newsletter april - august 2020 · items of interest and new acquisitions. february feb 2021...

PORT ELIZABETH PHILATELIC SOCIETY

PORT ELIZABETH FILATELIEVERENIGING

ESTABLISHED 1890 - RECONSTITUTED 1912

Address: PO Box 15558, Emerald Hill, 6011, RSA

Venue: Bible Society House, 31 Cotswold Avenue, Cotswold

Correspondence: [email protected]

Volume 4 No 4-8

Newsletter April - August 2020

TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE

Editor's note ………..................................................................................................

From the secretary's desk .......................................................................................

Rolling programme for 2020/2021 ……………….....................................................

Items of interest ………............................................……….....................................

Algoapex 2020 ………..............................................................................................

Freebies and virtual auction ……….........................................................................

Editor's titbits ……………………………………………..….……………...……………

1

1

1

2

8

9

10

office-bearers

President/editor

Francois Friend

082 554 8900 Vice president David Brown 041 360 4025 Secretary/treasurer/exchange superintendent Rodney Maclachlan 072 619 5409 Honorary auditor Barry Green 041 368 8504 Librarian John Haigh 041 373 0604 Catering, functions, trophies and awards

Desre Kapp Vernon Mitchell

072 237 8944 082 572 9127

Next meeting who knows?? we will let you know when allowed again.

Copyright in this newsletter is reserved. No publication or dissemination of its contents is allowed without written permission from the

Port Elizabeth Philatelic Society.

Port Elizabeth Philatelic Society newsletter © 2020

Apr - Aug 2020 Page 1

editor's note

Well well, it has been a while since a PEPS newsletter appeared on an email horizon near you as when we completed the March edition, little did we know the impact the corona pandemic would have on life as we know it. Naturally we had to cancel all meetings from April onwards and still await allowance for societies like ours to have meetings again, even though we are now in lockdown level 2. We hope you will enjoy the April - August newsletter that has been "constructed" from bits and bobs, seeing that we had no meetings for a content basis. (Hmm, as a future check if people actually read the newsletter, we will for the time being place special offers from one of our sponsors within the newsletter, hopefully well camouflaged, to test this.)

from the secretary's desk

Naturally it has been a while since we had some birthdays so what follows are all those announcements since the previous newsletter. Birthdays for May 2020: Dick Schuurman 8 May; for June 2020: Barry Green 2 Jun, Dudley De Klerk 15 Jun, Ron Cleland 25 Jun and Werner van der Merwe 28 Jun; for July 2020: Rob Cummings 21 Jul; for August 2020: Ben Calitz 7 Aug, Bernard Du Plessis 19 Aug; Dr John Haigh 21 Aug and Denise Cope-Morgan 25 Aug; and for September 2020: Cecil Allers 2 Sep, Ilmar Latti 13 Sep, Wayne Brewer 17 Sep and Ray Weare 21 Sep. For all those past we trust you all had great birthdays and those still coming up likewise.

rolling programme for 2020/2021

month date happenings

September 7 Sep 2020

nope

Dave Berg Cup for best thematic display competition. Show some of your favourite stamps, covers, etc. Items of interest and new acquisitions.

October 5 Oct 2020 don't know

Contemporary Cup competition. Items of interest and new acquisitions.

November 2 Nov 2020 don't know

TJ Strachan Ladies Bowl competition. General trading night and auction - bring some of your material that you wish to dispose of. Items of interest and new acquisitions.

December 2 Dec 2020

President's night.

January Jan 2021

Quarterly Cup and Contemporary Cup competitions. Items of interest and new acquisitions.

February Feb 2021

President's Cup for the best one country exhibit competition. General trading night and auction - bring some of your material that you wish to dispose of. Items of interest and new acquisitions.

March Mar 2021

Annual general meeting. Items of interest and new acquisitions.

April Apr 2021

Philatelic Services Stamp’s Friend Trophy and PEPS team competitions. General trading night and auction - bring some of your material that you wish to dispose of. Items of interest and new acquisitions.

May May 2021

Quarterly Cup competition. Show some of your favourite stamps, covers, etc. Items of interest and new acquisitions.

June Jun 2021

Mike Koyd Postal History Shield and PEPS team competitions. General trading night and auction - bring some of your material that you wish to dispose of. Items of interest and new acquisitions.

July Jul 2021

Neville Polakow Trophy competition. Items of interest and new acquisitions.

August Aug 2021

Philatelic Services Stamp’s Friend Trophy competition. General trading night and auction - bring some of your material that you wish to dispose of. Items of interest and new acquisitions.



items of interest

Thanks to two of our members that answered a despairing call for some input into a newsletter. In the end we had two old workhorses reporting for duty; namely Barry Faldo and then our very own Shire horse, Dave Brown. First off Barry forwarded the below miniature sheet from New Zealand with the rightful comment of "quite an achievement for such a small nation", as the following confirm: on Sunday 21 January 2018 New Zealand’s role in the international aerospace industry was elevated to a whole new level, when Rocket Lab launched its Electron rocket into orbit from Mahia Peninsula. This landmark achievement was a critical step in the company’s mission to make space accessible for commercial enterprises.

New Zealand in space miniature sheet from 2018. Next up is Dave that forwarded a large number of items and started off with some Indian perfumed miniature sheets and stamps (yip, lockdown did not change Dave's taste in interesting items, Ed.). These stamps and miniature sheets, which are scented with the perfumes stated, are continuations of a theme reported in this newsletter a little while ago. On the next page are examples for agarwood perfume, also known as Oud, and has a bitter sweet, woody and balsamic nuance. It is reputed to be one of the most expensive perfumes in the world. There are many names for the resinous, fragrant heartwood produced, primarily by trees in the genus aquilaria. Oil extracted from agarwood is used as a high-quality perfume. The Indian sub-continent was the main source of agarwood for many centuries. Today agarwood plantations exist in a number of countries, including India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Thailand and Vietnam. The best quality oil comes out from the first distillation process and after this, the wood undergoes the second distillation. Hence, it is graded according to the number of times it is cooked. With its warm, smoky balsamic fragrance it is sure to calm, inspire and brighten one's mood. The orange blossom miniature sheet and stamps followed the perfumed trend and are shown on next page. Orange blossoms are aromatic, sweet and elegant and are a highly coveted scent in perfumes. It is traditionally associated with good fortune and is often favoured by brides on their wedding day. It is the fragrant flower of citrus sinensis (the orange tree) and is one of the most popular flowers in perfume making. It came to India originally through Chinese travellers and traders and later through the Portuguese and Dutch. Today India, Brazil and China are the largest cultivators of the orange tree. Orange blossom essence is an important component in the making of perfume. The fragrant flower is used by many top perfumers and is usually combined with floral bouquets and oriental scents.



Indian agarwood perfumed miniature sheet and stamps.

Indian orange blossom perfumed miniature sheet and stamps. Dave then forwarded a felt-based stamp for Christmas 2019 from Estonia. According to the Estonian Post Office the base material of the felt postage stamp is inspired by different folk patterns visible in traditional Estonian textile garments (mittens, belts, etc). On the stamp, different motifs and patterns meet and mix, creating a background resembling snowflakes and providing a fun, wintery mood. The lower text line is designed similarly to traditional patterned mittens. The bright pink background, characteristic of the island of Muhu, displays a text that is designed as pixels, resembling the knitting patterns of traditional mittens. The postage stamp design includes four clean colours with one of these the natural surface of the felt.

Christmas 2019 Christmas stamp from Estonia.



For his next contribution Dave showed the Marianne € 5.00 stamp in silver from France. The most issued definitive stamps, subject-wise, are the "Marianne" stamps that were first issued in 1944. During the two week of 24 August to 5 September members can enjoy a discount of fifty percent on all purchases from the scratch boxes at that stamp shop situated on the western outskirts of the city that house the society. There have been different designs by a range of designers and "she" has been used on most definitive stamps issued since 1944, as well as several commemorative stamps. When Marianne is not clearly wearing a Phrygian cap (the Phrygian cap might have been mistaken for the pileus, a cap worn by emancipated Roman slaves, when it became an emblem of liberty during the French Revolution (1787–1799) - it was adopted by the revolutionaries as "the red cap of liberty" and continues to be associated with the national allegorical figure of Liberté; Ed.), as on the Muller and Cheffer designed Marianne stamps, she is known as ‘the Republic’. Wearing the Phrygian cap Marianne is liberty, egalite and fraternity - in other words the revolution. In 2006 a Marianne stamp printed on silver of .999 purity and less than 1 mm thick was issued, as shown below. Being pure silver, the stamp will tarnish over time, as this stamp has started to, even though in a blister pack.

Marianne € 5.00 stamp in silver from France. Dave also forwarded the below Korsten Post Office cancellation. In the late 1800s and very early 1900s the Cape of Good Hope post offices were issued with circular datestamps with a single outer ring of a diameter of 24/25 mm. The post office name was shown within the upper half of the circle and the date was displayed in two lines, as shown in the example below for 24 April 1901:

AP 24 01

The Korsten circular datestamp below, from 26 June 1937, is an example of a very late usage of these types of single outer ring datestamps.

Korsten Post Office single circular datestamp from 1937. Next Dave forwarded a cancellation asking: "Who would believe that a post office would be named after a bat?" The post office of Vlermuisklip was near Vredendal and Vanrhynsdorp on the West Coast and renamed Lutzville in 1949. A datestamp of Vlermuisklip for 19 July 1937 is shown below. (Dave thanked Francois and Prof Alex Visser for the information.)

Vlermuisklip datestamp from 1937.



Next Dave forwarded an example of a stamp used on cover that can be termed a label. The stamp on the cover below was trialled by the Post Office in 2004. It was sold at only four post offices: Bryanston, Menlyn Centre, Kempton Park and Johannesburg International Airport. Although the experiment was a success in terms of post office revenue and volumes sold, it was customer unfriendly in that a customer would have to stand in a queue each time they needed to post a letter. These could not be bought in bulk as with ordinary stamps. The idea of these stamps/labels was then dropped. With a postmark of Port Elizabeth this stamp was obviously used for philatelic purposes having been bought at one of the post offices listed above and mailed in Port Elizabeth.

Stamp turned label cover from Port Elizabeth. For all those investigative people sitting under lockdowned circumstances, Dave forwarded a riddle. A post office with the name of Medico does not appear in any postal code book available to him, yet on the piece below the stamps are cancelled with a MEDICO 1 handstamp while the registered label is one of Bloemfontein’s numbered 96. Does anyone know the status of Medico? An agency?

The Medico 1 riddle piece.



Seeing that Dave found his riddle shoes he also sent another one. The cover illustrated below is without a stamp and seems never to have had one. The envelope, therefore, should have been taxed. Since the canceller used is a relief hand stamp it begs the question: was this not taxed by favour or default? The date of use of the canceller was 03.04.1990. Or was the wrong canceller used for stamping bulk mail?

Dave's "de-favour" or "default" cover. Next Dave forwarded an unusual "no value" indicator on a Finnish stamp from 2019. The indicator of the "standard rate" postage on the stamp of Finland below is not a rabbit sitting in a field but is, in fact, an outline map of the country. The stamp is from a booklet entitled "Natural Life of Finland" and the below stamp was depicting a Birch tree.

Finland standard rate stamp from 2019. Not yet finished with his riddles and mysteries, Dave then forwarded the taxed envelope mystery. The below envelope has stamps affixed to it to the value of 21c. One of the stamps, the 20c one, is a revenue stamp and therefore of no postal value and tax had to be raised, but why 34c and not 40c? The date of cancellation was 1990.04.03. Any guesses was only 34c was collected as tax?

The taxed envelope mystery.



Next Dave forwarded the Brexit issue stamp of 31 January 2020 from Austria, shown below. Great Britain left the European Common Market on 31 January 2020. Originally this was to happen on 29 March 2019 but the necessary negotiations had not been completed and it was postponed to this year. As extraordinary as the event it is the stamp that was issued for it. Based on the planned withdrawal date of 29 March 2019, a special stamp with this date was printed. On the stamp the ‘map’ of the United Kingdom was painted with light blue transparent lacquer on the design while the rest of the European Union member states were printed in dark blue, using the normal offset process. The original stamp was revised with the former exit date crossed out and supplanted by the new date, 31 January 2020. Due to the high demand, the special stamp was sold out within a very short time.

Austrian Brexit stamp of 31 January 2020. For his final contribution Dave forwarded a new acquisition. Eleven Small European Postal Authorities have formed a "Co-operative" (SEPAC) and each year the countries issue stamps, one or sometimes more, on a specific theme. 2019’s theme was "old residential houses" and the folder includes an unmounted mint copy of one stamp from each of the eleven countries. Each country is at liberty to interpret the theme as they think fit. Below is a copy of one page from the folder:

Page from 2019 SEPAC folder on old residential houses.

A big thank you to Barry and especially David, without your contributions a newsletter would have been extremely difficult to compile!!



…..Corona Lisa.

algoapex 2020

CANCELLED What more can one say. It was with great sadness that the organising committee decided to cancel the Algoapex national stamp exhibition planned for October 2020. Unfortunately the travelling and gathering restrictions in place at the time, and envisaged for October, due to the corona virus left them with no other option. Quite sad.

Lockdowned Lisa......



freebies and virtual auction

With the corona lockdown in place the society had no meetings since March 2020. This also unfortunately meant that the society could not continue with the auctioning of material from the collection of the late Peter Watson. To circumvent this continued process Francois arranged with Gill to obtain some material for the society's first ever "virtual auction". Gill also very kindly made two boxes full of "stuff" available to members free of charge. These boxes included various philatelic literature, for example, SA Philatelists, SA colour catalogues, SA stamps monthly magazines, old PEPS newsletters, etc - see below. These "freebies" are available on a first come first serve principle from Stamp's Friend's premises in Lovemore Heights. Those freebies left after 7 September will be given to either Hospice or Animal Welfare.

Freebies available.

Now for the first virtual auction. The ten lots on auction are described briefly below. Anyone is welcome to physically come and look at the lots (also at Stamp's Friend's premises) before forwarding bids (due to the size of each lot - full albums, no scans will be provided). Bidding will be accepted either via email ([email protected]) or via bidding form on site. The closing date for all bids is Monday 7 September 2020 at 20:00. The winning bid will be R 10 above the next highest bid received, thus even though bidder A bids R 800 for a lot but the next highest bid is R 400, the bid will be closed at R 410 to bidder A. Tied bids will be awarded to the bid received first. Successful bidders will be informed via email after close of the auction, whereafter the lots may be collected after payment.

Lot 1 - blue Ideal 32-page stockbook full of South Africa stamps, mint and used, form the 1990s. Estimate R 50.

Lot 2 - brown Ideal 64-page stockbook with Union of South Africa stamps, used and mint, from 1910 issue, king's heads, pictorial issue, postage dues, plus plus. Estimate R 200+.

Lot 3 - red Lighthouse 32-page stockbook with OFS fiscal stamps; UK field post office cancelled stamps; Natal; Rhodesia and Nyasaland; Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika; and Mozambique. Estimate R 400++.

Lot 4 - blue Blick spring back binder with Southern Rhodesia (including George VI and Elizabeth II definitive sets) and Rhodesia (including some Elizabeth II definitive sets). Estimate R 1 000++.

Lot 5 - green Rapkin stamp album with union (king's heads to 5s) and RSA stamps, mostly used collection. Estimate R 100.

Lot 6 - brown Albo 22-ring album with used Southern Rhodesia on exhibit pages, including George VI and Elizabeth II definitive sets. Estimate R 500+.

Lot 7 - blue Blick spring back binder with South Africa used stamps, 1961 to 1989. Estimate R 100.

Lot 8 - green Ideal 16-page stockbook with RSA protea and building definitives plus some Ciskei (rust present). R 20.

Lot 9 - Ideal three-division FDC album with Southern Rhodesia, Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia and Rhodesia first day and commercial covers, some rust but some useful covers. Estimate R 1 000++.

Lot 10 - red Lindner 18-ring Falzlos album (including slipcase) with used RSA stamps from 1982 - 1992, estimate based on excellent album alone. Estimate R 100.



editor's titbits

The strange situation with regard lockdowns across the world remains new to all. However, it seemed to have spiked interests in collectables across the world with new auction records being set for online auctions on a nearly weekly basis. Back home our lockdowns were marred by decisions as strange as the current situation. The ban on alcohol and cigarettes was one of those real imbecilic decisions, with the next zuma busy stealing from the country in broad daylight. The cigarette ban resulted in a loss of R 35 million in taxes per day for the country. Not a typing error, R 35 million a day - losses to a country when the economy was already battling based on the after effects from the first corrupt zuma. However, the real sad part of this all is the closure of a myriad small restaurants, pubs, and other small businesses.

the zuma interview

Reporter x: Dr Zuma, why the banning of cigarettes if you are not in cahoots with the illegal cigarette trade to obtain some more ill-gotten money for your family at the cost of the country?

Dr Zuma: Well it is easy, in townships people share cigarettes and then spread the corona virus.

Reporter x: Ok, so then you are going to ban access to all buildings with more than two floors?

Dr Zuma: That is not so easy, why would I do something silly like that?

Reporter x: When people go to the third floor and higher, climb through a window and jump they will surely die.

Dr Zuma: Now why would anybody with a piece of intelligence do that?

Reporter x: Why would anybody with a piece of intelligence share a cigarette?

Dr Zuma: Ah, you got me. Ok, I need some money for my next election campaign.

Well folks that is that for our April - August edition of the newsletter. Trust you will all remain safe for the remainder of lockdown and thereafter. Should you come across useful philatelic articles, auction results, news items, etc - please forward to us for possible inclusion in future newsletters. Also, any letter to the editor is welcomed. Bye



still looking for .....

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Stamp’s Friend

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Lighthouse accessories Vario Gigant binder + slipcase …..……... Exhibition sleeves (packet of 5) ………… Basic stockbook 32 pages ………………. Basic stockbook 64 pages …….....……... Comfort stockbook 32 pages …………… Premium stockbook 64 pages ………….. Premium stockbook 64 pages + slipcase

Vario pages (5, 6 or 7 strips - pkt of 5) …

Stockcards (3 or 4 strips - pkt of 100) …. Single stockcards …………………………

Fasto hinges (packet of 1 000) …………. Sharp nose tweezers …………………….

SF mounting strips (per 5 strips) 217 mm x 21,5 mm or 27,5 mm ………... 217 mm x 33 mm or 36 mm …...………... 217 mm x 40 mm or 45 mm …………..… 217 mm x 55 mm or 66 mm ......………… 217 mm x 72 mm or 84 mm or 92 mm … 217 mm x 148 mm or 164 mm ..…………

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R 20 R 30 R 30 R 40 R 50 R 70

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Magnifying glasses Straight shank 60 mm …………………… Folding 30 x 21 mm ……………………… Illuminated 30 x 21 mm …………………. Illuminated 40 x 25 mm ………………….

Mounting strips Hawid pre-cut up to 29,9x30,2 mm (50) . Hawid pre-cut up to 38,07x57,4 mm (50) Hawid pre-cut 140 mm x 90 mm (each) . Hawid pre-cut 210 mm x 170 mm (each) Prinz 200 mm x 48 mm …………………. Prinz 200 mm x 66 mm …………………. Prinz 200 mm x 75 mm ………………….

Stamp and first day cover albums Various second hand albums in good condition.

Stock Various world/British Commonwealth South Africa/Homelands/SWA/Namibia Hong Kong/Great Britain/St Helena

R 30 R 70

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Stanley Gibbons Commonwealth (1840 - 1970) catalogues available 2017 = R 1100, 2016 = R 900, 2015 = R 700, 2014 = R 500 and 2013 = R 300

newsletter april - august 2020 · items of interest and new acquisitions. february feb 2021...

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