Jakes opened with an impressive display of overprinted postal and fiscal stamps from the West Indies. The quality of overprinting was variable, as some stamps had been overprinted locally, and Ian has identified examples which are not yet in the SG catalogue. George Dunbar then displayed a selection of Jamaican stamps. Of particular interest were the fiscals issued after the death of Queen Victoria, but still supporting her image, and definitive and pictorial stamps of King George V, where the dies which produced the stamps had suffered progressive wear, resulting in flawed stamps.
In part 2, Peter Fernbank discussed the development of air mail from Bahamas, inaugurated in 1929, with many first flight covers. Several of these had been produced by a philatelist, Dr Walter Hess. Finally, Ian Jakes returned with a fine selection of Red Cross labels and covers from the islands. Details of the Trinidad Red Cross Post have appeared in the Society's newsletter (Winter 2015) and the covers were on display. Chris Tennant gave a vote of thanks to the three speakers. (D.H.)
Visit to Alfreton Philatelic Society, 16 September 2016
Although only three speakers and two supporters represented the Society, the evening was a success, and nine members of APS. were present. Chris Tennant gave three short displays. Commencing with 'Newspaper Tax', he showed how expensive newspapers were in the 18th and 19th centuries, and how the rail companies also charged for their distribution. Allen Wood showed an interesting collection of miscellaneous items of world postal history, and explained his interest in the revenue stamps of the British occupation of Italian Colonies.
In part 2, Chris Tennant showed items of the Railway Green Arrow registered parcels service and a small collection of exercise duty stamps which were used when entertainments were taxed. Douglas Harvey showed a collection of Canadian stamps, all from the 21st Century. During the interval, refreshments were provided and Ron Stammers cut a special cake to mark his 30th anniversary as the Alfreton PS. President. (D.H.)
"Germany": Philip Fearnley, 2 September 2016.
Philip explained that before 1871, Germany was a collection of pricipalities and kingdoms. On 10 December 1870, the North German Confederation was renamed the German Empire and confirmed the King of Prussia, Wilhelm 1, as German Emperor. In total, the German Empire consisted of 27 separate states of the North and South German federations The new constitution was adopted by the German Reichstag on 14 April 1871, but although nominally a federal empire, it was dominated by the largest and most powerful state, Prussia.
The German Empire (Deutsches Reich) lasted until its defeat at the end of WW1 in 1918, when it became a federal republic (Weimar).
The first part of the display was devoted to this period and contained a wealth of picture postcards (royalty, charity, propaganda etc), as well as some covers, postal stationery and stamps.
Stamps dominated the second half of the presentation, which concentrated on the Weimar Republic (still known as the Deutsches Reich), although covers and some postcards were also included.
Alan Squires gave a vote of thanks for a really good display and in-depth study of a very complicated history. (S.P.)
SOCIETY AND OTHER NEWS
Thanks to Allen Wood, who has agreed to be President next year, and to Douglas Harvey, who has volunteered to be the programme secretary. It is up to all of us now to lighten the load by offering to do a display or to pass on the name of a willing visiting speaker.
Members displaying to other Societies-
Sandra Poole presented a one frame display entitled ‘Magasin du Nord’ at the RPSL to the World Cinderella Stamp Congress on 17 September.
Brian Clayton gave a display entitled ‘Commonwealth Antarctica’ at Sheffield on 13 October and is set to do a half display on the same subject with other members of the Polar Postal History Society GB to the North Hertfordshire Societies at Stevenage on 29 October as part of their Philatelic Day.
Forthcoming Displays at our Society:
18 Nov 'RAF Mail', Mick Britton
2 Dec 'Europe Postal Communication', Mick Inger
16 Dec Christmas Social and Egg Cup Competition
6 Jan New Acquisitions, Members
20 Jan 'Revenues', Chris Tennant
3 Feb Postcards, Members
Displays at the Greater Nottingham Co-Operative PS
9 Nov 'Machins', Steve Edwards
14 Dec Christmas Quiz and Fuddle Members
Displays at Loughborough PS
10 Nov 'American Canadian Duck Stamps', Peter Marshall
24 Nov An Evening with Miles Newey
8 Dec Christmas Social
12 Jan 'Bridges', David Gabe
26 Jan 'Czech Airmails 1922-1939', Garth Taylor
Display at Radcliffe-on-Trent PS
10 Nov 'The Falklands', Alan Squires
Society Auction- this will be held on Saturday 4 March at Ruddington. Alan Squires is desperate for your auction lists, as he has a mere 12 lots so far.
Stamp Fair at the Nuthall Temple Centre- Nottingham Rd. NG16 1DP. Wednesday 7 December. Easily accessible by bus; parking for cars.
DISCLAIMER: While every care is taken during the production of the reports, neither the editor or Society Officers can accept any liability for views or unintentional publication errors that may occur.
Google Sites
Report abuse