1659. 🇮🇳 Coronavirus Postcards From India Post.

🇮🇳 It seems that a number of stamp collectors are keen to start a collection of philatelic items related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and as items continue to appear from various postal services the opportunity does exist to collect pieces for those collections which are part of history as it is made and which may be rare in the future. Even now some of the items are probably quite rare and for anyone forming a COVID-collection they may be hard to track down.

  The whole point of this is that this is a global pandemic affecting every country apart from a handful of tiny South Pacific island states which are naturally self-isolated and what is it that every country (though not Somaliland it’s true to say) issues to some degree or another? - postage stamps. Collectors with a lot of ambition for their collection and, by the end of this, deep pockets, have the opportunity to build up a history-as-it-happens collection of stamps and philatelic ephemera from all over the world. It is living history because the resulting future world may (or may not) be radically different from that we know at present and these philatelic items will play a part in the telling that history.

  If the whole world seems a little too ambitious (and expensive) then collecting the COVID-19 philatelic items emerging from the countries and territories of The Commonwealth may be a more manageable alternative. The Commonwealth is a sort of mini-world including as it does philatelic entities in all the continents. In recent Blogs I have already mentioned items which could be included in a collection of Commonwealth COVID-19 philatelic items from Royal Mail, Isle Of Man Post Office, Guernsey Post, Royal Gibraltar Post Office, Pos Malaysia and New Zealand Post and now we have some interesting items from The Commonwealth’s largest member, India.

  India Post’s Facebook page of 24 April 2020 states that “Coimbatore Postal Division, Tamil Nadu released a special set of postcards: “We salute the Corona Warriors”. The unique cancellation is red colour promoting social distancing. Children around the world can use these post-cards as Universal post-crossing and others can use them as “Thank you” cards”. There appear to be 4 colourful postcards in the set but they are not prestamped. The postmark reads in Hindu and English “Respect Social Distancing”.

  I should think that these official postcards are essential items for anyone who is thinking of beginning a Coronavirus thematic collection. At the present those interested in limiting a Commonwealth Coronavirus collection to just stamps are faced with an easier task but the number of planned issues by Commonwealth postal services is increasing - stamps have been issued by or are expected from Isle Of Man Post Office, New Zealand Post, and Guernsey Post (inscribed both Guernsey and Alderney) while a stamp may be on its way from Sri Lanka Post and the ghastly Stamperija philatelic agency has also indicated that it will also soon be producing items (which it calls ‘stamps’) bearing the name of territories whose postal services allow it to release such products - from The Commonwealth this would mean three countries - Maldives, Mozambique and Sierra Leone. I do hope that people starting ‘Coronavirus’ collections will not feel irresistibly compelled to add products to their collections from the more exploitational ‘agencies’.

  

🇬🇧 Today, 6 May 2020, is the 180th anniversary of the issue of the world’s first postage stamp, The Penny Black. The anniversary should have taken place at the same time as the international philatelic exhibition in London which had to be postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless Royal Mail is going ahead with releasing an expensive product to commemorate the stamp’s 180th anniversary - a sheet of 25 identical previously issued gummed 1st Class rate ‘Penny Black’ stamps with special inscriptions along the edges of the sheet. The cost of the item is £19. As these stamps have been issued before I can say I have no intention of wasting such a large sum of money on this item. If there is any discernible significant difference between the stamps in this sheet and the originals I would buy a single stamp (cost 76p) but otherwise this is a very silly and missable item. Rating:- 0.

🇮🇲 Much the preferable is a similar item issued by Isle Of Man Post Office on 6 May 1990 at the time of the Stamp World London 1990 philatelic exhibition where again 25 Penny Black stamps were sold in a sheet but this time the IOM Post Office took the trouble so that each stamp in the sheet had different corner letters. But most admirable of all was the price of the item - 25p - each stamp had a face value of just 1p. The Penny Black stamp was issued as part of a set of five and there was also an accompanying £1 miniature sheet featuring 4 Penny blacks and printed, very nicely, in intaglio. Those were the days!

1658.🇳🇿 New Zealand Post To Issue Share Your Bears Stamps.

🇳🇿 Following on from the report in Blog 1657 of the children’s stamp design competition underway in Guernsey it appears that New Zealand Post has also been carrying out a competition, now closed, in which New Zealanders have been asked to provide photographs of their teddy bears. In the Share Your Bears campaign New Zealanders have been asked to photograph their bears in their windows of their homes and then post the photos on the New Zealand Post Facebook page along with some information about their toys and about life at home during the ‘lockdown’ there. It seems that New Zealanders have been participating in the ‘New Zealand Bear Hunt’ which involves placing teddy bears in house windows and thereby “creating a magical experience for kids (and big kids) during a stressful time”, according to the New Zealand Post Head of Stamps, Antony Harris.
  Six of the photographs are to be chosen to be depicted on a set of 6 stamps combined in, I think, a sheet as we have seen on previous occasions including last year’s royal visit, and a prize draw will be held as an incentive to encourage people to participate in the competition. Three dollars from the sale of each sheet will be donated to the New Zealand Red Cross while it continues “to support New Zealanders to stay at home and save lives”.
  I imagine this sheet will be issued in the very near future. New Zealand Post was planning to release a set of stamps on 6 May 2020 to commemorate the now postponed Tokyo Olympic Games and this Teddy Bear issue may well replace it.

🇯🇪 As well as the already announced stamps, miniature sheet and Post and Go stamps Jersey Post intends to also issue another ‘Commemorative sheet’ to note the 75th anniversary of the island’s liberation at the end of the Second World War from occupation by Nazi forces. The price of the item will be £12.50p. The sheet is made up of 20 x ‘Local letter’ rate stamps with attached labels. I think the date of issue will be 9 May 2020. Rating:- 0.

1657. 🇬🇬 Guernsey Post Organises Children’s Art Competition To Design COVID-19 Stamps.

  🇬🇬 Guernsey Post is organising 2 competitions for local children to produce designs for 2 sets of stamps to be issued later in 2020 to commemorate the people’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic - a set of 12 stamps to have the name of Guernsey printed on them (for children in school years 1 - 12 [representing one from each year group?] from Guernsey, Herm and Sark) and a set of 8 stamps to have the name of Alderney printed on them (competition for Alderney children only “aged 1-11“ though one must be a little dubious about what the stamp design by a one year old will look like).

  The publicity for the issue for Alderney states that, “All proceeds from the sale of the stamps will be donated to the Alderney Helping Hands project” (it is not entirely clear to me if this means that All money from the sales is implied or whether it just means All profits from the sales is intended) and for the Guernsey issue, “This special stamp issue called #GuernseyTogether will be due out later this year and proceeds will raise money for 2 local charities”. The Alderney issue will be titled #AlderneySpirit.

  The competition winners, who must place their artwork in a frame as shown above, will be awarded “a £100 voucher for a local retailer” (notably Guernsey Post does not seem to think that today’s children will be lured into a design competition just offering the promise of a philatelic prize as the reward for the winners). The Guernsey Post internet site has other details of the competition.

  It looks as though each stamp will have a 50p face value which given that that would make a total face value of £10 makes for a rather expensive set for collectors - and no doubt it will be mainly collectors who will buy complete sets - even if it is for a good cause.

1656. 🇬🇮 Gibraltar Post Office Distributes Free COVID-19 Prestamped Postcard To All Locals.

🇬🇮 Here is an item I have missed up till now even though I see that a tweet about it was put out by the Royal Gibraltar Post Office on 17 April 2020. It appears that a pre-stamped postcard was issued on Monday 20 April 2020 and distributed gratis to homes in Gibraltar on the subject of the population’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak in the territory. As can be seen from the tweet it was intended that the local people, and especially children, who received the postcard should use it to write a message to someone who “would appreciate receiving” it. “It is your decision who this someone could be, maybe a relative or friend working on the frontline, a grandparent staying at home or a team of people or business doing an exemplary job during these exceptional times .... “ “Our postmen and postwomen will deliver the postcards free of charge to any local address”
  The tweet requests that recipients of the card (hopefully bearing a kind and pleasant message) upload a picture of it on to social media using the hashtag #thankinggibraltar. I suppose this represents free publicity for the postal service which is a good way of recouping costs incurred in producing the postcards (though I speculate that one or more of the ‘Express Group of companies Rizzo’s Daily and Giboil Petrol’ may have been involved in sponsoring the cards though they may simply be additional locations for distribution of the cards). The tweet informs us that “thousands of extra postcards are available to pick up free of charge from the Post Office, all shops of (the above named businesses)” which conjures up a picture of queues forming for their free postcards. I don’t expect that happened but it does read like an invitation to visit shops to receive free gifts at a time when you do not really want anyone to be out on the streets.
  Nevertheless this is another interesting item, albeit postal stationery rather than postage stamp, from a Commonwealth territory associated with the Coronavirus pandemic and anyone making a themed collection around the subject will surely want to add this item to that collection.
  A proper stamp in the same design (at a sensible face value) would be very acceptable.

🇬🇧 Ian Billings has recorded in his Norvic Philatelic Blog that the first Machin Head definitive stamp reprints have been made by Royal Mail - he notes that 2 counter sheet values which should have the code M20L have been produced - the 1st Class Large Signed For rate  (now £2.45p) and the Special Delivery 500g (£7.50p). The stamps were reprinted by Walsall Security Printers at the beginning of February.

🇲🇾 Pos Malaysia reopened its post offices on 4 May 2020 after a period of extended closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

1655. 🇬🇧 More Royal Mail Postboxes To Thank NHS Workers

🇬🇧 Following my piece about the postbox which has been painted ‘NHS blue’ by Royal Mail in the village of Marston Mortaine in Bedfordshire to commemorate the 100th birthday of Hon Colonel Thomas Moore who has raised £32 million for a fund for Health Service workers (see Blog 1655) there is more exciting news for we postbox tourists (if only we could travel to see them) - Royal Mail has announced that five more postboxes spread around The United Kingdom have received similar treatment to honour the workers of the NHS.
  So far so good. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Or, alternatively, the best laid plans of mice and man.....
  Each country of The United Kingdom has had a postbox painted outside a hospital treating COVID-19 patients in its respective capital - St Thomas’ Hospital in London, The University Hospital Of Wales in Cardiff, The Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast and a hospital in Edinburgh. Unfortunately the postbox chosen to be painted in Edinburgh was near the wrong hospital - a psychiatric hospital, the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, rather than the correct hospital located four miles away, the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary (ERI). Let us hope that Royal Mail does not mix up the post that should be delivered to the two hospitals quite so easily. Royal Mail has now stated that it will paint a second postbox in Edinburgh close to the ERI.
  A further problem with the Edinburgh postbox is that the wrong logo was applied to the postbox - that of the English National Health Service rather than the logo which represents the Scottish NHS. Finally there have been claims that the “wrong blue” has been used with which to paint the boxes. The English NHS website describes the logo and does indeed give a precise definition of the shade of blue to be used in the logo so the viewer can study photographs of the postboxes and the logo to decide whether or not Royal Mail really did use ‘NHS Blue’. To be honest, until these past few days I did not even know that there was an ‘NHS blue’. The Scottish logo is more complicated since it uses two shades of blue.
  Wouldn’t it have been easier, after all, just to design, print, market and distribute a stamp issue?

St Thomas’ Hospital London postbox:-

St Thomas Hospital London blue postbox

University of Wales Hospital, Whitchurch Road, Cardiff postbox:-

Cardiff postbox, Whitchurch Road.

Royal Victoria Hospital Belfast postbox:-

Royal Victoria Hospital Belfast postbox 

Incorrectly sited Royal Edinburgh Hospital:-

Royal Edinburgh Hospital postbox

English NHS logo

So that’s what NHS Blue is....

Scottish NHS logo

  Things are even more complicated since the photograph of the Cardiff postbox clearly shows that the English NHS logo has been used on it while the Welsh NHS has its own logo which is bilingual. I haven’t seen complaints yet but it is hard to feel that they won’t be far behind.

Welsh NHS logo

  Finally Northern Ireland’s publicly provided health care comes from an organisation called HSC Health and Social Care which again has its own logo. 

Northern Ireland health care service logo

  Royal Mail surely has a right to ask “How can something as simple as painting 4 postboxes be so complicated?”.

  Back to England because Royal Mail has included a fifth box in the list of those which have received these ‘Thank you’ messages. The final box is located in Moorside Road at Trafford General Hospital in north-west England which is said to have been the first NHS hospital because, when it was known as Park Hospital, it was visited by the Health Minister on 5 July 1948 who ceremonially received the keys to the hospital from Lancashire County Council.

Trafford Hospital postbox, Moorside Road.

Addendum:- Reply to Norvic’s comment below:- Thank you Ian. So not ‘NHS blue’ at all then, just ‘Second-hand blue’.

1654. 🇬🇧 Colonel Tom Gets A Postbox.

🇬🇧 In some ways it seems wrong, merely because it has now become a habit, not to have something in each Blog about the COVID-19 pandemic and I think that the letter depicted below is of interest not just to historians but also to stamp collectors item though it would be rather exciting to see the cover it was sent in. This is the letter sent to Britain’s new National Treasure, who should now be known as Colonel Tom, by the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, on the occasion of Thomas Moore’s 100th birthday and to recognise his service to the country in raising £32 million for a fund for health service workers by recognising him as a Point of Light. Point of Light is an award by the prime minister to outstanding volunteers who have benefitted their communities.

  Meanwhile, in addition to using a special postmark as previously described (see Blogs 1649, 1652 and 1653),  Royal Mail also garnered itself some publicity by going to the great expense of painting a postbox in ‘NHS blue’ and commemorating Colonel Tom’s birthday on it. The inscription on the post box reads “100/Captain Thomas Moore/NHS fundraising hero/30th April 2020”  in blue on a gold balloon with a trailing white string and below, “Happy 100th Birthday/Captain Tom!” in white and at the bottom of the postbox, “THANK YOU NHS” in white.

  The postbox is situated on Bedford Road (postcode MK43 0LA) in the village of Marston Mortaine where the home of Colonel Tom is located. With all of these commemorative post boxes making appearances in recent years I have become a bit of a postbox tourist but fear that there’s little chance of travelling all the way from the West Midlands to Bedfordshire to go to see Colonel Tom’s postbox due to the present travel restrictions.

  I was delighted to receive in today’s mail another very pleasing Colonel Tom cover (see Blogs 1652 and 1653) with the previously mentioned Royal Mail postmark used at Birmingham Mail Centre but dated 30 April 2020, the date of his actual birthday. I think that really is a notable piece of postal history related to the current pandemic. I suppose it could be bettered by a cover of the same date from Bedfordshire posted in the newly painted postbox but you can’t have everything.

  Many other things have happened in the past few days including Colonel Tom having railway engines named after him, a spitfire and hurricane aircraft flypast in his honour and being made an honorary member of the England cricket team and a Freeman of the City of London as well as receiving his letter from Boris and becoming the oldest person to ever have a number 1 record in the British music charts. Rather surprisingly I thought, his record is a cover of the song “You’ll never walk alone” which of course is very apt though I might have expected a song by Vera Lynn, ‘The Forces Sweetheart’, who helped to keep up the nation’s spirits during the dark days of the Second World War, to have been the choice for him to croon along with. ‘White Cliffs Of Dover’ or ‘We’ll Meet Again’ perhaps.

  Dame Vera Lynn, herself now 103 years old, was as much a symbol of the national spirit during the Second World War as Churchill himself and was featured on the cover of one of the 4 booklets issued by Royal Mail in 1995 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Those were the days when booklets contained 4 x 25p stamps which was the postage rate to countries in what was then called The European Community. It’s a pity that Royal Mail did not depict her on one of the upcoming stamps to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe.

  I seem to recall that Royal Mail used a special postmark in March 2017 to commemorate Dame Vera’s 100th Birthday but I may be mistaken as I can not find an example of it and I have not tracked down a picture of such a postmark on Ian Billings’ indispensable Norvic Philatelic Blog which is the first place to go to when trying to find information on such items. Jersey Post did issue its Jersey Flag Post and Go stamp on 20 March 2017 to commemorate Dame Vera’s birthday by adding the inscription “We’ll meet again” to the stamp with the added location identifier of ‘Broad Street’.

  At the moment the nation acknowledges every Thursday evening those who are working in the frontline of the National Health Service at considerable risk to themselves by coming out of doors and applauding them. Another medical hero of the past (before the NHS existed) was also depicted on the cover of one of the 1995 End of the Second World War booklets is Archibald McIndoe who was a plastic surgeon who worked to improve the lives of badly burnt and disfigured airmen injured during the course of their duties. Perhaps Royal Mail could think about commemorating philatelically the medical and other health and other service workers who have risked themselves in this latest war or will it consider painting another postbox to be sufficient?

  And, by the way, I’m not forgetting the bravery of the postal workers who at this present time keep my post popping through my letterbox.

Addendum:- Reply to Rob K’s comment (see below). Thank you for your comment with its appealing  suggestion. Apparently in 2018 there were 13370 centenarians in Britain (5% less than 2017 because of the falling birth rate during the First World War) and I suppose that number may be just a little too many stamps for even Royal Mail to manage to put ouT.

   Reply to Norvic’s comment. (See below) Thank you Ian. I suspect I was confusing in my memory the Jersey Post and Go Stamp with a postmark probably because both forms pf philatelic commemoration are cheap and manage to attract inexpensive publicity for the postal administrations.

Reply to Eric Lau’s comment, Hello Eric, please feel free to use any photographs you wish from the Blog. Best wishes, WK.