What, no Coronation Anniversary issue?
John Davies wrote to me enclosing the proposed list of GB special issues for next year. He commented that ‘There is nothing new of note as even the UK Aerial Post has been featured way back in 1974!’ He continued by commenting on the sheet for the International Exhibition to mark the Accession of King George V, ‘But June 1911 was his Coronation. This has been omitted from the 2011 programme, instead the Post Office has “Thomas the Tank Engine” in its place. Oh well.’

The demise of the cheque
John Davies has written concerning the demise of the cheque which is due to be withdrawn in 2018 and is all happening quietly. This is something he feels, with some justification, that we should all be concerned about. It certainly will affect the stamp world. John writes, ‘Banks used to operate a trip system for the re-issue of cheque books but now it is often the case that you have to request one and when it comes, the quantity of cheques in the book will be less.’

The Parliamentary Committee sat recently on this subject and were not happy at the banks doing this, as ‘a number of serious questions must be answered’. John continues, ‘The banks state that 66.3 million fewer cheques were used last year, which works out to be about one cheque less per person in the UK. They failed to state how many cheques they still process. They are a very easy form of payment which has gone on for 350 years or so why withdraw the system? The banks state that debit cards and internet banking have caused the lack of cheque usage. It was revealed to the Parliamentary Committee that computer/internet and debit card fraud, ie copying cards, runs at at least £0.5 billion last year against cheques at £30 million, less than 10 per cent.’

John says that no doubt others in the CSPS will be concerned and perhaps we could raise it at all levels in the CSPS. Although 2018 is 8 years away, events are already taking place without consultation. He adds ‘Perhaps its lobbying MP’s time?’

In many cases banks are also terminating the guarantee of cheques in a few months time.

GB stamp proliferation and designs
A couple of articles from the Sunday Telegraph written by Simon Heffer in January and March respectively were brought to my attention by Ron Oughton. There seems to have been quite a lot of interest in stamps in the press in recent months. In the first article Simon starts by saying he received an e-mail, not postal mail, to inform him of the Festival of Stamps and that this was tied in with the centenary of the Accession of King George V. He went on to say Victorian philatelic material is still wallowed in and that the British Empire provided plenty of material, but was also a useful ‘geography lesson to millions of school boys’. He then went on to talk about the Royal Collection which although started by Prince Alfred, Duke of York, was greatly expanded by King George V and he felt that commemoration of this was a worthy subject.

He acknowledges that those who invested in stamps have seen a good return in the past decade but that stamp collecting is in bad way. He then bemoans stamps issued and states they are produced for collectors and only have an incidental use for postage. He goes on to discuss the George V era, stating there were various designs and printings of the ordinary definitive stamps, mainly due to changes in printing processes and technology with shades and watermarks. He goes on ‘One could argue that the rot set in during this reign, with the invention in 1924 of the commemorative stamp, to mark the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley.’ However, he then correctly states that only 3 other commemorative sets were issued in the remaining 12 years of the reign. The £1 PUC issue he noted was equivalent to a week’s wages for an under housemaid.

He then bemoans the recent issues as ‘tawdry’ commenting it could be a decline in our power or a reflection of a desire to exploit collectors and lack of imagination. The Machin he comments has been in use for 42 years and perhaps the diamond jubilee of the Queen is the time for something new. He comments further that the current GB programme contains 16 commemorative issues, the same amount as issued between 1924 and 1960. He feels the stamps issued for the Accession of King George V are worthy of issue but casts scorn on the Classic Album covers or the August issue of Stage Musicals. He concludes on the topic of exploitation for profit by saying that there could be ‘more sophisticated ways, reintroducing watermarks to cheer everybody up and assure there were amusing varieties of them.’

King George V as Stamp Collector
In March Simon Heffer wrote another piece in the Sunday Telegraph this time about King George V and his stamp collecting. He suggests we should think about times ‘when we used to do these things properly’ and that ‘we once had a glorious past’. The King’s only known hobbies were game shooting and stamp collecting. He goes on to say that men of the King’s era took philately as either an aid to geography or because they had desire to own a small private art collection. In later life George V would spend three afternoons a week on his stamps and Simon suggests the King used his stamps to keep track of territorial possession around the world, our empire being vast then. It has been written elsewhere that it was the only way he could face the horrors of WWI. He spent his own money on rarities and in 1904 paid £1450 for the Mauritian 2d Blue, a record price for a stamp then. This prompted the famous courtiers remark when hearing of the sale in a newspaper that ‘Some damned fool has paid £1400 for a stamp’. This brought the reply from the then Prince of Wales, ‘Yes. It was this damned fool’.

The King was sent stamp designs for his opinion and he was often sent the essays for his collection. The Seahorse he suggested should be printed by the intaglio process to make them look more grand and this was accepted. Simon Heffer suggests these stamps indicated ‘ Britain’s idea of herself on the eve of the Great War’, screaming imperial power, might tradition, pomp and circumstance.

The first stamps of his reign were not popular, the halfpenny and penny issued on Coronation day as the King was depicted with a three quarters face and the stamps were prone to be blotchy, due to issues with the typography printing method. Harrison’s the printers submitted the lowest quote and so had the contract for the printing, but their lack of experience with fugitive inks resulted in shades some of which are rare. Finally the article states it was fortunate that Edward VIII did not sell the collection as he was thinking of doing.