Week #2016.22 on SébPhilatélie

Tuesday 31 May: King George VI and the Battle of Jutland.
The centenary of the 1916 naval battle betweek British and German navies reminded that a young Prince Albert, to become King George VI, participated and saw the battle from afar.

Prince Albert, beginning of the Great War (Royal Archives via the British Royal Family's Facebook page).

From there, I wonder why this monarch has only been a guest in some Royal Mail's stamp issues and hasn't got a huge commemorative.

Wednesday 1st June: the Crawford Library's online!!!
Announced last March by retired British Library curator David Beech, large parts of the Library of James Ludovic Lindsay, Earl of Crawford, can, since last Monday 30 May, be searched and read online through the Global Philatelic Library.

The catalogue of the Library bequeathed to the Nation virtually list all philatelic literature, pamphlet, sales catalogues ever published until 1911. On that 95% are in the Crawford Library at the British Library. From there, 80% were microfilmed in the 1980s-1990s and then digitised these part years.

The catalogue page that shouldn't be missed (screen captude, 1st of June 2016).

Don't forget to check the catalogue page to know what's in there and because there are free bonuses: two supplements of The London Philatelist on the life of Crawford and the conservation of his Library.

The video posted on youTube.

The passage from film to digital was possible by a grant of the British Philatelic Fund, the volunteering and the server storage capacity of the Royal Philatelic Society London, that now proposed an introductive video to present itself.

Saturday 4 June: the Palmares of New York 2016.
Today's final day of the World Stamp Show New York 2016 and the palmares was published - but for the Champions Class.

The medal with the show logotype by Niko Courtelis.

Not being able to visit it, I cherry picked into the palmares to create the article:
- How philatelists of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon succeeded (third Large Gold for Jean-Jacques Tillard).
- How does the-postal-history-meets-societies-history class succeeded. Quite well with a Grand Prix International thank you.
- What's at the bottom of the list: certainly not failures!
- From hints by Australian dealer Glen Stephens on StampBoards.com, some collections to check: a Tre Skilling Banco yellow here, a King Edward VIII stamp project there...

First class definitives video of the United Kingdom

Found than to Machin Mania, this video by Chris Phillips was posted last year on YouTube. Subject: the evolution of the simple letter rate in the United Kingdom from 1840 to 2008.



The first part permits to retrieve the British first types, whose surnames are so exotic when a French philatelist find them in a magazine article.

The second part became a color study of the Machin series: 40 years of use during the Western industrial crisis of the late 20th century.

Only a note on my part: about the calculation. Yes, 2008 rate = 86.5 times 1840 rate... but this multiplicator is no information if you do not know if you need 86.5 times salary work to send a letter today compared to the mid 19th.