Saturday 21 April 2018

1210. 🇬🇧🇸🇿 Gibbons Intoduces A 'Supplementary Appendix' And KingMswati Introduces eSwatini.

  🇬🇧 The editor of the Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogues has revealed that he has created a 'Supplementary Appendix' in the new 4th edition of Stanley Gibbons East Africa Catalogue to accommodate stamps which were originally placed in the Appendix section of the catalogue but have subsequently been found, sometimes years after their original issue date, to have actually been sold in post offices and to have received genuine postal usage.
  Mr Jefferies states that, "The listing uses temporary numbers and is unpriced as we are sure that there will be a great many more stamps to add to it".
  It's a difficult problem for the editor. He mentions that, "In recent weeks I have heard that Antigua And Gibraltar, to name but two, do not sell anything but definitives in their post offices" and questions whether or not "we should cease to list all their special issues". In reply to that one, I say that if the stamps are not being sold with the primary intention of their being used on mail, then they are 'Collectables' first and foremost and not true 'postage stamps' and therefore should be listed in the Appendix, so that collectors know that they exist but do not feel pressured to buy them just because they have a catalogue number.
  In all events, the status of new issues seems to have taken a very complicated turn when one now has 3 sections of a catalogue - main list with numbers, appendix and a supplementary appendix. I think it emphasises the point that 'completion', 'one of everything', is impossible in this modern day and age and wouldn't make for a very nice collection even if one did  have the inclination and money to pursue such a goal. Collectors should ensure that they know what they're collecting and make it clear in their mind about what they want to get out of a collection and not feel as though they have to follow a catalogue listing which is generally based on someone else's opinion and nothing more. That way leads to being able to derive maximum pleasure from one's collection and not to gloom which is associated with a collection full of stuff one's not interested in nor doesn't like.


  🇸🇿 King Mswati III, the absolute ruler of what up to now has been known as Swaziland, declared on 18 April 2018 that thenceforth the country would be known by a new name - The Kingdom Of eSwatini. Presumably this will have philatelic consequences, possibly an overprint of the new name on the current definitive series which depicts Trees and dates back to as long ago as 2007 so e-Swatini's postal service may wish to release a completely new definitive series without bothering with overprints. Presumably too all future stamp issues will be inscribed with the new country name including the set due on 6 September 2018 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the country's achievement of Independence. Time will tell.


  🇹🇷 The postal service of The Turkish Republic Of Northern Cyprus released its first stamp issue of 2018 on 6 April in the form of 2 values from the 'Struggle against Cancer' set of 2015 with surcharges applied to them. Rating:- **.



  🇬🇧 Royal Mail has commemorated the celebrations in Stratford upon Avon which mark the anniversary of the playwright's birth which take place this weekend by adorning a postbox in the town with quotations from some of Shakespeare's works. It's interesting for tourists to see and doesn't cost stamp collectors a penny. A free commemorative you might say.





8 comments:

  1. I think you mean "unpriced" rather than "unprimed", although a listing using numbers 1,4,6,8,9,10... would be fun!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Richard I think this is where it would be modern to write 'LOL'!. I'm tempted to leave the text uncorrected just so people can get the joke. Best wishes, WK.

      Delete
  2. I think Stanley Gibbon's approach to this is reflective of their archaic listing policies and lack of foresight and planning.

    I agree that if stamps are not sold over the counter then perhaps stamps shouldn't be listed, but if the stamps are produced by the post office and can be used for postage they should be listed.

    Michel and Scott both take this approach and are far superior in my opinion. SG will now have three lists for some countries which will just make a mockery of their catalogues.

    SG is also inconsistent with many other items. Their listing of the £5 commemorative from last year when it wasn't available in post offices, incidates they apply one set of rules for one country and another set for other countries. Likewise SG will list stamps sold in prestige booklets at above face for the UK but won't do the same for Australia even though these booklets are sold regularly at post offices and people actually use them (are prestige booklets sold over the counter in post offices in the UK?)

    Personally, SG has lost its way in the last decade or too, and this new move is further evidence that.

    I am of course happy to debate this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Chris. There are are so many inconsistencies in Gibbons' Catalogue's policies now and while one sympathises with the difficulties an editor faces in trying to list all suitable stamps while trying to to do their bit in the fight against excessive stamp issues, the concept of a Supplementary Appendix is a little bizarre and complicated. It will be interesting to see if there are any other views on this development.
      WK.

      Delete
  3. Agree with Chris here, if the stamps are issued by the Post Office (or authorized by the Post Office to be issued by their Philatelic Agents - Stamperija/IGCP products for example) and have full legal franking ability as legitimate stamps should be listed in the main listings, even if they are not sold over the counter at all (or even any, as in Stamperija's case) POs.

    If the stamps are legal, they should be treated as such - this is the approach that Scott, Yvert and Michel takes. I know that the extra cost to publishers to list and illustrate issues for the more "wallpaper" type legitimate productions are likely a bit of a burden, but Gibbons listing them in an appendix will just make things more confusing for collectors and make the modern listings rather useless in coming decades. Unless Gibbons assumes that collectors just don't care about new issues (which is not true) and only want to know what pre-1970 values are doing. Well they have that already in their Commonwealth catalog, so going to appendix in the regional catalogs (Commonwealth and otherwise) just makes them less useful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Gene W.
      Generally stamp collectors collect POSTAGE stamps - that is - small sticky pieces of paper which indicate that a payment for postage has been made. Such items should be freely available to the general mail-sending public at sites where the pre-payment is normally made - post offices, vending machines, other businesses which sell stamps situated in a local community. In order to prepay postage the public should not have to go through long-winded procedures such as contacting a philatelic agency many miles away or even located in another country. To have to do this makes the 'stamps' impractical and not POSTAGE stamps but merely collectibles.
      I support the Gibbons editor's attempts to limit the inclusion of 'collectibles' in the main section of the Catalogue which is intended to list POSTAGE stamps rather than anything else and if stamps are not freely available in a post office then they should not be included in the main catalogue list in my opinion.
      WK.

      Delete
    2. It is admirable that SG lists only stamps available for postage use. But there is nothing to stop any country producing stamps just for collectors, and then decide to release them for postage at some later stage.

      The reality is nearly every post office releases stamps for collectors, and probably never intends for them to be used for postage. And this isn't a new phenomenon. I mean how many £5 Orange Queen Victorias were used for postage? Many of the colonies issued high value stamps which saw little postal use. Indeed, high values these days exactly see more use due to the amount of parcels being sent.

      Finally, we are stamp collectors - there are many collectors out there who collect stamps, and don't care whether the stamps have been released for postal use or not. It is a shame, but it is the reality.

      Delete
  4. Thank you Chris. We are indeed stamp collectors - most of us are postage stamp collectors - Gibbons' Catalogues list postage stamps specifically and not stamps not intended for postage therefore it is quite reasonable for the catalogue editor to weed out stamps with very little prospect of ever being used for postage (which admittedly may be rather more new issues than we may be prepared to admit to but I think the catalogue editor is correct to draw the line at the more extreme abusers).

    ReplyDelete