Tutti frutti

To read British monthly Stamp Magazine's first pages (news and most expensive advertisment places) is always a pleasure for the curious one. Here is a little part of what I discover with the May 2009 pages.

As soon as the second page, the famous commercial, judged as anti-women dignity, from the Monaco Postage Stamp Issuing Office, in its English version: "Our collection, will suit you perfectly" while the French one said: "Soyez affranchis, offrez-vous une nouvelle collection" (Be franked/liberated, offer yourself a new collection). This campaign has a important merit compared to its predecessors: it makes blogging.

Page 7, Prestige Philately of Melbourne used one of its two paid pages to show only one lot of its 13 June 2009 sale: a printed project of the Chalon effigy stamp for Queensland, extracted from Bernie Manning's collection. Beautiful.

Page 9 is more topical... Gibraltar put the faces of Queen Elizabeth II's grand-children on 42 pence stamps while Åland, page 10, asked former President of Finland and Nobel Price of Peace, Martti Ahtisaari, to design a stamp.

But the sensation is printed on page 10. A radioactive cover! Found in the ruins of a bank in Hiroshima in August 1945. Between 6 and 10 May in Essen, it will be exhibited at IBRA'09, the international and national German exhibition, inside its lead and security glass coffer.

Opposite it, page 11, the IBRA'09 official auction house, Felzmann, bought the ad page to show a hand of British Empire lots from its sales.

Page 13 concluded this news part with a second Monaco commercial. No, the model did not finish losing its stamp dress. Here, that is not sale for collector, it is serious thing for philatelist (or princes): to announced with the Club of Monte-Carlo the prestige exhibit Monacophil 2009, between 4 and 6 December 2009. Two advertisments worlds apart for two collections and two publics worlds apart too?

for amateurs of topical, Adrian Keppel told the history of France with 1966-1973 Albert Decaris' stamp series. For amateurs of rarities, Bob Odenweller chose sixteen pieces in William H. Gross' United States collection.