Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2021 i Stamp Collector

The results of the 2021 Europa Stamp Competition, to find the most beautiful stamp issued on this year’s theme of ‘National Endangered Wildlife’ have been revealed by PostEurop, with Poczta Polska being awarded the gold medal. Poland’s winning stamp featured the Lynx, while Aland Post’s stamp, showing two moor frogs, came second. Ukrposhta’s stamp, featuring the Carpathian mountain forests and how that affects its wildlife, was awarded the bronze medal. Agnieszka Trząskowska, Chair of the PostEurop Stamps and Philately working group from Poczta Polska S.A. said: ‘This year’s competition dedicated to “Endangered national wildlife” was very exciting as new rules were implemented. With a great support from PostEurop, our Members actively engaged in 2021 EUROPA stamp communication campaign, which contributed to growing awareness of animals threatened to go extinct in…

The British Library Philatelic Collections has recently received the collection formed by John Holman (1950-2017). The collection has been donated by his brother Richard Holman, so that it may be appreciated by a wider audience and available for research. John will be well-known to many collectors as he joined Stanley Gibbons in 1980 as assistant Catalogue Editor to Jim Negus. After he left Stanley Gibbons he took up a post at Royal Mail as editor of the British Philatelic Bulletin from 1988 until 2010, and as editor of the Postmark Bulletin. John’s collecting started at the age of seven in 1957, and he began writing about philately in 1977. He was a member of a number of philatelic organisations including the Royal Philatelic Society London (of which he was a…

Jersey Post has issued a set of eight stamps on to commemorate Bergerac, the popular BBC crime drama set in Jersey during the 1980s. The stamps are also available as part of a Stamps Prestige Booklet incorporating two sets of stamps and additional information about the series. Chris Elligott, Philatelic Design & Production Manager said: ‘Bergerac is a classic TV series that brought the Island of Jersey to the attention of the rest of the world, enjoyed today for its nostalgic glimpse of the 1980s. The stamps show a selection of scenes and characters from various episodes, each featuring sections of the Island’s coastline in a style reminiscent of a TV show opening title sequence. For many, Detective Jim Bergerac and the plots of villains, shifty business and glamorous love-interest…

WORLD FAMOUS BRITISH GUIANA COVER The world famous ‘Burrus’ cover, as featured in the January 2021 issue of Stamp Collector, was one of many rare British Guiana items offered at David Feldman recently, as the ‘Imperium’ Collection was sold. Described as ‘one of the world’s greatest and outstanding philatelic icons and one of the most famous of British Empire errors,’ the 1850 entire features a 12 cents black on pale, showing the famous setting error ‘1’ of ‘12’ omitted, with initials of the postal clerk Wight ‘EDW’. Sent from the Vicar at Leguan to ‘The Right Reverend, The Lord Bishop of Guiana’, the stamps are tied by a ‘DEMERARA/7.MR.1851’ datestamp. The rarity is said to be ‘the only example recorded of this famous variety, which together with the 1865 1c…

Benito Mussolini probably thrust out a fascist salute when someone in his propaganda ministry spotted that Virgil’s 2,000th anniversary would occur in 1930. Projects to pacify Libya, establish an Albanian protectorate, conquer Ethiopia, annex Albania, and, by other feats of arms around Europe and Africa, to recreate the former glories of Rome with himself as Emperor were progressing well. The anniversary would come at the right moment. Adolf Hitler, ally and fellow henchman across Italy’s northern border, had already boasted of establishing Germany’s 1,000-year Reich. Virgil, with renown around the world to rival that of England’s Shakespeare, possessed what Benito saw as an unassailable two millennia lead. Publius Vergilius Maro, born into a middle-ranking family of landowners in a region of northern Italia in 70 BC, had parents who could…

In the late 1970s I went to my brother’s wedding somewhere in Yorkshire and there was an antique shop next door to where we were staying, writes Richard Stenlake. I already had collections of Marvel comics, stamps and old ‘stuff ’ so just had to go in and amongst a box of inexpensive postcards were some showing the neighbouring village to us. That’s what got me started on postcards. Those were the days when if you could find postcards for sale they cost pennies. Even at very low prices, for a long time war memorials were uncollected except by the local history collectors. All that has really changed. Boer War memorials were the price leaders until about ten years ago and since then interest in the First World War has…

NEATLY CANCELLED… FOR ONCE Dear Stamp Collector, We are accustomed to seeing images in your magazine depicting stamps cruelly defaced with felt tips, biros and other objects. I attach a scan of a letter received recently from Fairford, where all the stamps were neatly cancelled with the office’s self-inking datestamp. At some stage during the journey each stamp was then struck with a numerical ‘3865231’. I have no idea what purpose this served or what the numbers mean, but maybe one of your readers can enlighten us. John Scott, via email THEMATICS IS DUMB? ON YER BIKE! Dear Stamp Collector, The guide to bicycles on stamps in your recent number was comprehensive and inspiring. Thematic collecting still, after all these years, has a reputation of being second rate or a…

In the 1850s, a decade after Great Britain introduced Penny Blacks as aids to rapid and inexpensive postal communications, the general public, spurred on by sensation-mongering newspaper reporters, believed with unswerving conviction that anyone who collected used postage labels, as stamps were known at that time, must be up to no good. It was common knowledge, they asserted, that gangs of unscrupulous confidence tricksters had developed scientific methods to remove obliterating marks from used stamps so that they could be fed back into letter delivery systems for a free ride in a postman’s sack. In truth, that very fraud had been perpetrated within a few days of the first postage stamps going on sale in 1840. Hungry, under-fed office boys began experimenting with the basic cleaning fluids kept in Victorian…

Tales of Aladdin, Ali Baba, and Sinbad are popular today as children's stories, Disney films (1) and festive pantomimes (2). However, the story behind the collection from which they come provides rich material for the thematic collector. The 'Arabian Nights', or '1001 Nights' is a collection of tales that Scheherazade tells to the king each night. She leaves each on a cliffhanger so that she is allowed to live to tell the next instalment, until finally-after 1001 nights - the king trusts her enough to lift his threat of execution. The Nights was unknown in the West until Antoine Galland (3) began to publish his translation in 1704. But where did he find the stories he translated? Galland's work coincided with a growing interest in Arabic language and literature, when…

A dead letter office (DLO) is a facility with in a postal system where undeliverable mail is processed. Mail is considered to be undeliverable when the address is invalid so it cannot be delivered to the addressee, and there is no return address so it cannot be returned to the sender. The covers below, show the pre-independent India DLO Post marks. Postal cover, with One Anna, Six pies stamps of King George VI, India Postage, letter starting from Devakottai, with post mark of Devakottai-7AM, 27-JLY-39, received at DLO Rangoon 4-Aug-39, due to lack of proper address, further hand written proper address in red by DLO on the address side of the card, finally delivered on Moulmeinoyun 9.30 AM, 5-Aug-39, the stamps are Indian stamps used in Burma. Postal Card, with…

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Royal Mail recently challenged young people to design a stamp highlighting the amazing work played by key workers and others in keeping the UK connected during these unprecedented times, and the 120 regional finalists, who will each receive £100 in gift vouchers and £100 for their school, have now been revealed. A staggering 606,049 entries were submitted from 7,479 schools, helping Royal Mail to secure the Guinness World Records title for Largest postage stamp design competition. The previous highest number of entries received for a stamp design competition was 239,374, achieved for Royal Mail’s Christmas Stamp Design Competition held in 2013. Eight designs will be chosen as part of a special set of stamps due to be released next year. The set will mark only the sixth time in Royal…

Guernsey Post will issue two sets of Christmas stamps this year, reflecting the story of the nativity, also known as the Christmas story, which recounts the birth of Jesus. For the Guernsey set, the philatelic bureau commissioned local artist Frances Lemmon to create a modern interpretation of the nativity story, as described in the Biblical gospels of Matthew and Luke. Lemmon’s bold and contemporary images depict some well-known scenes, including Mary giving birth to Jesus in a stable, surrounded by animals, and the Wise Men – or Magi – following a star in the night sky which leads them to Jesus’s birthplace. For the Alderney set, Guernsey artist Joe Smith has produced some vibrant stained-glass window designs and depicted recognisable Biblical passages associated with the nativity story, which appear in…

In 2015, a new design of kiosk – M series, supplied by Intelligent AR – appeared in Royal Mail delivery offices in Crewe and Bradford North on 9th February. Both dispensed 1st class and 2nd class Machins, with an overprint of the office location. However. The ‘Crewe’ and ‘Bradford N’ inscriptions were removed before the end of March 2015, at the same time as the tariff change, a life of some six weeks, the only identifier now being in the data-string M002 and M003. These were quickly followed with kiosks at Kingston-upon-Thames, Croydon, and Doncaster in April 2015, followed by Norwich in 2016 and in 2017, the kiosk from Croydon was installed at the QEII Windsor Delivery Office. In addition to the facility of having two reels / printers, the…

This month our postmark adventures take us to Lebanon and the ancient village of Chemlan, writes David Gwynn. As is the case with many communities in the Middle East, Chemlan has a variety of acceptable spellings: Shimlan, Chemlane and Chimlane being the most common. The village signpost uses Shimlan, but the illustrated postmark spells the name as Chemlan. The area that is now Lebanon had been controlled in the past by the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire and by the Ottoman Empire. After the defeat of the Ottomans in the First World War, Lebanon was entrusted to the French by the League of Nations, just as Palestine to the south was entrusted to the British. Lebanon gained its independence from France during the Second World War. The postmark shown was…

This is a special year for engraved stamp collectors like me as we are celebrating the centennial birth of Czeslaw Slania, a distinguished Polish engraver. Slania is the most productive stamp artist of all time as he designed and/or engraved 1,080 unique motifs that appeared on a total of 1,547 stamps issued by 32 postal administrations. 1,047 of these unique motifs were hand engraved on a steel plate and printed in intaglio. Czeslaw Slania was born on 22 October 1921, in Czeladz Piaski, Poland. At age six, Slania displayed outstanding artistic talent, drawing the portraits of his family members and friends with great accuracy. His teenage years were full of struggles as he lived in a country invaded by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. His high school education…

EXPERT WEBINAR 22 NOVEMBER, 6.30PM Later this month, Marcus Orsi and Devlan Kruck from the Museum of Philately present the fifth and final expert stamp collecting webinar in the current series, this time asking ‘Who’s responsible for the world’s philatelic treasures?’ Presented by Matt Hill, editor of Stamp Collector, the friendly online forum will give you the chance to ask questions and comment on the subject, whilst the experts will also provide practical advice to help you improve your collection. Book now for just £5 and join us as we explore our wonderful hobby. Missed the previous webinars? Don’t worry, we recorded them and they’re available for anyone with a ‘Season Pass’. To get your Pass and enjoy all webinars, for as little as £10, just visit: www.allaboutstamps.co.uk/stamp-guides/webinars ABOUT THE…

Philatelically, Ahmed Mirza’s reign began with a backward look. Seventeen stamps of Mohammed Ali were overprinted with 1ch and 2ch to pay postage on newspapers coming in from abroad, but many were also used on ordinary mail. As far as the Shah’s own definitives were concerned, the idea was to have a long, recess-printed set. But this would take time to prepare, so Enschede were asked to produce an interim set, printed letterpress. It’s still a handsome production. The design shows the lion and sun symbol with a laurel wreath and crown. It is printed in two colours, with silver and gold inks for the higher values. And many non-specialised collectors have never seen a real one. Buyers are warned to beware of reprints of Persian stamps from 1870 to…

Erich Gruner {14.ll.1881/30.12.1966) From 1900 to 1905 Erich Gruner studied at the Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts, and then travelled to Paris where he remained for one year, having lessons with Jean Paul Laurens … the period from 1909 to 1912 was more relaxed, with travels to Portugal, Spain and Italy. After returning, he began to have some Artistic recognition, but this short period was interrupted by WWI, where he was wounded twice. In 1919 he made some designs, posters and the Logo for the Leipzig Fair. He was the Director of the Leipzig School of Applied Arts from 1930 to 1946. His Art work covers a wide range of specialties: Book covers, illustration, Posters, Postage stamps, Typography, Logotypes, Stage and set designs, etc .. The engraver for these stamps…

After the second world war, the Post Office established a Mechanical Aid Committee to oversee the conception of an Automatic Letter Facing machine, (Alf). The committee first met on 24th May 1946; progress was slow as the priority of the Post Office was the telephone service. The development work was undertaken at the Post Office Research Laboratories at Dollis Hill, London. By 1947 the general concept was put forward that 'letter collections would be fed, via hoppers, into a mechanical segregator & facing machine, whence the letters would pass automatically through a stamp cancelling machine then be fed automatically to a machine sorter which would read the address and code for subsequent mechanical sorting'. By 1947 photo-electric scanners were being tested that could 'detect the stamp on each letter or…

What is a Miniature Sheet, and when where they first produced? To the first question there seems to be a rough answer though not without a little confusion as they are sometimes referred to as Souvenir Sheets as well! David Field in his All-World Miniature Sheet Catalogue 1973 tells us, “…The issuing policies of different countries have always made this hard to define, but for a start it is a small sheet containing a stamp or stamps valid for postal use at time of issue and provided for use by the normal stamp issuing authority.” He continues, “It may appear alone or with other stamps, but it differs in format from normal stamp sheets and is of a size and shape which make it acceptable to the collector as an…

The Panchatantra is an ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose, arranged within a frame story. The surviving work is dated to about 300 BCE, but the fables are likely much more ancient. The text's author is unknown, but has been attributed to Vishnu Sharma in some recensions and Vasubhaga in others, both of which may be fictitious pen names. It is likely a Hindu text, and based on older oral traditions with "animal fables that are as old as we are able to imagine". It is "certainly the most frequently translated literary product of India", and these stories are among the most widely known in the world. It goes by many names in many cultures. There is a version of Panchatantra in nearly every…

A new website, entitled ‘Showpiece’, has been launched, giving stamp collectors the chance to own a piece of the world’s most valuable stamp, the One Cent Magenta, which was acquired earlier this year by Stanley Gibbons. Showpiece is the newest entrant to the fast-growing fractional ownership market and is ‘focused on giving individuals ownership of the world’s most rare and remarkable items’. The first item Showpiece is offering ownership of is the world’s most valuable stamp, the One Cent Magenta, acquired earlier this year by stamp dealer Stanley Gibbons. Showpiece is partnering with leading experts such as Stanley Gibbons when an item is listed on its platform so they can provide detailed knowledge and expertise. According to the team behind the new website, over 5,000 enthusiastic participants ranging from philatelists…

The first universal exhibition in an Arab country is taking place in Dubai until 31 March on the theme ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’, and Luxembourg Post are celebrating their involvement with a ‘world first in the field of philately’. The theme of the Luxembourg pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai is ‘Resourceful Luxembourg’. The design of the building is based on the idea of the Mobius strip, an infinite form, like the circular economy, but also a symbol of Luxembourg’s openness and dynamism. The same shape has been replicated in the design of the innovative stamps. The half-contorted strip of special Expo 2020 Dubai stamps has been secured at each end, although not visible at first sight, in order to create an endless ribbon. A spokesperson for Post Luxembourg said:…

A brief history of the game The popularity of the ‘rugby’ style of football and corresponding need for universal laws saw 21 English clubs meet in London on 26 January 1871 to form the Rugby Football Union. The first set of laws was approved later that year, not long after England met Scotland’s challenge in the first rugby international. England have won what is now the Six Nations Championship 29 times outright, with ten shared victories, and the Grand Slam (beating every other nation in the competition) thirteen times. England are the only northern hemisphere team to have won the World Cup, beating Australia in 2003. While England and Scotland had already unofficially met playing ‘football’ rules, most ‘football’ clubs north of the border played a game far more similar…

Costa Rica, Letter franked with GB stamps (3x 4d + 2d, two different issues) cancelled ‘Limon’ May 1877 to Sigean France via Cologne London and Paris, unique! SOLD FOR £3,665 China, strip of five stamps Mao Zedong 1968, cancelled SOLD FOR £1,256 Falkland Islands, 5’-Penguin Definitive 1933 (SG136) MNH SOLD FOR £623 Israel, 2m green definitive 1948 MNH with tab (with cert.) SOLD FOR £700 Great Britain, 2s QV brown 1867-80 (SG121) used SOLD FOR £295 German Office in China, registered letter franked 16pf cancelled ‘Field Post 7’ May 1901 to Wiesbaden Germany SOLD FOR £1,677 Belgium, Philatelic Days Antwerp 1928 issue (former ‘Orval’ issue overprinted) MNH with cert. SOLD FOR £979 Great Britain, £1 black Postal Union Congress London 1929 (SG438) used SOLD FOR £311 Burundi, 1983 WWF Wildlife…

If you look carefully round any stamp fair, you will see collectors holding stamps and covers in the air, while squinting to get a good view, writes Brian Austin. With this month’s cover I will try and dispel the rumour that they are a member of a secret club or just attention seeking! If they are holding a British First Day Cover in the air, issued between the 1962 National Productivity Year and the 1967 Flowers issue, they are probably checking for phosphor bands. At this point the GPO were trying out different ways of sorting post, so for nearly every issue between these dates, there were two sets, one with phosphor bands, the other without. The collector who did this 1966 Christmas cover put both sets on and if…

After a year of Zoom meetings it was good to get some normality back into our hobby and the recent President’s Night at Dundee and District Philatelic Society was the first face-to-face meeting this year. President Harry Jackson provided everyone with a fascinating display of ‘Germany from States to the Weimar Republic’. Harry began the display by showing stamps from mainland Germany which were issued by postal authorities. At that time there was no overarching authority and each state operated independently. Issues started slowly with Bavaria being first and by the 1860s all the states had pulled together after the Franco-Prussian War and this became the German Empire which ran from 1870 until 1920 after the First World War and the Treaty of Versailles. The second half of Harry’s display…

There are few stamp artists who have appeared on stamps themselves, since their task is to create a beautiful, arresting image that speaks for itself, but such is the reverence for Czesław Słania, there is now a growing number of stamp issues showing his portrait. This year we have seen a range of stamps celebrating the engraver’s life and work as we mark his birth centenary. It is appropriate that these new stamps have been issued by post offices that have long links with Slania, each clearly proud that the renowned artist produced artwork for their stamps in years gone by. Take Monaco, for example, who recently issued a single stamp featuring a portrait of the Master Engraver. ‘Slania produced around 150 stamps (miniature sheets, normal postage stamps, air-mail stamps)…

Launched in 2020, the All About Stamps competition has captured the imagination of collectors around the world, as they meet the challenge of creating a one-page display of stamps or postal history. This time we left the subject open, and offered a fantastic prize, with the winner set to receive a Penny Black worth £300. Enjoy highlights of the entries here and be sure to enter our next competition. Entrants are in contention to win a 1d Black, Plate 2, DF. A very fine used four-margin example, worth around £300, courtesy of Andrew Vaughan Philatelics. The winner will also get their hands on the coveted All About Stamps Trophy. Andrew Vaughan Philatelics offer a comprehensive stock of mint and used British stamps in all grades (specialising in fine quality) from…

Alfons Mucha (1860-1939) rose to fame in Paris in the last decade of the nineteenth century as one of the greatest exponents of the art nouveau style. In Paris, the art-form was often known as “le style Mucha”. Later, when his native Czechoslovakia gained its independence from Austria-Hungary in October 1918, Mucha designed the new country’s first postage stamps. Mucha was born on 24 July 1860 in Ivančice, a small town in Moravia (then an Austrian province and now part of the Czech Republic). Having moved to Paris in 1887, he had an instant and meteoric rise to fame when, just after Christmas in 1894, he designed a popular and radically new style of theatre poster for the great French actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923). Mucha’s studio in Paris became a…

CHAPTER ONE THE CURIOUS CASE OF ‘THE LONDON GANG The Cullum Street stamp shop of Benjamin & Sarpy was found to be full of incriminating material and under the guidance and experienced eye of Charles Phillips, Inspector Stephens gathered the questionable items and the three returned to Leman Street Police Station. On arrival Noella discovered that Sergeant White had arrested the third suspect, George Jeffryes, at his home in Grove Road, Bow, and an initial search of his premises had identified several printing mechanisms, two perforation machines, and a large quantity of what was believed to be forged stamps. Inside the police station, Jeffryes caused a commotion when the coachman from the cab he had been brought into detention returned to the station with a package which the cabman had…

‘money spent in the wrong way soon mounts up …’ Successful and enjoyable collecting depends upon understanding the relationship of your budget to your interest. Offers and services can be confusing can’t they, and money spent in the wrong way soon mounts up. In philately, sometimes it is hard to decide which way to go. Your passion may exceed your resource, so just what may be best for you? Often, it is not what you collect but how you collect This is the reason why my team and I have devised this quick and easy philatelic route-map QUIZ which does not ask you what you collect – but helps you to determine by your answers just which type of collecting service may best suit you … Presently you may find…