What you missed at Society Meetings

 3^rd July 2006
Member’s Displays
The following displays were brought in by Members:

John Dennett: Pictures of  P&O ships.

Bob van Goethem: Various cancels, meter marks, invoices and insurance stamps and the 1960 London International Exhibition.

Bob van Goethem: Tax discs including June 1971 when they were yellow and hand written; TV licence stamps and cancels.

George Goodall: Stamps marking the Commonwealth Games 2006; Chinese cards for the ‘Year of the Tiger’; Australian Lighthouses and mini cards of Watford; Guernsey issue for the Brunel anniversary.

George Goodall: Pictures of Post Office vehicles.

Peter Harris: Sea Horses, two President Roosevelt items, covers and overprints and a Dutch letter. 

Ron Oughton: Ron gave a short talk about his display, which consisted of 50 cinderella labels he had recently obtained. Some were in Austrian, some German and few French and Italian. He concluded they were probably Swiss as a result.

Derek Rock: Very colourful prints for the Star Wars film ‘Return of the Jedi’ and many trams.

Derek Rock: Millennium Stamps from the USA, 32c and 33c, in sheets of 25. 

Derek Ward: Various cards sent by companies as advertising and various items concerning the ‘Cows in Edinburgh’.

The Society thanks those who brought in displays as they made an interesting evening.

 4^th September 2006

President’s Evening
Part 1
In this first section Derek Rock displayed the various items issued for the GB commemorative issues from Christmas 1966 to the Sailing issue of June 1975. The first item was the Christmas 1966 issue with a First Day Cover and Presentation Pack Number 1. First day of issue marks were shown for the Paintings. The 1967 Christmas issue was issued in two parts, the 4d issue first and then the 3d and 1/6 values. The paintings and ships issues had a FDC, a pack and the stamp issue. The Cunard FDC only had room for three of the six stamps issued. In 1969 came the Investiture of the Prince of Wales and Derek showed a piece of artwork for one of the banners, a prototype Fleur de Lys for an armband.

In 1970 PHQ cards started with one card   issued for each set of stamps, so now collectors had a FDC, a card and booklet as well as the a stamps. Signed covers were shown for the Inigo Jones set from St. Paul’s, Covent Garden featured on the 3p stamp. The next issue was for the Houses of Parliament and a book was also issued. There was only one card for the Royal Wedding issue in 1973 but then both stamps for this issue were alike. There was only one stamp and one card for the Trees issue and the pack contained an erratum slip. There was again one stamp featured on a card for the Fire Service Issue in 1974, but also the first poster to advertise the issue and this was displayed. The Medieval Warriors set of 4 stamps had 4 cards issued as well.  The Churchill issue although comprising 4 stamps had one card. The booklet was issued in a bubble pack, which was difficult to handle and never saw the light of day again! An FDC and poster were also shown. There was one card for the Turner issue of 1975 but three cards for the European Architecture issue. The last part of this section was the Sailing issue of 1975. Only one card again, the 8p value. A PHQ was shown and some medallion covers.  

Part 2
A complete contrast in the second part of the evening when Derek displayed items concerned with the Victoria Cross, a topic where he has carried out much research. Derek started off with some details about the award. The medals are made from 6 captured guns and 1354 have been made to date, all by the same firm. They cost £25 to produce but if you buy a genuine one it will cost around £150k. The ribbons are red for the army and blue for the Navy. The inscription on the front says ‘For Valour’ and the date of action is shown on the reverse. The name, number and regiment are shown on the supporting bar. The VC has been awarded a second time to just 3 people.

Derek showed some cigarette cards depicting recipients of the Victoria Cross, both a set of reproductions and an original and cigar cards were also displayed.  Details about the recipients were displayed, for example Len Trent with details from the London Gazette.

Signed commemoration covers for the 50^th anniversary of the end of WWII and the 75th Anniversary of the British Legion came next. The latest VC awarded was gained in Iraq in 2004.

Various other details followed including cards and pictures, for example the Nery Gun and Edward Kinder Bradbury, George Thomas Dorrell and David Nelson.

The vote of thanks was given by Margaret Emerson for a very interesting evening and all present applauded.

2^nd October 2006
Sino-Japanese War

Talk and Display by David Sibley, AEPS
Part 1

David started by saying his area of interest in China is from 1878 to 1945 but that this talk and display would be about China’s War with Japan. The display started with some background material and maps. China is the third largest country in the world and most people live in the east. Due to a lack of raw materials, Japan had an interest in China.  In 1937 China was standing alone against Japan in a similar fashion to Great Britain standing alone against Hitler in 1939. An invasion took place down the east coast and then west along the rivers. The capital was known as Beiping then and the fist stamps shown were of junks and portraits. The third issue for Dr Sun Yat-sen was shown with varieties and imperfs and air stamps, which at this time were printed in Hong Kong. Martyrs of the Revolution followed with watermarks and without. The HQ of the postal service was in Shanghai. In 1938 the contract for printing stamps was awarded to the American Banknote Company. In 1939 an issue was produced for the constitution but it was not liked and was not cancelled in Shanghai. An island was missing so the issue was reprinted and issued on 4^th July 1939. A word of caution from David, all the originals were destroyed so if you are offered a stamp with a missing island it is not genuine.

Next came postage dues and surcharges produced in Hong Kong. During the war commerce moved west in China with whole factories being uprooted. In 1940 the postage dues were in cents but had to be overprinted in dollars. District postmasters could issue their own surcharges and an 3c example inverted and on cover was shown. Overseas post remained normal until 1941. There were express letter issues and registration issues as well as a no value indicator, something we have only had recently, a necessity given that rates were forever increasing.

Miniature sheets and commemoratives from 1941 were next and issues for the 30^th anniversary of the ChineseRepublic. There was a FDC. Between 1942 and 1945 the 3^rd issue was redrawn and China lost the use of the Hong Kong printers, as Hong Kong was occupied by Japan. This resulted in rough perfs and poor paper.

The 5^th issue of Dr Sun Yat-sen was produced by two printers and there are paper varieties. David included a competition entry he had produced which explained the surcharges. There was a $1 surcharge that was only in use for a short time. A number of examples of covers and stamps were displayed. By 1944 there were more flights and more goods traversing the Himalayas. Stamps were by De la Rue and local printers, with many required due to the number of people writing and the fact that values quickly became obsolete. There was a story of one set lost at sea which had to be reprinted, but by the time it arrived from America it had to be overprinted.

On 1^st January 1945 the Free Forces Post started with the 7^th issue and 20^th anniversary of the death of Dr Sun

Yat-sen. The 10^th October 1945 marked the inauguration of President Chaing Kai-sheh and a Victory Issue. These stamps are peculiar in that they have hidden marks.

Part 2
This section was for covers including the Victory Issue and Registered Airmail. It was Chinese custom to put the stamps on the back of letters. There was one item with the slogan ‘Guard your talk about shipping’. There were many airmail covers for example, China to Calcutta to Egypt to London, many to UK and USA destinations and Canada. BOAC covers including one via Lagos en route to the USA and a newspaper wrapper to Los Angeles. One route was BOAC to Egypt then surface mail to London and these had a Cairo censor mark. The display illustrated the many routes taken and the various censor marks applied depending on the route.

In 1940 there was no Trans-Siberian Railway for mail to the UK or Ireland so it was flown to Hong Kong then San Francisco to New York and London. This was brought to an end in 1941 when Japan took Hawaii.

Occupied China mail passing through Occupied Europe was opened and resealed by the Nazis. There was no airmail to Haifa so the post went by surface mail and received a British censor mark in Palestine. Another 16 sheets showed various covers and censor marks eg. mail from Shanghai to Bombay and to Nairobi. The Two Oceans Airmail was depicted, the proof being the Hawaii, Honolulu backstamp. There was an interesting cover sent from north China to Singapore via French Indo-China, which was re-directed to a British sailor then in hospital in Liverpool. There was an example of an RAF censor mark. The interesting feature of many of the covers was the plethora of stamps used to make up the rate.

The vote of thanks was given by Ron Oughton, for this very interesting and informative talk and display. The Members present applauded in appreciation.

6^th November 2006
My Favourite GB Items

Talk and Display by Leslie Wilkinson
Part 1
Les started by saying his specialism was George V but his display started with a piece of Corsini correspondence and then a small piece of papyrus from the 1^st Century. These were followed by Mail Coach timetables for the Birmingham to Bristol route and London to Wisbech, a mail coach cover, some Free covers, an MP’s cover and then Post Horse Duty tickets. Medicine duty labels were next and we were told the printers produced the background for the Penny Black, an example of which came next. Archer trials and advert stamps followed and then a cover posted in Leeds on the first day of the Penny Black but without the stamp. A mystery item followed, treasury trials in two versions. There was a die proof of a Mulready cover and examples of 1 and 2d envelopes. Les said that many 2d covers were pristine and these came from a stock found in Edinburgh. There was the ‘only’ known signed cover by

W L Maberly. Perfins were shown and a block of 3d specimen overprints. A £1 Brown was displayed with a broken frame. The Stock Exchange forgery was next and an EdVII £1 forgery with a Jersey cancel and a real issue. The perpetrator received 3 years in jail. EdVII Christmas Day covers were next, plate proofs on buff paper, GeoV Mackennels, an EdVII Coronation invitation and an invite to the Lord Mayor’s Banquet.

Part 2 This started with some EdVII items that are considered to be trials for the GeoV issues to see if the mint could produce them. The Downey Head trials were shown. De la Rue had the contract but were overcharging and the renewal went to Harrison and Sons, the security printers. The plates came from the mint so there were new plate makers and new printers. The paper was fit but the ‘King looked Italian’. A month before issue it was decided to improve the engraving but they had to be ready for Coronation Day. Die 1a the printers blamed the engravers and the engravers the printers. Die 2 came in November 1911 and it was decided to scrap all values over 1d. Colour trials of the 2^nd issue were shown. There were different papers, booklets with pre-cancels and adverts. There were vending machine leaders and examples of the 4 different printings of the Sea Horses, including some rough printings as the ink was being worked up. Specimens and cancels were displayed. Waterlow used paper from Joynson but it was expensive and did not work. The rest of the paper was pulped. A Sea Horse used on cover was shown as they were normally on parcels. A half crown could be paid for getting post through censors quickly to neutral countries, but it still took 3 to 5 weeks as there were no direct routes. Examples of insured mail and airmail to Paris after WWII with a 2/6 surcharge were next. On the first day the flight was fog bound. Other airmail items, a Zeppelin cover to South America, Telegraph stamps and training school examples were shown. A hole was used to stop purchase. These could be punched before adding to the Telegram or after. Les said that GV Telegraph forms do not exist and then showed a copy which was believed to have been found in the street during the Dublin troubles, dated 22 April 1916. The evening concluded with a thank you from a collector, 4 large envelopes with seals but no stamps or franks to heads of state.

Margaret Emerson gave the vote of thanks on behalf of the Society for a very interesting talk and display. A total of 17 members were present who all applauded in appreciation.

4^th December 2006
The December meeting was given over to the Grand Auction. Thanks are due to our auctioneer Bob Van Goethem, George Goodall and Ron Oughton who acted as scribes and accountants at the table, and Roger Clarke who delivered the sold lots to the successful bidders.