Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2023 i Stamp Collector

Alex Haimann was a junior philatelist on a family holiday to the UK when his fascination with the Anglo-Zulu War was first sparked. ‘The stamp collector in me knew I had just arrived in the birthplace of the postage stamp and so much more!’ he remembers. With his parents’ permission, he set out on a walkabout. ‘I noticed a sign for the Guards Museum and their gift shop – The Guards Toy Soldier Centre,’ Alex continues. ‘As I entered, I was stunned to see wall-to-wall displays filled with dioramas composed of thousands of hand-painted toy soldiers. One of the many displays featured the 1879 Anglo-Zulu War. After examining each figure in that display, I went to the front counter and asked for more information about the Anglo-Zulu War. The gentleman…

The most popular table-top game in the history of gaming is celebrated in the Royal Mail’s new Warhammer special set of six stamps, which marks the 40th anniversary of the iconic wargame. Warhammer was first developed in 1983 by Games Workshop subsidiary Citadel Miniatures, who were already producing the figurines used in Dungeons and Dragons. Games Workshop asked game designer Rick Priestley, who had recently joined the company, to develop a medieval-fantasy miniature wargame as a free giveaway to encourage D&D players to buy more miniature figures. The result was Warhammer Fantasy Battle, which differed from Dungeons and Dragons in its incorporation of such technologically advanced sci-fi elements as laser weapons. It was a resounding success, and the next incarnation, Warhammer 40,000, took the model firmly in the direction of…

The island of Curaçao, which was first settled by Awarak people from the South American mainland, was colonised by Spain in 1527, and governed by Spain from Venezuela. The Spanish imported many non-resident species to Curaçao, but although some thrived, the island’s agricultural yields were disappointing. Curaçao was taken over by the Dutch West India Company in 1634, and became increasingly important as a colony, producing crops including cotton, tobacco sorgo and sugar cane. The first plantations were built from the middle of the century, some under the control of the Dutch WIC, leading to a massive influx of slaves. The island’s dry climate made it unsuitable for large-scale agriculture, and instead Curaçao developed into a hub for the slave trade. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the buying and…

The idea of World Heritage Sites emerged out of a crisis. Construction of the Aswan High Dam on the river Nile in Egypt, which had begun in 1960, was threatening to inundate the monuments and temples in the river valley. Amongst these, the temples of Pharaoh Ramses II at Abu Simnel and the sanctuary of Isis at Philae, were the most highly valued. In order to save the temples, UNESCO launched an international rescue mission which eventually resulted in the temples being dismantled and reassembled on higher ground. UNESCO’s rallying call was that the loss of the temples would be a major loss not only to Egypt’s heritage, but for the world as whole (figure 1). The ‘Nubian Campaign’, as it was called, became the catalyst for a more structured…

It’s a custom throughout the world in many, if not most, civilisations for given names for children to sometimes be the same as parents, or grandparents. For names that are well known in the UK, then the given name Robert in the family of Bruce will be one, beginning with King Robert Bruce of Scotland. It’s fitting then that both covers illustrated and described are addressed to The Hon. Mrs Robert Bruce at a country house in Scotland during 1940 and 1941, this Robert Bruce being descended from the Scottish king through the Earls of Elgin. In time of war, postal services are disrupted, but with fortitude and thought, correspondence does reach the intended recipients. The length of time it took for the first illustrated cover and letter to travel…

NEW STAMPS MARK WINDRUSH 75 Royal Mail recently launched eight stamps to mark the 75th Anniversary of the arrival of MV Empire Windrush to the UK, at the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton. The MV Empire Windrush arrived at the Port of Tilbury on 21 June 1948 and its passengers disembarked a day later. It carried several hundred West Indian migrants, many of them veterans of the Second World War. It has come to symbolise the mass migration of people from the Caribbean to the United Kingdom in the post-war era. The original artworks were created by five Black British artists - all with Caribbean heritage: Kareen Cox, Bokiba, Tomekah George, Alvin Kofi, Emma Prempeh and Alvin Kofi Cox; Bokiba and Prempeh designed two stamps each. The artists were commissioned…

The 1960s saw a major change to British stamp design. Soon to be history were singlecoloured stamps with symbolic designs. From the tentative two-colour Europa pair of 1960 more colours were used to print stamps and relatively soon came the nine-colour EFTA pair of 1967. While symbolism was still endured in the early 1960s with designs such as those for the Post Office Savings Bank in 1961 and National Productivity Year in 1962, soon came the purely pictorial approach with National Nature Week in 1963 and the Botanical Congress in 1964. Even the number of new stamps grew: nothing between 1953 and 1957, then six sets in 1963 comprising twelve stamps. Some attribute the changes to Tony Benn as Postmaster General, but he came to office in 1964, by which…

SOLD FOR £1,750 France, Letter franked 2x 40c rare diamond dot cancellation from Honfleur 1905 to Paris SOLD FOR £890 Great Britain, £5 orange QV 1867-83 cancelled London SOLD FOR £890 Belgian Congo, 25c blue Mols 1894 reingraved frame (with cert.) SOLD FOR £488 Austria, registered letter from Vienna 1933 by Zeppelin to Recife Brasil via Friedriechshafen ‘4. Südamerikafahrt’ SOLD FOR £1,513 Luxembourg, 10c William II dark grey 1852 MH (with cert.) SOLD FOR £775 Belgium, Leolopd I ‘Médaillons allongés’ (elongated Medallions) issue 1861 MH SOLD FOR £600 St. Vincent, pair of 6d deep green QV 1862 (SG4b) MH (with cert.) SOLD FOR £615 Ireland, 1976 US Bicentennial 15p error ‘Missing Silver’ inscription, face value and country name omitted, MNH (with cert.) SOLD FOR £1,513 Sweden, 55ö blue Gustav V…

CINDERELLAS Hard to identify railway parcel stamps The world of Cinderella stamps is particularly rich in items which puzzle many collectors, writes Christer Brunström. There are multiple reasons why they are difficult to identify, including writing in unfamiliar languages or unknown acronyms. Some knowledge of basic geography is undoubtedly needed in order to correctly identify the illustrated stamp as the design features a map, the letters H.F.H.J and the denomination 60 øre. Perhaps the best clue is the denomination of 60 øre as this refers to a monetary unit used in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. However, the use of the letter ø narrows down the possibilities to either Denmark or Norway. With a good magnifying glass it should be possible to discover a number of names on the map starting…

Look away if you suffer from coulrophobia, or fear of clowns, because in the coming three pages you will be facing your worst nightmare. You are about to be slapped in the face, not with a custard pie, but, striking terror into the hearts of coulrophobic philatelists everywhere, with images not just of clowns, but clowns on stamps. The week of 1-7 August is International Clown Week, and in America, 7 August is National Clown Day, so let’s lets lace up our slap shoes, pull on our big clown’s pants and tiptoe through the tulips of a thematic that is either happy and jolly (if you like face-painted funny people) or utterly horrific (if you don’t). Perhaps the best-known clown stamp is the 1966 5c issued in the USA on…

Radar is an acronym for Radio Detection and Ranging. The history of this vital and multi-use technology dates back to the 1880s, but the first genuine break-through came during World War I when Scottish inventor, Robert Wilson-Watt, realised that radio signals were interrupted by passing aircraft. Over the next decade, various teams worked on what was termed ‘the fading effect’ and by the 1940s at least a dozen nations had their own fledgling – and highly secret – radar systems. For philatelists who are interested in a radar thematic, the history of the technology makes a great starting point. One of the earliest radar innovators was Heinrich Hertz. More famous for his research into electricity, Hertz was one of the first to prove that radio waves could be reflected from…

PART EIGHT - THE STAMP HINGES Doctor Grant carefully continued caring for the stricken Theodor Buhl, who remained unconscious and immobile upon the surgeon’s surgical table. Without taking his eyes from the patient the doctor explained to the two journalists the immediate danger the stamp dealer was in as a result of his head injury. “The next twenty four hours are critical for Mr Buhl. Keeping his airways clear is the immediate concern, but only time will tell if he will make a full recovery and whether there is any lasting damage. Whatever the outcome he’s going to be out of commission for a few days at best. Perhaps you two could make some enquiries and establish the reason he is here in Cairo and if he’s travelling with anyone…

The ABPS national stamp competition entries will be on show at the York Stamp Fair this year on 21 and 22 July. Entries in all classes will be on view. The York event takes is held at The Grandstand, York Racecourse, York YO23 1EX. Find out more at: https://stampshows.net/york-stamp-coin-fair The World Post & Parcel Awards were recently held in Estonia, with the Ukrainian post office, Ukrposhta winning the award for Philatelic Campaign of the Year, for their series of defiant and often provocative stamps issued following the Russian invasion. Described as the ‘Oscars of the mail and express industry’, the awards were held as part of the World Mail & Express Europe Conference in Tallinn in June. Leeds Stamp Fair is set to take place on Saturday 18 and Sunday…

PRICES INCLUDE BUYER’S PREMIUM UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED RECORD BREAKER! David Feldman auction house in Geneva recently offered ‘one of the most important Japanese stamp collections’ including the most valuable stamp of Asia: the 500 mon inverted centre. An Asian gentleman, bidding via phone, was said to be delighted to become the buyer with a world record price of €5.4 million. According to the auction house, the underbidder, an ‘esteemed European collector’, was very disappointed to be outbid. He told the auctioneers: ‘I had prepared my bid as high as 4 million Euros and even made a few more steps, but now I must congratulate the new owner!’ The lot description explained why the stamp is so scarce: ‘In 1871, the first series of Japanese stamps comprised stamps featuring a dragon…

As regular readers will know, in addition to discussing the designs, this regular feature also suggests fair prices to pay for individual stamps or the full set. When pricing stamps we need to consider several variables including rarity, quality and demand. One can safely assume that there is considerable demand for the set as it is a most attractive one and a key set among New Zealand’s modern definitive stamp issues. As it was released in the mid-1930s, most stamps are likely to have been hinged onto album pages reducing the available quantity of unmounted mint (UMM) considerably. Most of today’s collectors prefer their stamp to be in pristine condition without any marks or remains of hinges and many are willing to pay a premium for this kind of quality.…

Some 150 years have passed since Curaçao’s first postage stamps were put into circulation. With an area of 171 square miles, slightly less than Andorra, the island in the Caribbean Lesser Antilles is one of the world’s smallest countries. Following a referendum, it has been an autonomous democratic federal state within the Kingdom of the Netherlands since 2010. In the 16th century, Spaniards were the first Europeans to claim the island after its discovery. After the conquest by Admiral Johann van Walbeeck for the Dutch West India Company, the Spaniards surrendered in August 1634 and were deported to Venezuela. From 1662, the slave trade became the island’s most profitable use for two centuries. It was not until 1 July 1863 that the Dutch also put an end to slavery. Between…

Ernest Rutherford was born in 1871 in a small town in New Zealand. His father was a practical, hands-on wheelwright who later built and ran flax mills. His mother was a teacher, with a passionate belief in the power of education. As an experimental physicist, Rutherford would combine the best of these gifts. He excelled at school and Canterbury College (now the University of New Zealand). In 1894 he won a scholarship to far-away Cambridge University, to study at the famous Cavendish Laboratory. He quickly became one of the world’s leading experts on the newly-discovered phenomenon of radioactivity. Moving to McGill then Manchester Universities, Rutherford found himself at the heart of the debate about what atoms were made of. The first, ancient Greek philosophers of atoms had imagined they were…

‘Postal stationery’ as a philatelic term refers to envelopes, cards etc that have a stamp directly printed onto them to pay the postage. As has often been noted, this was Rowland Hill’s original idea for implementing prepayment for Penny Postage, with adhesives being something of an afterthought. A minute of 26 December 1839 that named the winners of the ‘Treasury Competition’ directed that four different kinds of postage stamps should be prepared: stamped covers and stamped envelopes (the Mulready letter-sheets and envelopes), adhesive stamps (you may have heard of these somewhere), and ‘Stamps to be struck on paper of any description, which the public may send to the Stamp-office for that purpose’. This last was what is referred to as ‘stamped to order’ (STO) in a GB context (often called…