Philatelic News

February 17th 2011

Stamp issue of the day ~ Ireland: St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland and one of Christianity’s most widely known figures. Although the dates cannot be fixed with certainty, it’s widely believed he began his religious training during the second half of the fifth century. He studied for more than 15 years before becoming ordained as a priest and then travelled around the country converting the Irish people to Christianity. Nowadays, Irish priests study and are ordained in a college named in his honour.

St. Patrick’s College Maynooth is the National Seminary for Ireland and is located 15 miles from Dublin. The college was officially established as the Roman Catholic College of St. Patrick in 1795, after the then Secretary of State Thomas Pelham introduced a bill for the foundation of a Catholic college.

Between 1875 and 1891, the college chapel was built using the architecture of J.J. McCarthy, who was Professor of Architecture of the Catholic University. Postponed for nearly 100 years due to a lack of money, the chapel’s completion was funded by the contributions of the Irish people. This was quite a feat given

that the country was still recovering from the Great Famine and the foundation of the State had not even taken place yet. Today, the chapel is widely celebrated for its stunning stained glass windows, mosaic marbled floor, massive organ and the row upon row of carved oak choir-stalls that fill the whole church.

To mark St. Patrick’s Day for 2011, Steve Simpson has designed a stamp based on a stone carving of St. Patrick at the entrance to the spire of this great chapel.

Technical details:

Date of issue: 17/Feb/2011

Denomination: 82c

Printing process: Lithography

Design: Steve Simpson

Stamp size: 29.79mm x 40.64mm

Sheets: 16 stamps

Visit An Post‘s online shop.

Source
The collector. Irish stamps, 2011. Pag. 19-20.

Posted at 6:00am and tagged with: Ireland, issues, two column,.

February 16th 2011

Stamp issue of the day ~ Singapore: Pond life

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A pond is an inland body of standing water, either natural or man-made, which is smaller than a lake. It undergoes marked changes as time passes, and the most obvious changes that one will notice is that one form of plant follows or succeeds another, and the different life forms that make the pond a lively and busy place.

There are plenty of opportunities for exciting discoveries at a pond, and this set of Definitives stamps, ($1.10, $2, $5 and $10) with its intricate designs, shows some commonly found life forms at a pond.

Technical details:

Date of issue: 16/Feb/2011
Printing process: Rotogravure
Stamp size: 50mm x 30mm
Sheets: 50 stamps

Visit Singapore Post‘s online shop.

(Source: shop.vpost.com.sg)

Posted at 2:00am and tagged with: issues, Singapore, two column,.

February 15th 2011

UPU: Transforming the postal service

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Postal leaders were activelly debating postal service’s future. Close to 600 delegates from 116 countries met in Nairobi, Kenya, last september. A highlight of the note published by Union Postale.

New technologies, electronic substitution, competition, mergers, changing customer behaviours and needs, market liberalisation and climate change are all affecting the nature and future of postal services. These are undergoing what UPU Director General Edouard Dayan calls “a period of radical transformation”. Trends and the recent economic crisis have spurred Posts worldwide to find new ways to meet customer needs. “It would be risky not to explore new avenues,” warned Dayan.

Such new avenues have become clearer as the postal sector lifts itself out of an economic crisis that has accelerated a trend of declining letter-post volumes but also unveiled a plethora of business opportunities and strength of the postal sector. With more than 600,000 post offices around the world, the sector is still the largest physical distribution network on the planet. (…)

Money, money, money

Postal financial services in particular are proving to be a promising business growth area as international leaders and organisations seek ways to give millions of unbanked people access to financial inclusion. (…)

E-commerce growth

In the area of parcels, e-commerce has been fuelling volume growth. This trend continued even during the crisis, blunting the latter’s overall effect on the postal business. Recent data gathered by the UPU from 20 of the world’s largest Posts and express carriers suggests that the parcel and express segments are recovering well from the crisis, with both displaying positive growth in 2010 compared to the year before.

Customs issues and better integration of the logistics chain must be overcome, however, for cross-border e-commerce to develop more easily, said conference participants. Kunio Mikuriya, the World Customs Organization’s secretary general, stressed that cooperation and partnerships between customs authorities and postal companies were key to improving the movement of goods across borders.

Delegates finally discussed how to ensure the sector’s sustainable development, in particular how to reduce postal activities’ carbon footprint. Concern for environmentally-friendly services and products can be a tremendous competitive advantage. Speaking by video link from New York, Achim Steiner, the United Nations Environment Programme’s executive director, urged the postal sector to assume its responsibilities and to continue the activities it had already undertaken.

Source
Union Postale. UPU, 2010(4). Pag. 13-16.

Posted at 9:00am and tagged with: UPU, postal service, two column,.

February 15th 2011

Stamp issue of the day ~ Australia: Centenary of International Women’s Day

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International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. It is the story of ordinary women as makers of history and is rooted in the struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men. The IWD global centenary is celebrated in 2011.

The first IWD was held on 19 March 1911 when more than a million European women united, calling for the right of women to vote, work and hold public office and an end to discrimination. In 1910, at an international conference of women held in Copenhagen, a woman named Clara Zetkin (leader of the “Women’s Office” for the Social Democratic Party in Germany) tabled the idea of an International Women’s Day. Clara would go on to launch the very first International Women’s Day on 19 March the following year.

International Women’s Day has been celebrated on 8 March each year since 1913, when the date was transferred from 19 March. It aims to promote positive change and raise awareness about problems women face in their everyday lives and is also a chance to celebrate the achievements of women. This date is also designated in many countries as a national holiday.

The stamp combines images and graphic elements, including the symbol for women, to create a celebratory feel that conveys the sense that this is a centenary for all women.

Technical details:

Date of issue: 15/Feb/2011
Printing process: Lithography
Stamp size: 37.5mm x 26mm
Sheets: 50 stamps

Visit Australian Post‘s online shop.

Source
1. “Centenary of International Women’s Day”. Stamp Bulletin, Australia Post, Jan-Feb 2011. Pag. 12-13.

Posted at 2:00am and tagged with: issues, Australia, two column,.

February 14th 2011

Stamp issue of the day ~ United States: Patriotic Quill and Inkwell

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USPS issues in Kansas City, Missouri, a Patriotic Quill and Inkwell 44-cent definitive stamp, in one design in a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) coil of 3,000 stamps and a PSA coil of 10,000. The stamp, designed by Craig Frazier.

The stamp features a white quill pen dipping into a red-white-and-blue inkwell accented with stars. The image evokes the founding era and highlights the links between today’s correspondence and the past.

Craig Frazier created the stamp art digitally. As for the dark blue and cream colors chosen for the background, according to Art Director, Derry Noyes, Washington, DC, “they help make the red, white and blue pop off the page, without detracting from or competing with the strong silhouette.”

Stamp Fulfillment Services (SFS) also offers first day covers ($0.82) for new stamp issues and Postal Service stationery items postmarked with the official first day of issue cancellation.

Technical details:

Date of issue: 14/Feb/2011
Printing process: Offset/Microprint “USPS”
Stamp size: 22.1mm x 24.89mm
Stamp per coil: 3,000 & 10,000
Edition: 60 million

Source
USPS. Postal Bulletin (22303), 27/Jan/2011. Pag. 43

Posted at 8:00am and tagged with: issues, United States, two column,.

February 14th 2011

Phillips Collection online @ BPMA

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In 1965, Reginald M Phillips donated his award-winning collection of British Victorian stamps to the nation. The former National Postal Museum was in part established to house the collection. Today, The British Postal Museum & Archive has taken over responsibility for caring and developing access to the Phillips Collection.

The Phillips Collection is an essential resource for the understanding of postage stamps and philatelic research. It contains the world’s very first, first day cover - that of the Penny Black. It also includes 1839 Treasury Essays for pre-paid postage, Rowland Hill letters and unique proofs and studies of stamps such as the Twopenny Blue and the Penny Red.

The Penny Black Changed the World project in 2005-2006 - supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund - has allowed for all 45 volumes of the Phillips Collection to be digitised (pages that contain only text have not been digitised as the text is copied in the relevant catalogue entry).

Highlights

Postal reform. In 1837, Rowland Hill wrote a booklet called Post Office Reform. He wanted to change the way people paid for postage, making postage cheaper but increasing the use of the mail. In a letter written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in November 1839, he suggested that ‘It [the New Postage Act] should introduce the practice of charging by weight’. A 14-page draft of this letter, is included in Volume I of the Phillips Collection (use the numbers at the top of the image page to skip forward through the 14 pages).

Treasury competition. Once Hill’s idea had been accepted, the Treasury ran a public competition for ideas to put Hill’s notions into practice. Various ideas came to light, including pre-paid envelopes and marks. Rowland Hill himself suggested “a bit of paper just large enough to bear the stamp, and covered at the back with a glutinous wash”. The Phillips Collection contains most of the competition entries outside the Royal Philatelic Collection. On Volume I, page 15 there are two typical entries by James Chalmers of Dundee.

The first stamps. One result of the Treasury Competition was the use of Queen Victoria’s head as a means to avoid forgery. The Penny Black was created using a combination of the head, put together with other security devices by the printers. The head was based on the City Medal by William Wyon, the foremost medallist of the time, and shows the young Queen Victoria created from a sketch when she was aged just 15. Wyon’s medal was sketched by Henry Corbould and this was used by Charles and Frederick Heath to engrave the head on to a die for printing by line engraving. The Phillips Collection contains a bronze and a silver Wyon medal. Volume IV, page 3 of the collection shows the first ‘first day cover’ in the world: a Penny Black used on 6 May 1840, the first day of validity. Two days later, on 8 May 1840, the Twopenny Blue was introduced.

Mulready envelopes. Prepaid ‘Mulready’ stationery was also introduced in 1840. Envelopes and lettersheets were designed by artist William Mulready as alternative ways of prepaying postage, but his fanciful design was caricatured mercilessly. Volume II, page 16 shows an example of Mulready used on 1 May 1840 when it was first put on sale.

Rainbow Trials. Even before the first stamp was issued it was found that the red Maltese Cross mark used to cancel a stamp could be removed from the Penny Black. This meant unscrupulous people could reuse a cancelled stamp, depriving the government of revenue. Black ink seemed to be the best, but this did not really work well with a black stamp! The ‘Rainbow Trials’ began in March 1840: they were ink trials to find an alternative colour using a specially created printing plate. Volume VIII of the Phillips Collection shows many beautiful examples of the wide range of colours tried, before red-brown was agreed upon and the Penny Red was introduced in 1841.

Perforations. To begin with, individual stamps were snipped from a sheet of 240 with scissors (there were 240 old pence to the pound). Between 1848 and 1854, various trials were carried out to try and find a better way of separating stamps from a sheet. Different printing methods had to be used, as the wet printing process used for the first stamps caused each sheet to shrink as it dried. Examples of some of these trials can be found in Volume XXII. In early 1854, the first officially perforated Penny Red was put into circulation.

Postal Fiscals. The Inland Revenue was created in 1849 by combining the Stamps and Taxes Office with the Excise Office. ‘Fiscal stamps’ were used by the Government Revenue departments to indicate the payment of a particular duty or tax. This is the same idea as a stamp or label to show paid postage revenue. The revenue ‘stamps’ embossed the relevant page in the records. The Inland Revenue felt that flat printed stamps could be an alternative to embossing. The first flat printed fiscal stamps were registered in October 1853. In 1881 these labels were made valid for postage, and became known as ‘postal fiscals’ – an alternative to ‘proper’ postage stamps. Volume XLIII includes many examples of Inland Revenue postal fiscals.

Railway Letter Post. Volume XLIII also includes material on the Railway Letter Post. This started on 1 February 1891, and allowed letters to be sent between two railway stations, where they could either be collected or posted on. This was a fast and direct service for urgent mail, and to send a letter via the Railway Letter Post cost 2d on top of the ordinary postage rate. Volume XLIII includes an artist’s drawings, proofs and actual examples of 3d Railway Letter Post stamps.I It also includes a nine-page document from 1890 about the inauguration of the Railway Letter Post (use the numbers across the top of the webpage to scroll through the different pages).

Jubilee Issues. Despite the name, the ‘Jubilee Issue’ stamps were not intended to mark the Golden Jubilee year of Queen Victoria in 1887. As Reginald Phillips explains in his introductory notes to Volume XLI, “It was the result of several years’ work by a special committee and the staff designers of Messrs De La Rue, the printers, to produce a set of stamps each value of which could be easily and clearly differentiated by Post Office Sorters even under adverse operational and lighting conditions.” (Go to catalogue entry for the page which displays this text). The first stamps of this set were issued in 1887, hence the Jubilee name, but more continued to be issued until 1901. Volume XLI contains essays, proofs, imprimaturs (the sheets of stamps submitted to Somerset House for endorsement to authorise the use of the printing plate), ‘specimens’ and unused issued stamps from this set. Of particular interest in Volume XLI are the ‘Jubilee’ colour trials. Volume XLI, page 36 shows a series of colour trials for one of the last stamps of Victoria’s reign, the bi-coloured 1/- of 1900.

Visit BPMA website and enjoy this wonderful collection!

Source
2011, The British Postal Museum and Archive website. Consulted 8/Feb/2011.

Posted at 6:00am and tagged with: United Kingdom, famous collections, two column, museums,.

February 13th 2011

135 years of Union Postale

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On July 1, 1875, the Treaty of the General Postal Union came into force for 22 signatory states. Its new secretariat, known as the International Bureau (IB), was set up in Bern, the Swiss capital, and seat of the organization’s founding. On the ground floor of Bundesgasse 14 on what was described as the city’s “high street”, work began on September 15, 1875. The building had a noble neighbour opposite – the Swiss parliament building. At that time, about 40,000 people were living in Bern and nearly 10 per cent were manual workers employed mostly in the textile industry.

Six staff members were appointed to run the IB. The first director, Eugène Borel, came from the Swiss Post, and had an annual salary of 16,000 francs. He was joined by the French-speaking Arsène Morel as first secretary, previously from the Belgian Post, and a second secretary, Hermann Galle, from Germany. Joining them were a translator and two administrators.

Birth of a journal

It is doubtful whether the secretariat was overjoyed at the prospect of producing a journal alongside all their other duties. According to the IB’s first management report, this “obligation” to provide a review in three languages was “difficult”. The first dilemma to resolve was whether to produce one trilingual review or three separate language versions of the same journal. The trilingual approach won and the decision taken to produce 16 pages monthly.

The first Union Postale, published on October 1, 1875, and focusing on the minutiae of setting up an IB, was a hit with its readers. The first run of 2,000 copies was exhausted quickly, leaving the IB to issue a second edition. The second month, 4,000 copies were printed but the director feared that even this run would not be enough to assuage the demand.

However, Borel’s overall feelings towards this new journal seemed to have been mixed. “ …aside from the editorial services, this publication requires a considerable amount of work from our staff and we thought it only fair to pay our translator his entire annual wage (for four months on the payroll),” he wrote.

The magazine today

Union Postale 135 years later is printed quarterly in seven separate language versions and remains a small operation, managed by the IB’s communication programme. Just as Posts have seen their sector rapidly evolve since 1875, so too has the magazine adapted to the ever-changing media landscape and information needs of its readers in form and content.

Source
Faryal Mirza, “Union Postale magazine then and now”. Union Postale (3)2010. Pag. 18-19.

Posted at 1:00pm and tagged with: UPU, literature, magazines, two column,.

February 12th 2011

Stamp issue of the day ~ United States: Navajo Jewelry

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USPS issues in Charleston, South Carolina, a 2-cent Navajo Jewelry definitive stamp in a water-activated gum (WAG) coil of 10,000 stamps. The stamp, designed by Derry Noyes, Washington, DC, goes on sale nationwide February 12, 2011.

The Navajo Jewelry stamp was first issued in August 2004 in a pressure-sensitive pane of 20 stamps and was the fifth issuance in the American Design series.

First Day Cover, priced $0.84, is the only philatelic product available for this stamp issue.

Technical details:

Date of issue: 12/Feb/2011
Printing process: Offset/Microprint “USPS”
Stamp size: 22.1mm x 24.89mm
Stamps per coil: 10,000
Edition: 200 million

Source
USPS. Postal Bulletin (22303), 27/Jan/2011. Pag. 42

Posted at 8:00am and tagged with: issues, United States, two column,.

February 12th 2011

Spring Philatex 2011 ~ 24th to 26th February @ London

2 notes |#

International Stamps & Cover Show.

There are upwards of 80 Dealers with stands, buying and selling Philatelic material. Tables and chairs at the stands make for comfort. You can buy or sell, get valuations or just browse and see what the hobby is all about. There are various specialist society meetings on the Saturday to which everyone is welcome, whether member or not.

Venue
The Royal Horticultural Halls, Lawrence Hall
Greycoat & Elverton Street - London SW1P 2QD

Contact
www.stampshows.net

Posted at 6:00am and tagged with: United Kingdom, events, fairs, two column, London,.

February 11th 2011

There’s Always Work at the Post Office by Philip F. Rubio

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Published 2010 by University of North Carolina Press. 472 pp., 46 illus., notes, bibl., index. Hardcover ISBN 978-0-8078-3342-1, $65. Paperback ISBN 978-0-8078-5986-5, $24.95. Website: http://uncpress.unc.edu/

From the publisher:

This book brings to life the important but neglected story of African American postal workers and the critical role they played in the U.S. labor and black freedom movements. Historian Philip Rubio, a former postal worker, integrates civil rights, labor, and left movement histories that too often are written as if they happened separately. Centered on New York City and Washington, D.C., the book chronicles a struggle of national significance through its examination of the post office, a workplace with facilities and unions serving every city and town in the United States.

Black postal workers—often college-educated military veterans—fought their way into postal positions and unions and became a critical force for social change. They combined black labor protest and civic traditions to construct a civil rights unionism at the post office. They were a major factor in the 1970 nationwide postal wildcat strike, which resulted in full collective bargaining rights for the major postal unions under the newly established U.S. Postal Service in 1971. In making the fight for equality primary, African American postal workers were influential in shaping today’s post office and postal unions.

Posted at 9:00am and tagged with: United States, literature, reviews, post office, two column,.