May 2008 Vol 4 7 No 4

1. May Meeting

The next meeting of the Society will be held at 7.30pm on Tuesday 13 May in the first floor rooms of Turnbull House, Bowen Street, Wellington.

NOTE: The office will be open for members to view lots in the current postal sale from 6.30pm

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Business Items of Interest

Speaker: Mark Jurisich on 'Adventures in Polar Philately'

Mark, recently made a Fellow of the Society, has been a long time expert in this field of philately. So do come along for what will be a fascinating and interesting peek at the colder regions of our hobby.

Programme:

2. April Meeting

President Adam Miller presented Geoff Rickards and Doug Tennant with the Collins Award for their joint article in the June 2007 NZSC 'Innovations of the 1996 Scenic self-adhesives'.

Items of Interest

Adam Miller showed a Maori-language newspaper posted from Nelson in 1898 bearing a ½d SSF with its gutter still attached. He also had a Listener beer advert from 1964 showing two gentlemen enjoying their stamp collecting (See further on). He also showed a limited edition intaglio etching about 150mm square based on the 1/- 1898, which are being done by a Nelson engraver.

Bob Watson had a large padded envelope from the US with a DX Mail label and wondered whether they are now delivering mail from the USA as well as the UK. He also had a 1933 postcard from Honolulu with 1c postage in an attempt to send as printed matter.

Unfortunately by adding a hand written note the sender failed to follow the rules which meant the card was assessed for deficient postage, with a nice NZ postage due stamp. A sideline of Bob's is collecting International Reply Coupons from NZ or USA. He had an example of a 2½d NZ Imperial Reply Coupon from 1952 and a llc US IRC from 1924. A purchase from eBay was a wrapper for the Auckland Weekly News Special Christmas number for 1925 with a block of five 1d Dominions, which was the correct rate for 20 ounces printed matter to the States.

Frank Claridge, one of our Auckland members, attended only his second meeting since joining in 1997. Frank displayed a number of items from the specialised NZ King George V mint collection he is assembling, with a view to perhaps exhibiting in the future. These included imperforate horizontal pairs of the Id red Admiral, and the 4d and 5d recess prints. He outlined the reservations with which the latter two are regarded, by indicating that even if they were not fully 'authorised' they were still of considerable interest to a collector. Another item of interest was an unused (no gum) example of the 1932 provisional overprint on a Id Admiral. This had particular interest to Frank in view of a family connection with R H White & Co. Ltd the Stratford Drapers, who returned 2626 stamps already on envelope for overprinting at the time of the reduction in postal rates. There is a reference in the handbook to this incident (Vol I p336) and also in The Stanley Gibbons British Commonwealth catalogue (Part I). The final items were a two-perf-pair of 4d deep purple recess print perforated 14Yt over 13Yt which is the reverse of the normal twoperf-pair, and a vertical strip of 3x6d carmine rec s prints from the 1915-29 issue. The top stamp in this strip was perforated on four sides, the centre imperf on two sides and the base, and the bottom stamp imperforate at top. Frank speculated that this might have come from a strip of 36 C3 full rows of 12) which were auctioned at Sotheby's London, in 1993. There were only four full sheets which were perforated. in this manner. They were issued from the GPO Wellington in 1928.

Neil Fenwick brought along some recent commercial envelopes arriving at his work each with a cachet he hadn't seen before. Two red oval ones, 'Postal Delivery Branch Waipukurau' and 'Internal Research Christchurch Mail Service Centre', then rectangular types /NZ. Post Teller 10 Porirua', 'Kilbirnie Mailroom', 'Manager North City Delivery Branch'. 'Kapiti Delivery' and 'Redirections Ngaruawahia'. Neil is a member of the Hutt Valley Philatelic Society and they recently celebrated their 70th Anniversary by issuing a 50c CAL featuring a front view of the Lower Hutt Town Hall. Each member received their monthly newsletter franked with a CAL postmarked 25 March being the first day of issue. He also showed a maximum card and a special limited edition FDC (1 of 70) signed by the President, given to each member who attended the April meeting. Along with this he had a block of 4 imperforate NZ Post proofs of the issue which were a darker shade. To finish off he had a social size mourning cover franked with a 6d NZ second sideface, Oamaru to Edinburgh dated 26 JE 80.

Geoff Rickards showed off the 'premier' item in the current RPSNZ sale (lot 892) namely the full sheet of the 1979 4c/8c Josephine Bruce Rose error, in which two entire columns totalling 20 stamps have their black colour completely omitted. Tongue in cheek he suggested the item fitted the 'frugal philately' theme of the evening, since the sheet at purchase cost a mere $4 (reduced from the original $8). There was considerable discussion as to how the error might have originated.

The items illustrated in the May postal sale catalogue and those presented on the website were displayed. Doug Tennant commented that although there was a focus on polar material the sale included something for just about everyone. The e is a selection of New Zealand proofs, a series of Tongan tin can mail covers, USSR postal stationery and postcard sets and a good variety of bulk lots. Although the heme of the evening is frugal philately, members are encouraged to bid enthusiastically. This applies especially to the 4c surcharge sheet that Geoff has been researching.

Members Night - Frugal Philately

This was introduced as an experimental class in Canberra in 1999. It aims to encourage exhibiting without hitting the chequebook too hard, and removes any focus on rarity; concentrating instead on aspects like treatment, knowledge and presentation. After the conventional judging has taken place, the exhibit is assessed by selected dealers who ascertain a wholesale value per frame, which cannot exceed AU$150. Point penalties accrue if it does.

Adam Miller had 2 frames based around 45c rate Creative Covers; where there were at least 3 stamps per cover and as many as 13 making up the rate. Many of these had come through the Royal's office mail, but he admitted to a flurry of making up particular covers during the last week of the rate in 2007.

Bob Watson. In early 2006 NZ Post decided to drop town names from postmarks, instead substituting three digit numeral codes which correspond to the town names. Bob wondered why they needed to do that since the codes are easily translated back to town names anyway. On display were several pages of these he had collected showing the town codes and different cancellation types. This was an interest at the time, but Bob hasn't pursued this and is missing quite a few of the known numbers. (Bob can supply a list of those missing if you have any to provide). All were collected from incoming mail and have virtually no value, thus qualifying as frugal philately.

3. Wellington Regional Stamp Show

This annual event is to be held Saturday 10 May and Sunday 11 May at the Horticultural Hall, Laings Road, Lower Hutt. Open lOam to 5pm on the Saturday and 10am to 4pm Sunday. There will be displays by local Societies both competitive a"nd fun, plenty of local club information with members available to give advice. NZSDA members will also be on hand buying and selling philatelic material. The organisers would like to hear from anyone who may be able to assist in setting up and dismantling over the weekend. There is venue preparation on Friday 9th from 2pm, mounting exhibits Saturday morning from 8am, and packing up Sunday from 4pm. For further information contact Neil Fenwick on 04 568 3319 or email atnafsc@xtra.co.nz. So come along for what is always an enjoyable show.

4. May Postal Sale

A reminder that the closing date for bids in the May Sale is 15 May. (The catalogue is on the Society's website). Make sure your bids are in on time. This sale is a trial with a quarter of the lots in the sale representing polar material. There is a focus on the Antarctic with items associated with the early expeditions from New Zealand and a substantial offering of covers from a range of countries. The Ross Dependency material is noteworthy as are the items from the British and French Antarctic Territories and from the American involvement over the years. The Campbell Island lots cover the development of postal material associated with the scientific parties.

5. New Members

There was one new member during the past month, Leith Watt from New Zealand. Royal Lines welcomes Leith to our society. And with regret we recently were advised Robert Scott from Christchurch passed away during February. Our condolences are extended to Robert's wife and family.

6. Publications Available

RPSNZ List of Library Holdings 2007. $25.00 plus packaging & postage. 100 pages, ringbound. Comes with CD. Contact the office for other publications available.

7. Bygone Times

As noted under items of interest Adam Miller showed an advertisement for beer which appeared in the Listener in 1964. It was one of a series for Waikato showing their beer combined with other pleasurable activities. The one shown has a couple of stamp collectors sharing their hobby, while also enjoying the pleasure of the ale and for the man on the left, a cigarette as well! Simpler times maybe, but the potential for damage from combining these pastimes is obvious to modern eyes. No one needs reminding that liquid refreshments, even water, should be kept far away from any surface where stamps or albums are spread out. One careless gesture and those UHM items become MNG quite quickly. Many of us have also opened old albums only to reel back as the miasma of stale nicotine fumes arise from the yellowed pages. One can only assume that neither tl'1e advertising agency behind this series of adverts, nor their models, were actual philatelists. (From memory, and it is a long time ago, the ads were produced by the Auckland office of Dormer Beck Advertising, the agency this Editor worked for at the time in Wellington. And yes the philatelists would have been models or if the budget was tight, then agency staff were sometimes roped in with the promise of, you guessed it, a tipple or two of the sponsor's fine product! Ed.)

8. Subscriptions - Change of Rebate time

The time for renewal of subscriptions is approaching. As last year, your invoice for the 2008-2009 year will be posted out with the June issue of the New Zealand Stamp Collector. You will find some changes co t ined on the invoice, but the most important relates to the rebate period. Despite the opportunity the Society gives members to save on their membership fees, there are many who don't, which means a long administrative effort to contact and remind them of their obligation.

Previously the rebate period ended at the end of August. Council have now decided that this amount of time

may well be too long with the consequence some members may forget the cut-off date so from this year. the rebate will only apply until the 31 July. So please make a note of this date and when your invoice arrives and you wish to apply the rebate, please send your remittance in by 31st July.