(Page 11) Autumn 2009 Newsletter
PENANCE: A TALE OF TWO POSTMARKS
David Shipstone
One of the most famous Arctic expeditions was Fridtjof Nansen’s 1893– 96 attempt to reach the North Pole in the ship Fram. His plan was to set Fram fast in the ice north of Siberia and drift with it across the Arctic Ocean, past the North Pole and onwards to Greenland. Although he did not reach the North Pole he got nearer than anyone else before him.
The front of this postcard shows an artist’s impression of Fram on the ice floe, drifting across the Arctic Ocean. The imprint on the back states: ‘This card will be carried by the ‘Fram’ across the Polar Sea and afterwards conveyed by post to the addressee.’
There are two ‘Polhavet’ (Polar Sea) postmarks, each with the Fram inset. The first, cancelling the stamp, is dated 13.1X.18. The second, 4.VIII.24, was applied almost six years later! This article explains why.
The story begins in 1908 when Raold Amundsen approached Fridtjof Nansen to ask for use of Fram for an Arctic expedition. (Nansen did not own Fram but it was accepted that he had first call on her.) Amundsen’s objectives were to repeat Nansen’s drift but starting from a point further to the east, to try to resolve some unanswered questions about the Arctic Ocean and, of course, to be the first to reach the North Pole. At the time Nansen had a plan (embryonic, admittedly) to use Fram for an assault on the South Pole but agreed to set this aside to make way for Amundsen’s Arctic research. Then, in 1909, came the announcement that Robert Peary had reached the North Pole on 6th April and Amundsen’s main reason for going to the Arctic had disappeared. In the utmost secrecy he decided that he would head for the South Pole instead. It was an historic act of betrayal.
When Amundsen returned from the South Pole in 1912, it was a matter of honour for him to mount the drift expedition across the Arctic Ocean and one means of raising funds for the venture was the sale of souvenir postcards. These were produced in perforated booklets and the card shown here comes from the set. The start of the expedition was delayed by the First World War, however, and by the time that was over Fram was judged no longer seaworthy. A new ship was commissioned and Amundsen named her Maud, after Norway’s queen.
The party left Norway in 1918 and sailed along the north coast of Russia in search of a suitable point at which to enter the polewards current. The first postmark was applied as they prepared for their first high Arctic wintering in a bay on the eastern side of the Taimyr Peninsula. Late in 1919 when the sea ice broke up they were able to move eastwards but heavy ice to the north made it impossible to enter the northern drift. Then, for the winter of 1919-20 they were trapped again, at Aion Island, close by Cape Shelagski.
When Maud reached Bering Strait she was only the second ship ever to complete the North-East Passage, following a route very similar to that of Nordenskjold’s Vega. In the summer of 1920 the party sailed into Nome, Alaska, to re-provision. After just one week there and with some change of personnel Amundsen set off back through Bering Strait in a second attempt to start his planned drift voyage.
Although Maud was successfully embedded in the ice the anticipated drift never materialised. In 1923 Amundsen left the expedition in the hands of Oskar Wisting and in 1924, still close to the New Siberian Islands, Wisting decided to call the venture off. It was at that point that the second Polar Sea postmark was applied. In due course the Maud made port in Seattle. So my postcard was never on board Fram and was not carried across the Arctic Ocean, but around the edge of it. It was, however, carried through the North-East Passage and that is some consolation
UNIVERSAL MAIL – UK
Sandra Poole
Since I wrote my piece on Universal Mail in the last newsletter, I’ve managed to purchase some of their postcard stamps from a London souvenir shop. I was shocked to find, however, that each one cost 90p and there were 5 in a strip (Royal Mail charges 62p for the equivalent). The young sales assistant seemed to agree that it was a rip-off but that was what his boss had told him to charge. No doubt foreign tourists would not realise there was a cheaper alternative, but I don’t think it is doing Universal Mail any favours. I then went into just about every souvenir shop I passed and was offered the stamps at 90p (rapidly reduced to 72p when I protested) and other prices down to 65p. Imagine going to the Post Office or supermarket and having to haggle each time you wanted a first or second class stamp! I e-mailed the company and was told they charge the retailer 62p for each postcard stamp. They also told me how the service worked: ‘we can advise you that we have an access agreement with Royal Mail to utilise their postal network throughout the UK. Royal Mail extracts our mail from their network which is then handed to an international freight forward company to sort and deliver to country destination. The mail is then delivered to its final destination by the Postal Provider of the country it is posted to.’ The first edition stamps are now sold out and new stamps, no longer limited to London scenes, have been introduced. They are shortly to be available for purchase from their website. They are attractive, but my letter did take around three weeks to arrive! Nice postmark, though!
FOR THE TIMES THEY ARE A'CHANGING
Bryan and Minou Button
Some five years ago, we took the “postie bus” from Aberfoyle Post Office with our two grand children and enjoyed it very much. It entailed stopping in all sorts of places, including the house of the then Secretary of State for Scotland, going past the haunts of Rob Roy and some other remote places. Being back in Callander, in the Trossachs, Scotland, in August, we thought we would repeat the experience. Alas, the Aberfoyle postie does not take people around anymore, but the Callander Post Office bus still runs; not for long though as that service will end on 8 November 2009, as it is not a part of the core business of the Post Office .
We spent five hours on the bus, delivering mail to postal district FK17, with a delightfully knowledgeable postman for the princely sum of £2.35, made some 60 stops and went on small roads and tracks where we would not dream to drive and others where access is not allowed to the public. We saw the Glen Finglas dam, the old Manse, the Headmaster’s house, the bicycle tree (that is another story!), and the Mongol Yurt in Brig o’Turk. We also saw assorted buildings where the Post Office was, see below, and is now.
We know where from “Bookfinders” works, who owns what, who lives where and who used to live there. We found out where the water is found for Callander, Brig o’Turk and Glasgow and to our huge delight, after a very quick cup of coffee, we rode part way around Loch Katrine, which can only normally be accessed, on foot.
We met umpteen dogs, cats, assorted chickens, and even a frog and found out about the joys and horrors left by the right to roam and camp anywhere in Scotland. It was a great day for us and we feel we know so much more about the lives of people and the Post Services around Callander. Sad that soon this will no longer be available. The last post bus in the Midlands runs from Lutterworth to Peatling Parva. For other remaining routes go to www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/postbus.
THE FIRST NON- DENOMINATED NZ STAMPS
Sandra Poole
Peter Goodwin has very kindly sent me a promotional leaflet and booklet of the ten new non-denominated stamps- known as KiwiStamps- that were issued in New Zealand on 7 September. They will always be worth the required postage (currently 50c) of a Standard Post medium letter sent within New Zealand. 2, 3 or 4 stamps are needed for large, extra large and oversize letters. Add one stamp to each size for the Fastpost service. Stamps cannot be purchased singly, but are available in booklets of 10, sheets of 50 or coils of 100. The designs ‘make a cheeky statement about our sense of identity and show what this country has come to stand for over the past 170 years’.
THE OLDEST POST OFFICE IN THE WORLD
Bryan and Minou Button
Coming back from our holiday in Scotland, we passed through Dumfries and Galloway and the Lead Mining Museum, miner’s cottages in Wanlockhead and the second oldest subscription library, around 1756. While we were at the Library, the guide told us about the oldest working Post Office in the World, 1712, in Sanquhar, (pronounced SANK-er) some nine miles away. The car journey was superb, hills rising on either side of the road were covered with heather just coming into bloom, and so we went, duly taking some photographs. Unfortunately, as it was Saturday afternoon, the Post Office was closed.
The town of Sanquhar in Dumfriesshire is an old Scottish town, which dates back to the 8th century. It is a very quiet little town but with a lot of history, and it owns the oldest post office in the world. Why here? It just happened that way, owing its existence to history and to its strategic location.
The Post Office in Sanquhar has been working for eight years longer than the office in Stockholm, Sweden, and started 60 years before Santiago, Chile. It was thought to date from 1763, but research carried out by postal historian James Mackay revealed it has been operating since 1712 , making it the oldest in the world.
Apparently, after the Crowns of England and Scotland were united, in 1712, a service known as the Nithsdale cross-post was established with mail-runners on horseback delivering messages among the landed gentry on both sides of the Scottish-English border. "It was the earliest form of post and it was confined to the aristocracy” and was nothing like we imagine a post office today. Nor was it the first of its kind but it is the oldest one to have survived.
Royal Mail recognises Sanquihar post office’s historical importance and it is the only post office in Britain to use this special cancellation on letters and cards.
(Based on our own notes and on www.heritage.scotsman.com/stamps.)
PILLARBOXING ON DARTMOOR
Barbara Inger
A favourite past- time of Edwardians was pillarboxing and this hobby has recently come back into favour. Pillarboxing is when you write a card to yourself, stamp it, then leave it in a designated spot for the next person to come along. They will frank it with the cancel supplied at this place and then take the card and post it in the nearest Royal Mail box. It's a form of orienteering.
Dartmoor is a favourite for this enterprise, and Cranmere Pool is the cancel everyone wants. Cranmere pool is famous for being the first place on Dartmoor to have a letterbox. It was erected by James Perrot in 1854. The original box was of stone but it has been replaced with an iron box with a plaque of the Dartmoor National Park in front of it.
Around Dartmoor, pubs and camp sites will cancel your cards, but I don't know about the prison. Perhaps you have to stay there to get your card cancelled.
MISCELLANY
CITY CYCLE COURIERS: Sandra Poole
I don’t know whether anyone else has read about this one man operated postal service, which is run by Ken Holder, a former Fire Service employee. He set up the business in March, having obtained the necessary £50 licence from Postcomm and delivers between 200 and 300 letters a day. He is the only full-time employee and has to collect, sort and deliver every letter himself. He provides the service for around 15 local businesses (estate agents, solicitors etc) and charges 32p for next day delivery. I reckon that comes to about £80 a day- not an awful lot, I’d say, considering he has had to replace several sets of brake pads, wheels and tyres etc. However, having cycled 10,000 miles, he must be a very fit man!
STAMPS,STAMPS AND MORE STAMPS! So you think you’ ve got problems with where to put all your stamps. There have been several philately related articles in the press lately, one of which reported on a stamp collector who recently died, leaving 40 packing crates-worth of stamps for his family to dispose of. He had been sent sackfuls of discarded envelopes from around the world and had collected more than 2,000,000 stamps (did anyone actually count them?!), all of which he had filed away or sorted thematically into albums. The auctioneer responsible for selling the collection estimated there were about 1,000,000 stamps from GB, 500,000 from Ireland, 400,000 from other countries and 50,000 with a Christmas theme. They will be sold at a series of auctions, the first taking place at Elliott’s of Wimborne, Dorset on 28 November.
NOTTS CONNECTION TO THE FIREFIGHTERS STAMPS ISSUE. Apparently, three of the stamps paying tribute to our fire and rescue services were inspired by the work done by Notts firefighters when faced with different emergency situations: chemical fire (54p) after dealing with such a fire at a scrap metal yard in Harrimans Lane, Dunkirk; emergency rescue from road accidents (56p)- Notts Fire service was asked to produce national guidelines for dealing with road accidents; and flood rescue (62p) after the Notts service was the coordinating force in Worcestershire at the time of the floods.
OLDEST POST BOX
A Welsh newspaper took the opportunity, at the time of Royal Mail’s ‘letter boxes’ issue, to advertise the oldest post box in Wales. This is to be found at the Haverford West Town Museum, where it stands in the entrance porch. Dating from 1857, the green letter-box was found rusting away in someone’s garden. It was then sent to Royal Mail, who restored it to its former glory. There are around 114,000 post boxes in the UK, 9,000 of which are situated in Wales. The earliest known surviving posting slot, dating from 1809, may be found in the wall of Wakefield Post Office.
ANOTHER WORLD RECORD FOR AUSTRIA
Last year, OeSD (the Austrian State Printers) and Austria Post produced the world’s fastest postage stamp in 1hour 25 minutes. Earlier this year, OeSD produced the first stamps (miniature sheet) printed on gold foil.
BHUTAN
At the recent Cinderella Stamp auction, I saw Bhutan’s DVD stamps. They didn’t look much like stamps to me and how on earth would you attach them to letters. Definitely, another gimmick too far.
THE NOTTINGHAM POST SHOP: Since I last wrote on this subject, I visited the Post Office to post a letter with a new stamp (it was the first day of issue). The Post Shop had gone by then, but there was a temporary philatelic counter; unfortunately they were not accepting letters for posting, so I had to queue for 20 minutes at a general counter. The assistant then told me she could not sell me a single stamp, only a set. I replied that in that case they must be labels, not postage stamps and I would like to see the manager. She went off and returned minus manager but with the requested single stamp!! Since then, there have been major changes at the Post Office: the area where the Post Shop had been now resembles the inside of a building society. The Post Shop is at the opposite end, although you’d never guess- no presentation packs or anything to advertise new issues, although I was assured there would be soon. The counters are now open. When you enter the PO, you take a ticket from a machine and await your number in a comfy armchair. There are new ‘Post and Go’ machines if you want to buy stamps and post mail. without queuing at a counter. It must be an improvement.
HUSTON COMPETITION:
This year’s competition was held on 25 September in Leicester. It was attended by thirty-four people and there were seven entries, including the one by Doug Stubbings entitled ‘First Atlantic Airmail by Zeppelin Airships’. Eddie Bridges of Kettering judged the entries and awarded them all a silver medal plus. Richard Fleming was presented with the Huston Trophy and Garth Taylor was the winner of the Bojanowicz Cup. Doug Stubbings came fourth. During the judging of the competition entries, Alan Moorcroft, President of the Royal Philatelic Society gave a display entitled “Great Britain King George V Profile Head Issue 1912-1924”. There were 96 sheets, 60 for GB issues and 36 for Commonwealth issues. He was a lively and entertaining speaker and his display demonstrated a thorough understanding, based on research over twenty years. The GB issues covered three types of head: Dolphin, Metal I and II and four different frames. The display also included examples of different shades of colour. He described all the stages of the production of the stamp from drawing to printing. There was much controversy, both technical and political, before the stamps were issued. It seems that the Printer De La Rue was responsible for every stage of the production of the first stamp, but their fees were exorbitant and their attitude abusive. When this was realised. the Post Office withdrew their contract. From then on, the Post Office took charge of every separate stage of stamp production. Interestingly, George V was as “acquisitional” as his wife Queen Mary; he seems to have kept what was sent to him for approval. Alan Moorcroft drew our attention to the high quality of the GB issues (in his opinion) compared to those issued by the colonies, with the exception of India and New Zealand. After the individual colonies had the approval of the King’s head they were using, they were responsible for every other aspect of the stamp production. (B.L.B.)
BELGIAN STUDY CIRCLE'S ANNUAL CONFERENCE: Bryan & Minou Button
This took place at the Stafford Hotel in Stafford upon Avon, on 5th and 6th September 2009. Twenty-eight people attended, seventeen of whom were members, and the others were members’ wives. The programme included an auction of 347 lots, a Competition for the Barker-Johnson Cup and ten displays. The displays covered many facets of philately and were entitled: Adhesive Revenue Stamps, Modern Belgium, Three different aspects of “Medallion” cancellations, 20th century Railway Freight Stamps, Airmails 1945-1960, Departments Conquis 1794-1814, Telegrams 1959, Postcards with New Year wishes 1919- 1954, a WWII postcard and Germania overprints. Displays varied between about 20 to 80 sheets. They were interspersed with breaks for drinks and meals. The atmosphere throughout the conference was friendly and convivial and the quality of the accommodation and food at the hotel was first class. We came away with ten covers, dating from 1759 to 1948, and three books. For more information about the Study Circle go to www.belgiumstamps.org.uk.
MEETING REVIEWS:
7 August 2009 Derrick Avery: The display started with a dissertation on colours, especially those used in the production of postage stamps, formed by the late Bill Tuck.The first half of the display concluded with a selection of pages from Bill’s general collection of which 2 volumes were given to me by Mrs Tuck. The second half of the evening’s display comprised the speaker's collection of Nottingham postcards and other items of local interest.
September: Mick Inger gave a display entitled ‘One Man Members’ Evening'. In this he covered an eclectic range of subjects, including Royal Households in Scandinavia, German Miniature sheets, the Zeppelin Story, USA local and carrier stamps, modern US definitives with varieties and US Space Exploration.
KIDS GROUP:
Gordon Low reported at the meeting on 2 October 2009 that he and Steve Speak had been making regular visits to help home-educated children with their stamp collecting. It had been fairly successful, but attendance had been low at the last couple of meetings. There had been a lot of changes in their district and some of the children now wanted to go to normal schools. So, for the time being, the group is being disbanded. The remainder of the money that had been raised for them at the last auction will now be donated to Society funds. Steve was also going to see if other schools could make use of unused material.
DISCLAIMER: While every care is taken during the production of this newsletter, neither the editor nor the Society Officers can accept any liability for view, opinions, or unintentional publication errors which may occur.