Weeks #2017.32 and 33 on SébPhilatélie

Monday 7 August: Should a stamp be altered to gain value?
A philatelic philosophic question that encompass traditional to today's commercial philately: should a stamp be altered to gain value?

Uncancelled and unfolded or folded on cover? How would you collect such a stamp? (Correos website).

Thoughts from many examples that make philately more famous than miles of new or cancelled stamp albums: from the alleged burning of the second known One Cent Guyana to the Spanish origami stamp of July 2017, and remembering many flowering-able stamps.

Saturday 12 August: No holidays for the French philatelic service.
Once upon a recent time Phil@poste, the French philatelic service, never issued stamps in August and was light with one or two touristic stamps in July.

The « sweet bitter intensity of chocolate », one of the 12 stamps by Cécile Gambini for The Taste booklet, issued Saturday 5 August 2017 (via Phil-Ouest.com).

This year a complete illustrated adhesive booklet was issued the first weekend of August and the first day of issue of Le Havre's 500th anniversary stamp happened past Thursday the 31st.

Hopefully other news happened in French Philately outside new stamps: French young philatelists gathered medals at the international exhibition in Bandung, Indonesia.

Tuesday 15 August: French and communists pastimes for British collectors.
Did you know The Association of Scottish Philatelic Societies edits stamp games to discover foreign language vocabulary?

The board of the stamp game in French createed by StampIT of The Association of Scottish Philatelic Societies.

This Summer its Youth Development - Stamp ID section added the French edition, joining Japanese and Spanish. The Language of Stamps board games can be freely downloaded and print-it-yourself on the ASPS website or solid games can be ordered.

In London from 17 October to March 2018 the British Museum will exhibit the communist part of its collection of banknotes. An interesting exercice to see how communist states have illustratede their ideals to the public.

This 1975 banknote of Somalia pictured all the roles a Somali woman should do: exhausting totalitarian multitasking or opening them the world? (British Museum via The Guardian).

The collections of the British Museum are a wonder thank to generations of curators and donators. It even includes postcards sent or bought by them like this Guardian article reminded last year. As for the banknotes the curator explained the differences for historians between the country and population as they are pictured on cards and as they eventually were.

Thursday 17 August: The 2017-2018 RPSL program.
The program of Thurday exhibitions and conferences was published on The Royal Philatelic Society London website.

The touch of the new President Patrick Maselis is quite visible, an interest in Belgium, Africa and Monaco, along established customs to invite other Societies to present their members' collections, from German postal historians to the philatelic academy of Russia.

First event, Thursday 14 September: The West Indies from the Queen's Royal Philatelic Collection, presented by its Keeper Michael Sefi.