Commonwealth Catalogue 2011 (1)

                                                                           11001 - 07

United Kingdom (A) issues by Royal Mail

 

11 January 2011

  11001 - 06  Television puppet shows by Gerry Anderson:- 

                       3 x 1st & 3 x 97p

  11007          Television puppet shows by Gerry Anderson:-

                       miniature sheet containing 1 each of 41p, 60p, 88p & 97p. This item printed in the microlenticular method effectively has no practical usage on ordinary mail but was easily obtained from an ordinary provincial sub-post office and is therefore                             considered to be a true item readily available for postal use and is therefore listed in this catalogue.

Commonwealth Catalogue 2011

 Modern stamp catalogues are very annoying - there seems to be no logic to them - the way that editors continue to fully list hundreds of "stamps" which frequently never see a postal counter in the country whose name they are inscribed with and which feature designs and subjects with no relevance to the country ostensibly "issuing" them. The editor of Gibbons catalogues questions his right to list or omit such issues in his catalogue - well, he is the editor, so I guess he has got a perfect right to choose what is and what is not listed in the book that he is editing. Perhaps there is a legal element to it, after all the Gibbons Catalogue is a commercially influential piece of work; if your stamps are not listed in it then most collectors are unlikely to buy them; perhaps the editor is fearful that one or two of the more brash and aggressive philatelic agencies (and we know who they are) would take legal action against him on the grounds that the catalogue was causing a restriction of trade. The result is that Gibbons now lists stamps that are not true postage stamps - that is - they are not produced with the purpose of providing a receipt for the pre-payment of postage. I like to call them "collectable labels with postal validity".  I have long excluded from my Commonwealth collection products of philatelic agents which have been produced persistently for countries of which the subject matter has no relevance to the countries involved. Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to visit quite a large number of these territories and have found universally that such items are not sold at ordinary postal counters for use on regular mail - they are not freely available to members of the public for postal usage. Such items do not qualify to be listed in a catalogue of postage stamps. In my opinion it is counter-productive to list them in stamp catalogues as it is no more valid for them to occupy places in these publications than it is for revenue stamps or hunting stamps to be there. A catalogue of postage stamps should do precisely what it says on the cover - it catalogues postage stamps.

 Here, within this blog, I hope to provide my own catalogue of Commonwealth issues for 2011 by providing a list of stamp issues issued during the year which a reasonable observer (in this case, myself!) would describe as a postage stamp and which seems to have been issued for genuine postal usage (although other subsidiary reasons for issue such as commemoration of important anniversaries, events, people, culture, particularly of national interest - and international commemorations may have relevance to some countries). I will give all listed issues a number and if an "issue" does not appear in my list then it will mean that I do not view it as a genuine postage stamp according to my own definition - it may be a collectable with postal validity but not, in my opinion, an item worthy of inclusion in a catalogue of postage stamps.

 I wonder how 2011 will turn out eventually. Will the greed for philatelic revenue that has gripped so many postal administrations and philatelic agencies in recent years finally kill the golden goose and terminally turn collectors of postage stamps away from new issue collecting? Will the growing chaos involved in obtaining new issues from some countries help to put the boot in too? In the last two or three months of 2010 two major British dealers of new issues called it a day and sought refuge in well-earned (semi-)retirements and they will be hard to replace for their sheer reliability and enthusiasm for obtaining items for their customers. And what of possible new countries to collect, Southern Sudan, for instance? 2011 should be a very interesting year, not so much for the stamps that will be issued as much as for what may happen to philately itself.

Manx Horror:post scriptum

Unfortunately the illustration of the offending Manx Cardinal Newman/Papal Visit was missed from the previous blog and so it is added here for all to apprevciate.

Manx Horror: Classic modern day stamp design failures (I).

The Isle Of Man's latest stamp issue is a superb example of the descent of modern stamp design and choice of subject which continues to occur from postal administrations and postal agencies frantically trying to hoover up the last vestiges of stamp collectors' cash available to buy new stamp issues. The issue of 11 August to commemorate Pope Benedict's visit to The United Kingdom is wrong in so many ways. 

On the face of things it seems a good idea to make such a commemoration as issues marking papal visits are probably quite popular and the stamps sell in good numbers thus boosting philatelic income for the postal administrations which issue them. Ching! - the welcome sound of cash registers ringing. But why is The Isle Of Man making such an issue (other than the hoped for leeching of profits from their loyal band of philatelists)? After all The Pope is not visiting The Isle Of Man and the island is not part of The United Kingdom. So what relevance is the subject matter to the territory?

And the design - dreadful! I am sure that Cardinal Newman is a worthy subject for commemoration but does the miniature sheet have to show his dead body? I think this could open up a fascinating new area of thematic collection - dead bodies on stamps - that's a subject to cheer everybody up. An exhibit of such a theme would have been very much in place at the London 2010 Philatelic Exhibition since that also seemed to be pretty dead when I visited it. Included in the miniature sheet are two pathetic, tiny and dreary stamps featuring the great man which can hardly be viewed as a worthy commemoration of that individual. Mind you where they may be lacking in size and colour they certainly make up in face value - The Isle Of Man Post Office seems to think that they need two new £1.50 values which must be terribly useful for use on everyday mail although the wallet-aching £3 that they bleed from collectors must surely have been at the front of their minds when they decided on the denominations to be included in the sheet.

The designs of the tiny stamps also reveal what a minefield the subject of the issue is. Clearly there are those who would object to the philatelic commemoration of a papal visit to a country where its own peculiar form of protestantism is the state religion and its head of state is also the head of the state church. One supposes that this must be the explanation of the bizarre appearance of the designs where the royal cypher is completely out of proportion to the territory name which is so small that it is barely legible thus emphasising the importance of the monarch and head of the church to forestall criticism of commemorating a foreign leader and another church leader's visit. In their panic to cash in on the visit the Manx Post Office have released the sheet one month ahead of the Pope's arrival in Britain and have noted that the Newman's beatification is to be made at Coventry Airport but we have known for several weeks that this site has been changed to Cofton Park in Birmingham but the Manx have still released this completely incorrect sheet - no doubt they could not bear the financial loss of not issuing the incorrect sheet. No doubt, also, someone will magically point out that the inscription is wrong and the Manx Post Office will have to issue a second, correct, version in the expectation of actually making double the sales that they originally expected. Ching! - the sound of another cash register.

In 1973, the Manx Post Office began issuing stamps. They were interesting and all relevant to the island and beautifully designed. Now stamp designing mainly involves getting a photograph up on a computer screen and manipulating it a little to incorporate the country name and the extremely high face value. The design must feature a subject of the moment - a celebrity easily recognisable to a poorly educated general population or a dreary piece of modern culture. National pride has a very small part to play in the selection of subjects for commemoration - the much larger role is played by the potential for generation of financial profit. This potential falls with each cumulative philatelic money grab. The Isle Of Man modern stamp issue programme is uninspiring and unworthy of such a charming little island with a proud history. But then again it is not the only territory that you can say that about.

African Problems 2: Ghan-aaagh!

In the last few days I have managed to obtain a stamp for which I have been searching for twelve years or so - the c200 value of the set from Ghana which celebrated the 40th anniversary of the country's independence. This famously featured the portrait of the then president, Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings, who decided it was not appropriate for his portrait to appear on Ghana's postage stamps and so the stamp was withdrawn from circulation. Having been issued on 6 March 1997 it ceased to be available on 22nd April 1997 and the short period of sale resulted in it becoming instantly rare and not generally included in stamp dealers' new issue distributions and so missing from many collections. I recently found it being offered for sale on the Delcampe auction web site and dashed to buy it. Another rare piece of modern philately secured!

Unfortunately Ghana continues to be problematical. One set I have not yet seen offered by any dealer and overlooked by Gibbons in their West Africa catalogue is a set from - I think - 2005 commemorating "Panfest '05" which I believe was the Pan-African Historical Theatre Festival. At least five stamps were included in the set although I have only managed to obtain four of them in used condition so far. They are illustrated above. The stamps have clearly been available for everyday usage, so why they have not received a philatelic distribution is mystery to me.

Right now, the problem area for me is attempting to obtain all the values of the definitive set of small designs which has been running from 1995 to 2007 and on top of that it is difficult to know how many stamps, some definitives and some commemoratives, have been surcharged in different formats to address the change of currency which has occurred in the last couple of years or so. So far I have seven different stamps (illustrated above) and I have at least one more on its way to me from a seller in Ghana. As I say, just how many of them there are in total will no doubt become apparent eventually. 

In the last two or three years, Ghana has concentrated on issuing stamps of pure local interest (apart from a couple which I think originated with the Chinese commemorating the Beijing Olympics and the Peony Festival in China - see previous blog on the subject of philatelic imperialism) and the flood of poorly researched and designed stamps from New York seems to have been assuaged. I enjoy the struggle to track down Ghana's real stamps and abhor the abuse of Ghana's national reputation represented by countless issues featuring American pop stars and baseball players. Let us hope that we have now finally seen the back of all the expensive garbage that has appeared over the years and that Ghana is now getting on with issuing stamps to be used on its mail that reflect the various aspects of Ghanaian life, culture, wildlife, scenery and so on.

Somaliland to Somalia to Somaliland

The Horn of Africa was strategically vital to the security of the British Empire in India and in 1884 the british proclaimed a protectorate over Somaliland. It was administered from Aden initially as an Indian dependency and Egyptian post offices had been opened there during 1876 and the stamps of Egypt were used there until the garrisons were withdrawn in 1884. Two cancellations were used from Berbera and Zeila and Indian stamps were used from these offices from 1 January 1877 until 1903 with the "B" obliterator used in all Bombay-controlled offices. The Protectorate Post Office was established on 1 June 1903 when the control of British Somaliland was transferred from the Indian government to the British Foreign Office. The first Protectorate stamp issue consisted of Indian stamps depicting Queen Victoria overprinted in black in eleven values. The illustrated cover shows the eight lower values of the set on a clearly philatelic cover to Oldenburg in Germany. In the late fifties, Somaliland was prepared for independence by a series of constitutional measures including the establishment of a Legislative Council with a majority of members being elected, an event commemorated by a pair of definitive stamps, appropriately overprinted, on 5 April 1960 (illustrated). It was decided that Somaliland would be merged with the former Italian Somaliland, Somalia, when independence was achieved but Somaliland's independence preceded that of Somalia by four days and so for that short period Somaliland was an independent state and three stamps were issued to tide over the postal needs of the country for that short time; Gibbons does not include these items in the Part 1 Catalogue as Somalia did not subsequently join The Commonwealth. The issue consisted of three Somalia stamps overprinted "Somaliland Independence 26 June 1960" printed in three lines and they consist of designs featuring a native plant and the head of a gazelle. These stamps are illustrated.

  In January 1991, Siad Barre, the Somalian dictator, was overthrown and anarchy spread across the country. Previously, in May 1988, civil war had broken out between the Somali National movement (SNM) and the central government and as the anarchy spread, the SNM proclaimed the independence of Somaliland on 18 May 1991 since when it has remained a de facto independent republic but has not been recognised as such by any foreign state even though it remains a veritable oasis of calm in the midst of the chaos in Somalia. If it were to be recognised as a sovereign state then it would certainly qualify to be a member of The Commonwealth although I imagine that a number of countries would object since the recognition of a secessionist state might pose them problems with potential breakaway areas within their own territories.

  Since secession Somaliland does not appear to have inaugurated a postal service and therefore not to have issued any postage stamps . This is rather surprising since one of the prerequisites of statehood seems to be the production of little pieces of paper with the country's name on them ostensibly for the prepayment of postage. A lot of bogus items have been produced however which are supposed to be Somaliland stamps. The Somaliland government has said that no such items have been issued. One of the most fascinating productions of such bogus stamp releases dates back to 1998 when a British philatelic magazine included a short piece in its news section stating that a British agent was producing stamps for the Somaliland government and giving a number which could be contacted for further information. I contacted the number and was told by the individual who answered that he had been asked to produce stamps for Somaliland as well as producing other services for its government and that the first issue would be British Machin definitives surcharged in Somaliland currency (one value of 500 shillin on a 1p stamp). This rather unusual idea was supposed to underline the historic links between Britain and Somaliland but, he said, (perhaps not surprisingly) the depiction of the ruler of the former colonial power proved very unpopular locally and use of the stamps was short-lived. Two versions of the surcharge were produced:- one in which the penny sign was not obliterated and the other in which the penny sign was obliterated by a small five-pointed star, the inscription of the overprint reading "REPUBLIC OF SOMALILAND FIVE SHILLIN" in four lines (both varieties are depicted - the former in a block of four and the latter as three singles "used" on a cover and cancelled by a large two-ring postmark reading ".HARGEISA . REP OF SOMALILAND" and dated 11 MAR 1998). The cover was addressed to "NATIONALBANK HARGEISA". I was also told that during this period external mail to Somaliland was being routed by sea from Aden to Hargeisa and that there were also air connections with links existing between Somaliland and Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia. I was informed that a definitive series featuring wildlife was planned and indeed such an issue did later appear on the philatelic market bearing a fictitious coat of arms and some additionally overprinted "Govt Official AIR-MAIL" in three lines. Twelve values were produced ranging from 500 shillin to 25000 shillin and I later obtained a basic set cancelled on a "cover" with the same postmark from Hargeisa as described above and dated 09 APR 1998 although there is nothing to say that that was the supposed first day of issue. Further issues also appeared apparently from the same source most notably an addition to the ubiquitous Princess Diana stamps produced by many postal agencies at the time in the form of a sheetlet of nine different portraits which I have "used on cover" cancelled by the above Hargeisa "postmark" and dated 10 May 1998 and imperforate on cover with the above official overprint and with a cancel of 21 May 1998. Somebody had some fun producing that lot and even more fun from extracting money from unsuspecting collectors for them. Despite their bogus nature, I cannot help but actually find them to be interesting and even more interesting to me is he question "why has Somaliland not got round to establishing a post office?"

  I tried to get information directly from Hargeisa about a possible postal service as long ago as 1997 but my letter was returned by the British post office with an interesting boxed inscription "SERVICE SUSPENDED RETURN TO SENDER" (see illustration). I repeated this exercise about three years ago but on that occasion Royal Mail returned my letter undelivered and with no postal markings applied. A photograph on a Somaliland website depicts a local post office (in Berbera or Hargeisa?) in a very run down state and clearly not open for business (see illustration) and about the same time a correspondent in Germany informed me that he had received a reply from Somaliland in response to a question from him, routed through the Middle East, which confirmed that Somaliland had never operated a postal service thus far.

Great Britain used in BIOT.

An item I obtained quite by chance in 2004 was a spectacular cover with British stamps applied, all cancelled by a BIOT Post Office cachet. Some free BIOT definitives were given away with an edition of Gibbons Stamp Monthly and as I already possessed the items as part of a complete set I thought I might apply them to a cover and send it to the BIOT and ask the postmaster there to kindly apply a local postmark so that I might have a nice cover genuinely sent through the post from the BIOT. The postmaster was more than obliging - he not only serviced the cover I sent him but also sent it back to me inside a "On Her Majesty's Service" envelope bearing a 2002 "Friends of Chagos" 34p stamp. Both covers were cancelled with a (slightly oval) circular date stamp - "Diego Garcia . Chagos - B.I.O.T." dated 30 November 2004 (the cover I had sent for cancellation) or 08 December 2004 (protective envelope). These were two lovely items to please any philatelist but even more surprising was that the very kind postmaster had also returned the envelope in which I had originally enclosed my cover. This is a remarkable item. It appears that the British Post Office had not cancelled any of the stamps on it so when it had arrived in Diego Garcia the postmaster there cancelled it with the large BIOT cachet as well as the Diego Garcia cds. This was not done on arrival but on 8 December when my cover was being despatched back to me and the cover bearing British stamps was then inserted in the protective cover along with my original item. I therefore received three interesting covers instead of one but, most spectacularly, a cover with an example of British stamps used in the BIOT. What a remarkably kind and helpful gentleman the BIOT postmaster was and what a happy surprise I received when I opened the containing cover from the BIOT on its arrival. The "GB stamps used in BIOT" cover remains one of my favourite items in my entire collection. The illustrations depict the "Friends of Chagos" stamp cancelled by the BIOT cachet, the Great Britain stamps cancelled with the BIOT cachet, the entire GB used in BIOT cover, the Diego Garcia cds, BIOT stamps with cachet and the whole of my original cover.