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What you missed at recent meetings….
11th January 2010 Postcard evening
The January meeting was cancelled due to the cold, snowy weather. This is the second time inside a year that we have had to take this decision.
1st February 2010 Croatia 1941 to 1945
A Talk and Display by Tony Bosworth
We were very pleased to welcome Tony back to the Society and in the introduction to the meeting Margaret Emerson commented that it was kind of Tony to reschedule his visit to us, as he had been due to give his talk to us in February 2009. She had crossed her fingers hoping that we would not have to cancel the evening again due to snow, but it was a close call.
Tony started by saying Croatia is his main collection and that he started with the postal history side but has added stamps in the last 18 months or so. Putting Croatia into context firstly Tony explained that buffer states had been created after World War I. Yugoslavia consisted of Serbs, who were orthodox and used the Cyrillic alphabet, the Croats who used Latin script and were Roman Catholics, Bosnia and Herzegovina was Moslem and Slovenia was populated by Montenegrins. World
War II brought a split in the country. King Alexander II had been killed in Marseilles in 1934. In 1939 Hitler wanted to invade Russia and needed bases on Yugoslavian territory. Prince Paul Regent, who was pro-English, was courted by Hitler and a treaty followed. There was a hostile reception when he got home and he left for Kenya. April 6th the new state emerged and a friendship treaty with Russia was made. Hitler invaded the Balkans but Croatia was untouched and Serbia bombed. On April 10th 1941 Croatia came into existence and Germany allowed autonomy to a Croat state extending far beyond historic or modern Croatia to include Bosnia and Herzegovina and a map was shown. Tony pointed out that Kosovo was Albanian and had a ‘King’ although he was never there.
The postal administration started and there were six stamp issues and overprints in 6 months and four of them were shown. The Croats wrote lots of letters! Overprints announcing the new state (N D Hrvatska) where in three forms, in type, where the postmaster took the stamps and literally typed the overprints, with the chequered shield, still Croatia’s national symbol today, or by up to nine lines obliterating the former king’s head. A local overprint cover was shown this is now known to be a forgery or, as Tony put it, ‘Sadness comes to every philatelist’. There was a perfin NVH which was a Jewish firm that was taken over by the state. There were censor postmarks with NEDOPOSTEN meaning ‘Not allowed’ as this was an anti-semitic state. The sender tried again and the second card got through. The events of more recent times in the 1990’s were a hit back after the ethnic cleansing of WWII.
A card with mixed franks was next and a court letter with a Yugoslavia court stamp and a Croat court stamp and these were followed by airmail to the USA. Tony then showed his 75 pence item, which had the foreign printed paper rate on the outside and inside a brochure for the definitive issue. This was offered to him again at Stampex for £80 but he declined! Blocks and covers were next and the first definitive issue of 19 values, including tete-beche pairs. Sheets were issued each year for the Red Cross we were told. Censor marks were next and there was one for each town and postage dues were also shown.
There were a number of exhibitions which were anti-communist and cards. A card with an Arab design was also displayed. Service post was next and then the Croatian Wings Exhibition, which comprised an issue of 4 stamps. These come in perf and imperf varieties and souvenir sheets. Wilhelm Bush featured next, the father of cartoons, with Max and Maurice. The first anniversary set was next where the stamps had a change in colour. Up to this point the currency was the dinar and para but a new currency came in July, the kuna and a provisional issue with the new value was shown. Winter welfare featured next.
There was an exhibition of war artists and this included a card of Rommel, and Tony’s favourite, Croatian soldiers boarding a train for the Eastern Front and this was an anti-war card. New postage dues followed and Red Cross plus tax stamp issues. This tax was obligatory on inland telegrams.
The next section covered the equivalent of the Hitler Youth and then there was a typhoid card, of which there are only three. There was a meter mark for an insurance company and a registered cover, being a cardboard book container. There was a letter to Bulgaria at the foreign rate, which would have gone via Sophia. A stamp dealer’s letter and parcel card rounded off part 1.
Part 2
The Ustaše Youth Fund and the anti- Pavelicc definitives were next. More people were lost in the civil war than on the Russian front heralding the era of President Tito. There was a cachet item where magazines sent overseas were examined by the Gestapo. There were five more meter marks, ‘Work harder to shorten the war’. A soldier’s pay book was shown with a cachet. Sheets of stamps became smaller as the war began to bite. Another postage due set was shown, the 700th anniversary of Zagreb, and supplementary definitives followed. In April 1943 stamps appeared with the dictator Ante Pavelicc on them. The Croatian state used a chequered shield of red and black squares and this remains its national emblem today. Next came a trial stamp for the final definitive set, 13th June which is Tony’s birthday and also St Anthony’ Day, so is this why he started collecting Croatia?
Equipment was becoming short and a souvenir sheet was called for, again with perf and imperf stamps, to raise finds. The 3rd Philatelic Exhibition in Zagreb was featured. A definitive set and definitive issue were shown and various issues with ‘charity’ extras, such as the Red Cross Fund, Postal Employees’ Fund and for the railway workers. All these surcharges were compulsory and most of the funds went into government funds or for fighting an increasingly desperate war. Famous Croatians were next, a mathematician and an astronomer. The third anniversary of independence led to another issue with perf and imperf, the usual format, both of which were shown. There were three different printings of the labour service. The last Red Cross issue of 3 stamps did not have a tax stamp or card. The Storm Division was a 3 stamp special issue and forged sheets were shown, from Italy, Argentina and Germany.
The 1st May 1945 brought the last issue but by this time the post offices did not have lot to do, with just Zagreb not taken over by Tito. First Day Covers were issued. An Italian prisoner card was shown with a censor mark. The cards were pre-printed and no additional text was allowed. There was a Serb and communist camp. Italian stamps were used overprinted and a cover got through via Serbia and was shown. Officially stamps ran out later and posters were made up into envelopes. There was an item from an insurance firm stating that if insurance could be afforded the person could support the war effort. This item had a mater mark. There was a returned letter item and postal history items. The star item for Tony was a cover used with revenue stamps, the recipient then having to pay double the rate. There was a postcard with registration, express and airmail labels plus the appropriate value of stamps. The dealer was still sending out his lists. On 1st January 1944 there was the start of the war relief tax, but this went to the government. A 1945 item had a 30 kuna letter surcharge. Bisects were shown on cover although these were not allowed. Tony’s favourite cover from an auction had a war tax stamp, a 287.25 kuna surcharge and a registered receipt.To round off some more meter marks were shown including tax relief and an item with no stamps, which had then been charged double the postage 67 kunas and 60 kuna war tax.
The vote of thanks was given by Margaret Emerson and members applauded another very interesting and enjoyable evening.
1st March 2010 Three talks and displays by members
GB and Commonwealth Coronation and Royal Anniversaries
1937 to 1978 by Margaret Emerson
Margaret started by saying that this display followed on from the one she had given to the Society as part of the diamond jubilee displays and that when she told Council the title they thought it was a Mastermind topic!
The display started with the 1937 Coronation of King George VI on the 12th May 1937 with a pair of the single 1½d issue of Great Britain and it was noted that they all have A37 as a keyplate. After the talk Margaret was informed that the plate number appears in the sheet margin. A stamp on an envelope posted on the first day of issue, 13th May 1937 was shown to an address in Maidstone. The 12th had been a bank holiday so this was the correct date. A block of six stamps with the Morocco Agencies overprint was shown and then a picture showing the 17 main varieties on this issue, none of which Margaret has in her collection. In total 202 stamps were issued by Great Britain and the Empire. Australia it could be argued did not issue a specific stamp issue but as part of its 1937 to 1949 series there were three high values, 5s, 10s and £1 and these depicted the Queen, the King and the King and Queen respectively in their robes. Nauru issued a simple set of 4 as did New Guinea and a sheet of 30 stamps was shown. The main design of this omnibus issue was issued in 48 countries and depicted a head and shoulders picture of the King and Queen in a variety of colours with the country name, colour and value tablets being the only varying items. Canada issued a 3c value with cameo portraits and Newfoundland issued two sets and the second of 11 values was shown. These depicted scenes connected with the country. South Africa and South West Africa issued five bilingual values each, joined pairs were shown, and Southern Rhodesia issued a set of 4. An FDC from the Cook Islands was shown which had been sent by Registered Post. This colony overprinted the New Zealand issue which was next and had been in Margaret’s New Zealand display in 2008 and consisted of blocks and imprint blocks. Margaret commented that in February Tony Bosworth had said blocks look nice and she agreed with that, so plenty were in the display.
The Royal Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Phillip Mountbatten, later the Duke of Edinburgh, did not have a stamp issue but a cover with the special slogan E P cancel was shown. The Royal Silver Wedding in 1948 did generate stamps and a first day of issue envelope, stamp and cancel were shown. This issue caused controversy in Great Britain as it consisted of a 2½d value, the basic postal rate, and £1 which had no postal use and would be a high value even today. Two mint examples were shown plus a Morocco Agencies overprint. The omnibus issue amounted to 138 stamps in total with two values for most countries, one small and one larger showing the King and Queen in sideways profile. A few examples were also shown on piece plus a cover to an address in Bermuda. This had been displayed by John Thame some years ago and then auctioned. It was more than likely a purely philatelic item, as the stamp was on the left of the envelope and the address very sparse. The bi-lingual issue from South Africa was shown, sadly not co-joined.
The next event was the 1953 Coronation of our current Queen and four stamps were issued in Great Britain in a variety of designs and by different artists. Two on cover were shown, unaddressed and so again philatelic, with the slogan cancel Long Live the Queen. Margaret has one with a King George VI stamp as well but had been unable to find it to include. In total 106 stamps were issued and in the Commonwealth it was a single value per country again in a variety of colours. Some countries issued their own designs, such as Australia, New Zealand, Niue, Western Samoa, the Cook Islands, South Africa and Southern Rhodesia, the latter in a rich carmine colour being one of Margaret’s favourites.
The Royal Silver Wedding issue in 1972 was next with two values issued in Great Britain, 4 in Jersey and 4 in Guernsey, as they now had their own issues. It was noted that the Guernsey issue was a combined Christmas and Silver Wedding issue. Margaret commented that as another issue close by was dinosaurs, it was as well that they had chosen as they did. In total 78 stamps were issued including a number from the Crown Agents with a picture of the Queen and Duke with scenes for the relevant country. Bermuda with the mace and an oar and Tristan da Cunha with Tristan thrushes and an albatross were shown. The Cook Islands and Aitutaki issued a set of sepia pictures from the wedding.
By the time the 1977 Silver Jubilee was reached stamp issues were beginning to proliferate. In Great Britain 4 values were issued all of the same design but in different colours. A special booklet was shown which had the set of stamps in a plastic bubble on the front. Two covers were shown issued for the Silver Jubilee tour and there are 24 in all. By this issue there were 218 stamps, 23 miniature sheet and 40 others. A number of sets were shown and at this point Margaret mentioned that she could have called her display ‘The good, the bad and the ugly’, as some stamps are nice, some not so good and some terrible, being poor depictions of the people involved and looking more like cartoons. The Gibraltar £1 issue was a favourite, those from Belize, Mauritius and Grenada were poor. Grenada issued a set of 5 with two different perfs and a Royal Visit overprint set with labels. Grenada and the Grenadines also issued some rather gaudy stamps overprinted for the Royal Visit, a miniature sheet and another set of three with three stamps and a label each. Some official first day covers were shown.
The last items were for the 25th Anniversary of the Coronation in 1978. A presentation pack for the Great Britain issue was shown and some of the omnibus issues, 181 stamps in total, 21 sheetlets, 24 miniature sheets and 35 others. A couple of the miniature sheets were shown which consisted of two se-tenant stamps top and bottom with explanatory text in between. Belize issued one and then a second set of stamps, some depicting the stamps from the miniature sheets and in two cases with overprints for London 1980. A First Day Cover from Bermuda was shown and this had at its base Crown Agents 4 Millbank London SW1. Margaret now works in 4 Millbank but it’s a set of TV studios, the Met Office and other facilities these days. Two stamps from Sierra Leone and two miniature sheets from Niue rounded off the display.
The Post Office Tower by Bob van Goethem
At the time of construction the Post Office Tower was London’s tallest building and a landmark and for Bob it was also a landmark in his career as a GPO engineer. He joined the GPO engineering straight from grammar school in September 1959 at the advanced age of 16 and a half. He joined the South Centre area of the London telephone area which was headquartered at Dial House in Shaftesbury Avenue. He was an apprentice, termed youth in training, quite why he needed to be trained to be youth he never did discover! The official term was Y2Yc or youth two year training course, at the end of which he was regarded as a technician and became established, as all civil servants were. GPO was a crown agency at that time and therefore part of the Civil Service.
Over the period of two years Bob moved around to many of the exchanges in the area. His home exchange was Abbey/Tate Gallery which was in the Victoria telephone exchange building in Greencoat Place, near Horseferry Road. As he moved around Bob was acquainted with the different aspects of the telephone system, cable repairs and jointing, telephone installation and repair (sub apps) stores procedures and exchange maintenance. On completion of the two years training he was tested and regarded as a Technician 2A and assigned to the Abbey/Tate Gallery Exchange where Bob mostly maintained the large manual switchboard. STD (subscriber trunk dialing) had not yet caused the closure of the manual boards and so most of the trunk calls were still handled by operators.
A number of Bob’s training periods took him to Museum Telephone Exchange in Cleaveland Street, just behind Tottenham Court Road. On one of these visits he was going up a back staircase when he saw a previously unnoticed door with the label L.T.V.N.S.C. (London Television Network Switching Centre) on it. Being curious Bob knocked and entered to be met by three engineers in a small room with television monitors and a test desk. Like all engineers, they were only too pleased to tell him about their work. In a very short time Bob realised that this had to be the place for him. Television he decided would become the next big event in GPO workings. The GPO was at that time responsible for the provision of all telecomm services and this included TV and radio. On the roof of Museum Exchange was a group of wooden huts and a lattice mast. The wooden huts housed the radio transmitters and receivers for the Anglia Region TV link to Norwich.
After some months of lobbying and repeated transfer requests, Bob was finally granted an interview with senior engineers at LTVNSC. This was perhaps one of the hardest things he has ever had to do, to convince a group of engineers that he had what it took to become one of the very select band of TV engineers. In early 1962 the transfer was approved and Bob was sent to Museum Exchange and started on TV construction to learn about co-axial cables, video amplifiers and the transmission and testing of TV signals. That brief story tells us how Bob came to be an engineer at the Post Office Tower.
The Post Office Tower – Why was it built? The introduction of STD and the expectation of more TV channels created the requirement for more capacity on the links into and out of London. Up to this time cables were used but more cables could not be installed without very considerable disruption to the road network to install new duct works. Also cable systems suffered from the need for amplifying stations sited every 3 or 4 miles along a route. More complication and more cost! The solution was in the new microwave radio systems being developed and marketed by Marconi, GEC, STC and Plessey. One microwave radio carrier could carry 2,700 telephone calls. This decision to use radio created the need for the POT. London sits in a dip surrounded by hills. To allow a clear line of sight for the radio systems the tower needed to be at least 355 feet high to clear all existing and planned tall buildings surrounding the Museum site. The tower would need to be aesthetically pleasing, it also had the potential as a public and tourist attraction. Observation floors were added which would afford spectacular views over Greater London. It was also decided to include a revolving restaurant and this was operated by Billy Butlin. The London Weather Centre asked for a mast to be added to the top of the tower to help with forecasting. (Ed: This was for use with a radar system which was still being used when I started work there in 1979.) When all these things were considered the POT had a final height of 580 feet plus 40 feet for the radar mast, 620 feet in all.
Construction
Tall slender structures tend to sway under wind pressure and the tower could in theory deviate from the vertical by many feet. This high degree of movement would greatly affect the alignment of the antennas of the line of sight radio systems. Wind tunnel tests were carried out but the National Physical Laboratory on a model of the tower to confirm that the proposed structural techniques would give the required stiffness with complete security. The net result was a tube designed of reinforced concrete which tapered towards the top. Successive floors would be cantilevered out like ribs. For the first third of the tower’s height the tube is 35 feet in diameter with walls two feet thick, the upper sections reducing to tube 20 feet in diameter and 12 inches thick. The tube accommodates two electric lifts, a staircase and risers for the cables and services, water for fire fighting etc. The tube was also tied to the main building by a collar some thirty feet above ground level, this gave added stability to the structure. The final design allowed movement of 15 inches at the very top in high winds. The base of the tower sits on London’s hard blue clay some 24 feet below ground level. The base is a concrete raft reinforced by a network of post-tensioned cables. On this rises the tower tube, some 13,000 tons of concrete, steel and glass.
In 1964 Bob was lucky enough to be selected as one of only three Post Office Clerk of Works liaison officers for the tower. He was 22 years old and had only been made up to Technical Officer in December 1963. (There was a bar to promotion to Technical Officer until age 21 years.) Over the next year or so he worked on a building site, in the dust and dirt using the external lift cage for access to the floors as they were built. The building was completed in 1965 ready for the equipment to be installed. Bob worked with the company (GEC, Marconi, STC) engineers to install the radio equipment and performed many of the acceptance tests. As the new systems were installed Bob learnt how to maintain them in service, which he did as the Tower radio engineer and member of the NTVNSC maintenance rota.
The Tower was formally opened on 8th October 1965 by the Prime Minster Harold Wilson accompanied by Anthony Wedgewood Benn as the Postmaster General.
Bob left the Tower in February 1968 on promotion to Telecomms HQ in Old Street EC, where he was sent as a specialist in TV systems, to design and install a monitoring system for the satellite earth station at Goonhilly Downs in Cornwall.
Bob’s display started with a pass issued by Peter Lind principle contractor civil engineering for the Tower. Then came a booklet given to all those who worked on the Tower and invited to the opening which was staged in the third floor main equipment room in the main building. It was signed by Anthony Wedgewood Benn, PMG. Stamps were next including the extra window variety on the 3d stamp, presentation packs with and without phosphor, Philatelic Bulletin number 165 announcing the new stamps and a GPO First Day Cover. There were then five other sheets of FDC’s with varieties in the cover design. The next item had a Newman Street postmark, the nearest PO to POT. There was a copy of the Daily Sketch and its wrapper and an early type of Tower ticket which had gone for a fantastic sum on e-Bay. Covers and stamps from the shop were next, a cover for 2/- with stamps obtained from the machines, covers with variation in paper quality giving colours from white to cream and slogan cancels and an essay for airmail stamps. There were covers for Stampex, a 1966 souvenir cover from the British Philatelic Exhibition Seymour Hall signed by Clive Abbot the designer, items on the revolving restaurant, Billy Butlin and a family photo and a PPC from the restaurant. There were certificates from the restaurant, POT cancels from 1969, items from the Post Office mail strike 1971 and strike stamps and covers.
A 1978 Philatelic Bulletin article on the PO Tower stamps was next, a London 1980 Maxi-card and stamps, a London 1980 mini-sheet and a stamp magazine cover. There was a Post Office Day 7th March cover, a cover and miniature sheet from Anguilla, Romanian covers and a House of Questa miniature sheet and stamps. The next items were a 1989 postmark for the 26th Anniversary PTTI, more modern tickets, examples of stamps used for postage and the first black and white postcard on sale in the Tower (another item Bob noted that went for a very high price on e-Bay). There was a 3D postcard, modern press items, an LTVNSC invitation and menu, brochures for the Tower, overseas stamps showing the POT, a cartoon, an official photograph. Bob also showed his tie to the Tower and a paper bag for souvenirs, ‘Its in the bag’.
Ian’s Collection by Ian Briant
Shortly before Ian was due to start laying out his display the fire alarms sounded and after a minute or so, members decided it was possibly real and began to evacuate. However, after the first members reached the stairwell it became apparent that it was just the conference wing that had alarms sounding and it turned out testing was taking place. Ian bravely batted the alarms for his talk and they duly fell silent just before we left for the night! We could confirm though that they were working and audible.
Ian explained that his first album was a Secret Agent stamp album and he then went on to build up some family history around his collecting by showing a picture of his grandparents, who were born in 1880. There was picture of his paternal grandmother plus her cat with a photo of the cat on the piano in the main picture, so he must have been well thought of. His aunt stayed in a Bavarian guesthouse and a photo was shown of it then and now. This same aunt was in Paris when WWII was declared and a Frenchman came into a café and threw his stamp collection on the table and in dramatic French style exclaimed, ‘We are all going to die’ and promptly left. There were USA, Japanese and Swiss issues. Ian’s father was in Germany during the war and he has an inflation stamp. His mother gave him postal stationary and a cover from 1940 to Barking. There was a publicity card for Ford cars with his mother.
A stamp album was given to each grandchild and some stamps. Ian had Liechenstein issues and South African stamps at the back were ‘given out’, revenue stamps and USA charity labels also came his way. In the late 1950’s he was given full catalogues from the 1940’s and he was shown about perfs and watermarks. He was shown how to work out the perfs and how to use SG numbers. His father bought new GB issues and some overseas from which Ian was given Hungarian issues and his brother the space stamps. Ian brought some approvals which were labels from South America and this was the one and only time. Poor purchase number two was paying a friend £10 for about 1000 pictorials. They had been stuck down and Ian doubts he would pay that amount even today. The World Cup in 1966 featured and FDC’s. The most interesting four cards were from Poland asking for brochures about things produced in the UK.
Ian collects in loose leaf binders and uses pdf printed pages. Russia is one area. There has been 30 years work so far to merge two albums and he has not finished yet and for this he blames the CSPS as he keeps buying more material. However he also buys material on e-Bay such as Montenegro and he also collects Canada.
In 2008 he was offered a stamp album by a relative that turned out to be his mother’s. The family had suffered bomb damage in 1944 and the album had been put away. It contained his grandfathers writing and a lot of South American material. There was a cover with a pre-printed label from Portsmouth and possibly from a relative of his grandfather.
The main areas of interest are Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada and Bosnia Herzegovina but he has a way to go. Canada is a challenge with the heads and papers of the Victorian era. Ian then opened his jacket and revealed his tee shirt and its slogan ‘Chaos Panic Disorder’ which he says sums up his collection.
The vote of thanks was given by Derek Rock for a varied and interesting evening and members applauded in appreciation. These split evenings give members a chance to display smaller selections and gives us all a chance to see varied and unusual material.
12th April 2010 The ½d Bantam of 1870
A Talk and Display by Brian Coates Watford Philatelic Society
The Society was pleased to welcome Brian to give this talk and display. The evening started with some background to the ½ d Bantam issue of Queen Victoria. It was in use for 10 years and printed in sheets of 480 and a reproduction was shown. It was half of the size of the 1d red and was half the value. It was issued on the 1st October 1870 only having received approval in May and June of that year. It was a new printing process. Plates 18, 19 and 20 were used in the last 18 months and Brain commented that you are unable to have a first day of issue cover for plate 19 as it was an 1878 issue and so on. Some inland packet rate examples were shown. In total 22 plates were laid down and 15 used for the issued stamps. A run of plate numbers were displayed, 1,2,3,4,5,6, and 9. Plate 7 was not used.
Examples were shown with shifts and incorrect perfing and it is hard to find fine used issues. There are watermark varieties with reversed, inverted, reversed and inverted stamps to collect. Rows X and A can be found imperf, depending which way round the sheet was inserted and examples from perf and imperf stamps from row X and its margin were shown. Brian is trying to complete a top A row but very few imperf examples come to light.
He also showed specimen stamps which had been prepared at Somerset House, so they had come home, and underprints to deter fraud, although these do not appear on plate 9. There were some peerfin examples and it was noted that no perfins on cover had been found for this collection so far. There are examples with different ampersand types. Examples from the CS Supply Association were shown. Used abroad examples were next with Malta, Gibraltar including examples on cover and Cyprus, cancelled A25, A28 and A26. The Cyprus overprint comes on plates 12, 15 (mostly) and plate 19 and were in use in 1880 and to June 1881. At the end of this period 13,100 copies were sold to Stanley Gibbons. A selection of different postmark cancels came next and overprinted cards for use in Cyprus.
A selection of plates numbers and blocks was shown next and a strip of 3 showing how the watermark covers three stamps. Reserve plate 9 was only destroyed in 1912 and there are not many stamps in circulation. Brian has a postcard postmarked 4th October 1870, missing the first day of issue by 4 days. A wrapper was shown and a book post item. The stamps can appear as backstamps and more to pay examples were shown. There was a railway company item and a newspaper with the stamp attached. There were lots of different postage rates in the 10 year period of use. Registered was 1½d and the letter rate to Europe was displayed being 5 x ½d stamps. An example of a penny pink and a Bantam was shown and the 3d rate to the USA with 6 stamps. A selection of railway station marks was next from different companies and sorting tenders. There was also a wrapper from a colliery. It was noted that a complete sheet of plate 12 was sold for £85,000 in May 1994 at auction.
We think of posting in proportion as something new but we learnt that the ½d packet rate had a size limit, 2 foot wide by 1 foot deep!
Part 2
This consisted of Postal History items and started with a book size packet and examples were shown which had been used for photographic plates. There was the distinctive Dublin cancel and a number of wrappers. Some newspapers were shown and some with very little address and the Bantam attached, for example the Wisbech Times. There was a story of man being knocked down by a mail cart.
Registered post items featured and examples of the sealed letter rate, consisting of two ½d stamps. Letter post items were next and an item to Amsterdam at 2½d rate which had a blue and a Bantam. The registered letter rate to Europe was 6½d between 1st July 1875 and 31st December 1875.
A contrary to regulations items was next with 1d more to pay, a postal vote item which had not been sent, an item from a dental surgery and a receipt wrapper. There was a nice strike of Stirling 308. An admission card for 1879/80 for ice skating was shown and letters covering the latest market prices. A Valentine’s card form Wisbech to Kings Lynn via Sutton Bridge was next and a selection of numeral handstamps including a straight line Watford. The letter sheet rate was 1½d.
Stamps were shown on envelope which had been unsent and unused from ‘The Mutual Life Assurance Society’. There was a special envelope produced by an undertaker for sending Christmas cards with a fake bantam and cancel and a handstamp from the period used 100 years later as a commemoration, but it missed the day being 2nd October 1970 by one day. Tangier issued a stamp and cover to mark the last day of ½d postage anywhere in the world and a GB item from 1969 was shown of the last day of the ½ d rate. Large covers rounded things off, the 2½d rate to Europe with an additional 10d for weight, registered to Europe 4d Registered, 2½d and 1½d additional postage and finally a Midlands Railway cover.
The vote of thanks was given by Margaret Emerson for another interesting talk and display. The certificate presented was well received as it depicted in its design the special Bantam watermark and members applauded in appreciation of the evening.
10th May 2010 Members’ Displays
Seven members brought in items to display and this gave a varied evening with some displays covering more than one topic.
Margaret Emerson: Seven sheets of the George VI Fiji long set showing a number of varieties and some flaws. Margaret had only acquired this material en route to the April meeting so it was nice to be able to display it so soon. The second part of this display was the latest GB issues for the Accession of George V and the 2010 Festival of Stamps: the miniature sheets, the PHQ cards and the Prestige booklet. Again these were hot off the press as they were only issued on the 6th and 8th May.
Bob van Goethem: Bob displayed Channel Islands bisected stamps on card, cover and piece. The display covered the short period between the end of December 1940 and the end of February 1941. The bisects cut top left to bottom right or top right to bottom left were permitted on the 2d Centenary issue, the KGVI 2d definitive and the GV definitive of 1912 and the later issue from 1934. The Centenary issue is the most common with an estimated 100,000 used, the rarer KGVI used about 16,000 and the two KGV issues 500 each. Most of the material seems to be from enthusiastic stamp collectors with commercial covers much rarer. Bob has tried to find pairs of the stamps and first posting dates etc. There are machine cancels from 1941 where the date slug 0 in 1940 was modified to make a 1 so it is curved ‘(‘, including one with an inverted cds in the machine canceller on an unaddressed cover dated 17th January. Local post offices used double ring CDS’s.
George Goodall: George displayed a number of cards showing trams in various parts of the world and a Last Day Cover for the trams in New South Wales. A number of booklets were also shown depicting trams and the history of trams and travel for London, the Isle of Man, Blackpool, Edinburgh and Glasgow. The second part of the display was unusual issues from Germany for Storkow and Leipzig-Westsachsen.
Peter Harris: Peter displayed a nice selection of all the Numeral Maltese Cross cancels either on stamp, covers or piece. A re-directed item was included with initially a numeral Maltese Cross and on re-direction just a plain Maltese Cross.
Ron Oughton: Ron’s display was of 1d reds and ½d Bantams. The display started with mint 1d Reds in pairs, triples, blocks of 4, other multiples, mis-perfs and multiples with the selvedge and instructional wording. There were also used examples in blocks including one with a T.A.B. Edinburgh boxed cancellation. This remains a mystery despite a request for info in an earlier Bulletin. The display rounded off with some ½d Bantams.
Derek Rock: This was a three part display starting with a number of Uruguay stamps with Expert Committee certificates. Secondly were a number of Registered envelopes from various parts of the Commonwealth. Thirdly, was some material from Bumbunga. The Province of Bumbunga was created on 29th March, 1976, when former English circus monkey trainer and uranium prospector-turned farmer Alex Brackstone declared his 4 hectare property near Snowtown, South Australia, to be independent of the Commonwealth of Australia, and himself to be its Governor. Bum means ‘No stamps done’, Bunga means ‘a tail’ from NSW Aboriginees. The display included crude Silver Jubilee QEII issues and ‘stamps’ for the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, Issue number 4.
David Wilkins: This display focused on stamps from the Baltic States issued between WW1 and WWII. It included several from Estonia and Lithuania and a number for Red Cross Funds. When paper ran out stamps were printed on bank notes. The display also included some hyper-inflation issues.
The Society thanks all the Members who brought in items to display and it was especially nice to see a newly joined member taking part.
7th June 2010 Annual General Meeting See other webpage.
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