Early in 2018, I was wandering through my favourite internet sites looking for further stamps to add to my collection and just as I was preparing the manuscript for this book, I came across stamps from a country I’d never heard of - Niuafo´ou – where?
One of the wonders of the late twentieth century and through to today is the ability to use the Internet to research your subject, to try to find out where on earth that strangely named place really IS; as it happens it is the northern-most island of the Tonga archipelago in the southern Pacific Ocean. Read what I found out in the chapter on the Pacific Region.
Collecting stamps brings a wonderful new view of the world to the collector, celebrated in the more formal title of the philatelist, who is led through an amazing world of knowledge, where the inquisitive mind can ponder the mysteries of bygone times. Why, you may ask, do British postage stamps never, but never boast their country of origin? And of course, we’ve already stumbled upon Niuafo´ou.
Likewise, someone with a worldly interest in transport may find that the hobby will lead him – or her – all over the world, if not literally then as a by-product of studying the subject. There are a great many transport professionals who have worked on several different continents throughout their working lives to bring the benefit of their skills to areas one might consider under-developed in the areas of public transport. Personally, I have spent many years as an enthusiast of most forms of public transport and have been to places that until the advent of cheap air travel seemed quite outlandish. I have been to a lake on Vancouver Island on Canada’s Pacific coast where lived the world’s two largest flying boats regaling in the name of ‘Mars’, whilst it seemed to me at the time – I was 14 – quite exciting, but utterly easy in 1959, to talk myself onto the inaugural KLM Viscount flight from Manchester to Amsterdam only to find there was no return flight home that day, memories of the heart-clutching scream from Dad over the phone will never fade: ‘You’re WHERE?’. Then there was another flight, not much later but this time with permission – and paid for – to go plane-spotting alone to the Paris Air Show. Not many years later, I visited the USA to look for the last gasps of two iconic forms of American transport – PCC trams in Newark, NJ, and the Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 electric locomotives. I could also go on a little too long about getting rather merry drinking the local brews in places like Prague, Lisbon or the countryside around Brussels whilst chasing trams.
At first sight it might seem a little odd that one should wish to combine these two totally disparate hobbies, but by good fortune I happen to have a liking for both subjects and a long time ago began to appreciate that in stamps one could find the wonderful combination of transport history told within a glorious gallery of miniature works of art. Watch through the ages as the reproduction techniques on stamps have developed from simple monochrome etchings with carefully sculpted framework such as this 1924 stamp from Bolivia.
To the untutored eye the detail is not readily apparent and some time must be spent on the country’s language and its currency to fully appreciate this little gem. Interestingly, apart from a very few definitives of the 1890s and 1900s it was to be 1963 before a British stamp would appear with more than one colour; not even the UK’s 1953 Coronation stamps boasted more. The accepted appearance developed first to two or three colours and then, as with everything else towards the end of the twentieth century, convention went out of the window as we saw full colour art-work and the use of photographs – and quite often in these days of digital photography – fairly heavily manipulated ones at that.
There will be several different formats that the reader will find mentioned in this book, and there follows a brief summary for the novice philatelist:
Mint stamps: unused stamps, un-marked on their face and with the gum on the back still intact. It used to be the habit of collectors to stick gummed, paper hinges to the back of their stamps for mounting in an album. The damage that this does for serious collectors has discredited this practice and one will often find these days the initials MNH (Mint, not hinged) within the description of a particular stamp or set of stamps.
Used stamps: As the terminology states, postage stamps that have been used for the purpose for which they were designed, indicating that the due fee for the service required has been paid, and stuck on the envelope or parcel as proof. Hence they bear a post-mark (sometimes referred to as a ‘franking’ or ‘cancellation’) to indicate the office of cancellation and will undoubtedly have no gum on the back but traces of the paper they had been stuck to. Apart from its rarity value, a collector will look for how heavy the post-mark appears on the stamp and how well the backing has been removed, a thinning of the stamp itself or loss of any part of the face or the perforations will render the stamp valueless, scrap, or – where it is a particularly rare example – seriously devalued.
Definitives: What one could describe as the regular, run-of-the-mill stamps that one would get on a day-to-day basis.
Miniature Sheets, or mini-sheets are often produced by the issuing postal authority using either one stamp with a border that might be an extension of the illustration on the stamp, or several stamps within that border, surrounded by a description.
Here is a very nice example issued by Gibraltar and showing seaplanes and flying boats from the improbable – a 1911 ‘le Canard’ built by Frere Voisin – to the oh-so-nearly in the case of the Saunders Roe Princess that showed such huge promise but eventually succumbed to the vagaries of politics.
Presentation packs: Here we have one of the philatelist’s best friends for not only is there usually one, pristine and mint example of each stamp in any particular issue but they are presented behind a clear film hinged so that the stamps may be withdrawn if one wishes, and then within a card wallet often containing sometimes quite copious details of the event celebrated as well as technical information, and then all within a cellophane envelope for virtually indefinite preservation. Shown here is a pack issued on the Isle of Man in 2016 to mark the 150th anniversary of the Royal Aeronautical Society together with eight stamps inside that mark some of the outstanding events in aeronautical history.
First Day Cover (FDC): If the Presentation Pack is not your thing then join the many collectors of the FDC, as its name implies, posted and franked on the first day the stamps go into circulation and so gaining a certain cachet. The envelope, often referred to as a cover, may be a product of the issuing post office and cancelled with a special, carefully-applied franking, but that is by no means certain and quite often you may find that a specialist dealer or the organisation involved may have produced their own cover, obtained the stamps in advance and even having a hand in designing the special franking. The cover shown comes from Gibraltar again with a novel approach showing ‘Wings of Prey’ of two totally different genres.
Specialist Covers: These are covers that are not designed for use on the first day of issue of a particular stamp or set of stamps. An organisation, maybe with an eye on the commercial opportunity, will produce a specially printed envelope to commemorate an event even if no special stamps have been issued, use a postage stamp that may or may not be of particular relevance, and possibly apply a special franking. Often very attractive and collectable, but of value only within a small circle of collectors.
PHQ Cards: ‘PHQ’ stands for Postal Headquarters but here refers to reproduction of stamps on postcards; all items published by the British Post Office are given a number that is prefixed by the letters PHQ. The first card issued was the 3p W.G. Grace stamp from the set commemorating County Cricket; issued on 16 May 1973, this card was numbered PHQ 1 and the numbering sequence has continued to the present day. There are several sets that replicate stamps illustrating our hobby.
What is not generally in my collection are stamps produced where there is quite obviously no intention to satisfy a need to provide a postal service in the issuing country.
So, dear reader, follow me now on a rather circuitous tour of our world with the aid of the various artists involved and my fascination with transport through the medium of the postage stamp.
