Weeks #2017.31 on SébPhilatélie

Monday 31 July: Some news from philatelic societies.
The Royal Hispanic Philatelic Academy is publishing a special issue of his journal to mark its 40th anniversary.

On Thursday 27 July The Royal Philatelic Society London celebrated its library volunteers and employees with a special exhibition from their collections.

On Friday 28 July The Postal Museum finally opened in London, but know that the Mail Rail, the exhibition and travel through the former Post Office underground train will only be opened to the general public in September. Seems reservation for Mail Rail would be prudent.

In the middle of summer the New Zealand post office announced the Children's Health stamp series is discontinued due to sales being insufficient to donate enough to Stand ; 2016 would be the last one of a now complete collection.

The Swiss Postcrossing stamps (Postcrossing blog, 28 July 2017).

On 7 September the Swiss Post will issue three stamps - one per rate - about Postcrossing, the postcard blind exchange postcard website. Max Spring designed the humorous labels.

Friday 4 August: Being postal with Charles Bukowski.
Summer reading: Post Office by United States author Charles Bukowski who wrote quasi autobiography in some of his novels.

As it happened Bukowski, a free spirited man - spirit as the fumes of some beverages... -, was a postman and after a period of successful horse racing betting, a postal clerk sorting envelopes. Despite a reasonable efficiencies he wrote how some of the rules and regulations were alienating the staff.

A reflexion on inhumane modern fordism? Or an ode to laziness and easy pleasures?

Sunday 6 August: "175 proven stamp exhibiting tips" by Steven Zwillinger.
Another summer reading, but incomplete because of the nature of the book, this will guide a potential philatelic exhibitor into the preparation and the competition, hopefully, on "the path to gold".

The cover of The Path to Gold (American Association of Philatelic Exhibition website).

The very interesting and thought-inducing book by Steven Zwillinger was published 2016 by the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors and compiled his chronics he wrote for The Stamp Dealer & Collector from 2009 to 2016, and the publications of the AAPE.

From a detailed example of a synopsis (the text provided by the exhibitor to the jury) to etymologicly iconoclast ideas... or simply reminders that one should enjoy oneself's and the public's when exhibiting.

After I wrote my article on SébPhilatélie, I found that Steven Zwillinger was awarded a large silver medal for this book at the international exhibition in Bandung, Indonesia this August and was elected President of the American Philatelic Research Board of Trustess, which pilot the American Philatelic Society's Library in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.

Weeks #2017.27 and 28 on SébPhilatélie

Saturday 8 July: Difficulties with fiscal stamps for Malians in Algeria.
On 21 April 2017 MaliActu.net news website published a plea from Malian citizens living and working in neighbouring Algeria.

A 500 CFA franc fiscal stamp of Mali (via MaliActu.net).

The Embassy in Algiers hadn't had stamps for months and its personnel refused to explain the causes, while Algiers and Bamako are weekly connected by flights.

Tuesday 11 July: A philatelic month.

With my recent dive in Tweeter to discover the social network tool, here are some news I gathered there.

In London:

At the general assembly on Thursday 22 June,  members of the Royal Philatelic Society London elected Belgian postal historian Patrick Maselis as its new President. ont élu le Belge Patrick Maselis président de l'association londonienne.

Already President of the Club of Monte Carlo which organised Monacophil and of the Royal Academy of Philately of Belgium, whose website proposed a complete biography.

Collectors of Belgian personalised stamps who are members of the RPSL will be thrilled :)

In Oaxaca, Mexico:
The MUFI (its Twitter account) celebrated its birthday at the same time as the philatelic exhibition on the seas and their fauna. Medias and institutions of Oaxaca broadcasted both events.

Saturday 1st July, Lisbeth Mejla of newspaper El Impartial reported her visit of the museum's library, rich with studies by Mexican philatelists and old editions of famous catalogues.

Presentation of the MUFI by Fundation Alfredo Harp Helú, posted Friday 7 July 2017 on youTube. 

And since Friday 7, Fundation Alfredo Harp Helú is proposing a video about the museum, its permanent collections, its activities for the children, its library.

In Algeria:
Thursday 6 July, in his weekly philatelic column in El Watan, Arslan Selmane wrote down his questions about the last commemorative minisheet by the Algerian Post. It is issued the same week end alongside its five separate stamps about Algerian battles against the French invasion, occupation and colonisation of the country from 1830 to 1962.

The questionable minisheet, issued Saturday 8 July 2017 (via the forum PhilatélieDz).

To summarize: apart from difficult-to-watch paintings on stamps, how will thematical philatelist exhibit the minisheet whereas there are events of two different periods, a variety of locations and war actors and strategies.

Selmane is continuing his enlighted criticism of Algeria's 2017 stamp program, in which minisheets are numerous.

French medias haven't seemed to notice the issue... Surely a good thing for public appeasement. Not for a serious look on French history, and for philately.

The final part of the article in French are proposition of magazines for the Summer, including for parents (and grand-parents) how to manage video games with their children.

Friday 14 July: a 12th Indonesia birthday for Postcrossing.
Bastille Day is Postcrossing Day too!

The 3 Indonesian stamps: travel through postcards with open computer windows to the world (1) of monuments (2) and cultures (3).

The written postcard exchange website is honored by the Indonesian post with a triptyc because a Postcrossing event will be organised during the international exhibition in Bandung (3-7 August).

Of course The Sebphilately Postcrossing catalogue was updated accordingly.

Saturday 15 July: a new stamp for Liverpool.
In his latest issue on contemporary architecture Royal Mail added one stamp about the city of Liverpool, one of the specialities of Séb.

The new façade of the Everyman Theater in Liverpool... If the picture went more to the left, another architecture marvel would appear, but it was already put on a stamp in 1969 (Royal Mail).

The Everyman Theater, opened 1964, was completely rebuilt between 2011 and 2014. Its new front presents pictures of Liverpuldians.

The theater is located on the northern part of Hope Street, a touristic promenade of Liverpool by itself. You will find the two cathedrals at both ends (the Anglican to the South, the Catholic next to the Everyman), sculptures and many important place of concerts and plays, including musical pubs.

Week #2017.19 to 21 on SébPhilately and French television

Only five articles in three weeks?!

When we say that French people are lazy with all the May's Banking holidays while the summer sun's arriving too: Labour Day, Victory Day, Ascension, and soon Pentecost... For the latter two: yes, we boast ourselves of being a secular republic.

Thursday 11 May: Micro-Philippinian vs Macro-Russian stamps.
Two postcards, two very different stamps.

A stamp and a cancel very haphazardly made... But efficient and cost saving. Thank you Pascale for the postcard from Bohol island.

Size: 2.5 x 2.2 cm for PhilPost 2015 issue on its Mailing Center picturing the Central Post Office of the capital Manila. Even if the composition is a superposition of... unequal text, picture and logo. The cancel of the Tourist Center is not traditionall round, but very horizontal too.

Large 1997 painting of the "Russian" monastery in Mount Athos, autonomous orthodox enclave in Northern Greece. Thanl you Olga via Postcrossing.

The complete contrary to this large painting, gold shining, round and neatly cancelled 5 cm square stamp from Russia.

Dmitri Anatolyevich Belyukin, one of current institutional painter of the Federation, painted Saint Panteleimon, a monastery founded originally by monks from Russian plains in the 11th century. The printer did a very good job with these bright colors.

Saturday 13 May: Free French postal history in London.
In April the Stuart Rossiter Trust, a British foundation encouraging postal history research, published The Free French in London 1940-1945 by Peter A. Baker.

The announcing flyer.

In a 64 illustrated book, the author studies the mail from the forces, administrations and government gathered around Charles de Gaulle between 1940 and 1945.

9.50 British pounds plus postage.

If you are interested in postal history of the military and French episodes such as the French-Prussian War of 1870-1871, check the publications by or helped by the Trust.

Wednesday 17 May: 4 Android video games for Finlandia 2017.

The main page of the project: http://16tiko.projects.tamk.fi/en/

In the months before European philatelic exhibition Finlandia 2017, the museums of Tampere and the Tampere University of Applied Science worked together on a project for business information students: they had to create video games inspired by the museums.

The 25 games created can be downloaded and played on smartphones and tablets running with Android. On Google's Play Store look for the titles and help yourself with the icons.

Four of them are inspired by the Posti Museo, the Finnish postal museum opened Septembre 2014.

The postal and philatelic games' icons (site of the projet).

Two of them are "scrollers": you have to move the main character or boat on the screen to avoid obstacles and retrieve flying letters in Finnish landscapes and coasts (Postal History by NoClueGames) and mail barrels lost at sea (Castaway by North Star).

Again in Stampedu by Placeholdr Software (for stamp stampede), the player must follow the rythm of the game: letters of different rates are descending quicker and quicker. Would you succeed to frank them correctly while avoiding dangerous fuming black ones. Your reward: stamps!!! At least digitised ones by topics.

World of Stamps by Team Vasama will certainly interest elder collectors: quiz on countries and topics of stamps with stamps to collect as prizes.

An interesting initiative.

Monday 22 May: A philatelic counter in Luang Prabang, Laos.
Without being hopeful, a traveller friend of mine discovered that Luang Prabang has a philatelic counter for 55'000 inhabitants!

A philatelic counter in central Laos in French! A little sign in English will help the majority of tourists still writing postcards (with Tomath's autorisation).

Okay, the city and surroundings are touristic, with I am told fabulous falls and river beaches, including places worthy of a former royal capital.

Stamps bought there seem to spread from 2010 to 2015, Buddhist inspired as much as the 40th anniversary of the National Day with all the symbols of a communist people's régime.

Saturday 27 May: "Suomi! Finland in my heart... Forever!"
This week took place Finlandia 2017, an European exhibition, in Tampere where the Finnish postal museum was opened in September 2014 - remember: it opened with a correspondence exhibit that permitted a media frenzy minisheet.

Not able to attend, I summarize what stamp issues marked this event organised along the year of the centenary of Finland's independence.

Saturday 27 May p.m.: The many problems of first and last kilometers of transportation.
On Saturday early afternoon French public channel France 2 proposed an economic weekly magazine, Tout compte fait, on the transportation of food, mail and goods nowadays.

It summarizes with efficience how the city delivery by bike works (or not considering health and working insurance), how La Poste put its postmen at new tasks to find new revenue (delivering medicine, watching on city problems, visiting elderly), and how barges on river can help deliver goods and food in the country and inside the city.

The reports can be watched again at this address for a week after broadcast. But it may appear on the magazine's youTube page afterwards.

Week #2017.08 to .11 on SébPhilatélie

My apologies after a little - still on - overwhelmed job period doubled with the discovery of Nintendo's new title The Legend of Zelda: Breath of Wild.

The best French stamp ever!!!... Let's quiet down a bit (via Phil-Ouest.com).

Saturday 25 February: a French-British-Australian salad.
Since 2009 the Greek letter phi has been forced as the official symbol on French program stamps.

Truncated poster of Jean-Luc Mélenchon's campaign, entitled Disobedient/Rebellious Franceffiche. In stickers and posters it can be found on many urban public and private furnitures (campaign material website).

Since Autumn it's the symbol of the far right politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the current presidential election in France...

On the other of the world multimillionaire CEO of the Australia Post decided to leave its office... after years of philatelic and unions outrage concerning his salaries, months of failed Senate inquiries and weeks of suddenly great media attention.

Presented on Norvic Philatelics blog the new postal rates of Royal Mail seem to indicate the operator is following the Brexit tempo: moderate penny increase for interior mail, huge for international... Mail to Europe being the most punished: +10 pennies!

Sunday 26 February: promotion of philately at the Etihad Museum, Dubai.
The first temporary exhibition in the newly opened Etihad Museum of the United Arab Emirates history, in Dubai, is still interesting journalist.

On the 22 February The National presented the activity proposed to visiting children in order for them to discover postal service and stamp creation.

Monday 27 February: Royal Mail asks internauts their wish for the 2019 program.
The British operator is proposing a survey to the public to get opinions for the 2019 stamp program.

Introduction and first questio of the survey (Royal Mail website).

The ideas are proposed into three domains ; the visitor can tick three boxes per domain. A fourth part allows to add other proposals.

Concerning philatelic philately the 150th anniversary of the Royal Philatelic Society London is among the historic commemorations.

Tuesday 28 February: Continental exhibition in Saint-Pierre and Miquelon next June.
From Thursday the first to Sunday fourth of June 2017, the French overseas collectivity of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon will host a continental interamerican exhibition after the successful 2014 edition.

Logotype of SPM Expo 2017 (official website).

The website permits to read the list of the jury and watch the trophies offered by the insitutions and national federations.

Thursday 2 March: alternate history philately on the BBC.
Imagined in the 1940s, SS-GB, the alternate history serial of the BBC, shows many envelopes during the policeman hero's investigations in a Britain occupied by the nazi forces... if they had successfully landed in 1940.

An occupation stamp, very badly perforated, stuck on an envelope during the first episode (BBC One, Sunday 19 February 2017).

Adapted from the spy novel by Len Deighton, published in 1978: Douglas Archer, one of the best inspectors of Scotland Yard, is forced to make his service works, hoping for a better future, while under the scrutiny of the SS ; the dreadful organisation having begun the census of jews.

The cover of the novel already used alternate philately to strike the potential reader (amazon.co.uk).

An investigation into a murder by gun shot imposes Archer to work for a German military intelligence officer, sent in urgency by Berlin... Who was the victim? What is he so important? At the same time, London is preparing to host a visit of Soviet dignitaries: what will become of Operation Barbarossa in this timeline?

Sunday 5 March: museums and their mail: the Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool.
Many museums exhibit postal history items because they fit the topic of the place. For exemple, this 1941 postcard in the Battle of the Atlantic Gallery in the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool, England.

The reproduced two sides of a Christmas card sent by a prisoner of war to Liverpool in December 1941.

The illustration gave the place of origin: Stalag X-B near Bremen, north west Germany. The article of the Wikipedia in English helped discover this prison camp: Marlag und Milag Nord.

Marlag stands for Marinelager, a camp for all kind of seamen, both Royal Navy captured and merchant marine civilians, hold because they could help the war effort by manning ships sailing to North America to get supplies.

But the civilians got their own camp, Milag for Marineinterniertenlager, after members of the United States and Switzerland's Red Cross Committees visited Marlag.

Tuesday 7 March: Netherlands philately summarised on one postcard.
Thank to philatelist Postcrosser, I received a card franked with three kinds of stamps that NL Post is proposing these past years.

Thank you Shelly!

On the left side, make-up stamps in the design approach the Netherlands are famous for now. In the center the lower stamp of a 2006 illustrated minisheet on Schoonhoven, a historic center of silver craftmanship.

An inspired card printed by editor Greetz, the same as the personalised stamp on the other side of the card. Liverpool and Beatles lover will notice...

Finally, on the right side, a personalised stamp promoting stamp collecting, mimicking the unused war moral poster of Britain: Keep calm and collect stamps.

Saturday 11 March: French colonies' challenges to postal historians.
Two British publications proposed ideas that could motivate collectors to search the French colonies again. First, in the January issue of Gibbons Stamp Monthly, Michael Round ended his stamp studies of the French Territory of the Afars and Issas (1967-1977) with the goal to find cancelled items from all five post offices of the country to become independent Djibouti, including illustrated "flammes" of Djibouti.

Five in a desertic rocky region: too easy?

HMS Vanadis by Jacob Hägg, around 1900s (via Commons by Wikimedia).

In the February issue of The London Philatelist, Staffan Ferdén studied three covers to a Swedish naval officer cancelled in Stockholm and who found him in Tahiti, in the Society Islands, during the 1883-1885 world tour of the HMS Vanadis.

The author is known for his classic Swedish maritime mail collection and studies (to became a book in 2019 - a summary of a recent presentation is available on the Stockholmia 2019 exhibition website: click "Read more" on the 17 December 2016 article).

Why those Tahiti cover among all mail received and sent by the crew, including Prince Oscar Bernadotte? Because Papeete was, with Egyptian Port Said at the entrance of the Suez canal, the only places where there was no Swedish consulate to take care of the mail.

The article is dense, but succeeds to give information on the cruise, the geopolitial situation of this part of Polynesia under French rule since 1880 (after a protectorate period), and all the maritime routes that existed in the 1880s in order to guess which ones the three letters had taken to find Lieutenant Fredrik Peyron.

Still looking for a challenge?

Let's try genealogy: Peyron as in Loïck Peyron, the French sailing champion? Is there a cousin connection is one could climb their respective trees up until the first French Bernadotte King of Sweden?

Conclusion for the week end.
The author of a Sower specialised blog proposed yesterday something surprising and a personal rendition of what may have happened to a countess living in Lorraine when she sent a registered postcard to a friend in Edinburgh, Scotland. Étiquette.

Week #2016.44 on SébPhilatélie

Monday 31 October: odd-centered cancels on Postcrossing mail.
When you receive a card through the Postcrossing's postcard blind-exchange, there is always something suprising: in the sender's message, the stamps chosen, of course the postcard illustration... or how it was cancel at the start.

If a Canadian postmen checked this card at the sorting office and didn't put out his pen: thank you.

Mid-October three successive cards amplified the problem: at first a nice Dutch round datestamp for three stamps..., then a neatly applied round datestamp with waves of Finland missing the upper right corner... and finally these Canadian stamps untouched by machine cancellation or a pen.

I get a summary of Canada history, nature and symbols, at correct postage, but with no postmark. Hopefully, I don't do uncancelled stamp contraband :)

Wednesday 2 November: cod and magpie at Philataipei 2016.
When you can't travel to an international stampshow, you're happy to find reports in philatelic magazines and testimonies on stamp forums, like Australian-based StampBoards.com members on Philataipei 2016.

The Atlantic Cod stamp and his three dimension aspect as shown by Posta (Posta website). 

One member of this forum proposed pictures of the exhibit by security printer Cartor (based in France, owned by a British group) to explain how it produced the Faroese issue on the Atlantic cod with actual cod skin stuck on the stamps.

A good way to discover the work of Icelandic company Atlantic Leather, that produces nice things with leathered fish skin.

Another member, not from Taiwan, explained how the stamp with value on-demand distributor works in the Republic of China. The machine doesn't give change back, but the value you ask for plus another stamp with the value of the change (need a 5 dollar postage, paid with a 10 dollar coin, equal two 5 dollar stamps).

Thursday 3 November 2016: why subscribing to a stamp club in Quebec.
On 25 Septembre 2015, TVCL, a community tv channel of the Laurentides region of Quebec, Canada, proposed a nice and educative talkshow on stamp collecting and the interest of stamp clubs by three members of local clubs.

In French, free view on demand there and on Vimeo.

Saturday 5 November 2016: From plane to optic fiber, Fiji at the center of the Pacific.
From an envelope bought in October, a little text on the central role of Fiji in airways and internet connections for the Pacific countries, including French overseas collectivity of Wallis and Futuna.

The air and floral postage from Fiji to France in 1976.

Sunday 6 November 2016: The mysteries of Serua and Mary in Fiji.
Another Fiji cover from the same recipient in France and two topics.

A very touristic, though christian, postage from Fiji to France in 1983.

A touristic one with the definitive stamp on Serua island (and its mysterious poles in the sea) and a christian one by the 1982 Christmas stamp and the sender, St Mary's Convent - from the Marist Sisters arrived in Fiji in 1892?

Elsewhere in France: 
In the November 2016 issue of L'Écho de la timbrologie (available on printed or digital subscription) the Director of the French philatelic service announced there will be a second Paris-Philex in 2018. Yes in France the national stamp show is announced by the postal operator... Must be a question of artihmetics.

Week #2016.28 on SébPhilatelie and in Europe

Monday 11 July: European philatelic and postal news.
From my readings of Google News, StampBoards.com, the Commonwealth Stamp Opinion and Norvics blogs, a handful of philatelic and postal news from Western Europe.

Brexit: The current British Home Guard ready to repel the European invasion! (Lonely Planet via The Daily Mail).

How French postal clercks may have jeopardize the British referendum on the European Union by misunderstanding the British postage already paid envelopes, a possible crime of lèse-Prime Minister in the background picture of a commemorative sheet of Jersey, a second Postcrossing issue for Guernsey, the Swiss Post to make gifts to the Swiss people by January 1st 2017, the comeback of Afinsa catalogues of Portugal and colonies (look for Mundifil now), news on Machin stamps' phosphorescence, and how seagulls are a threat against mail carrying.

The SebPhilately Postcrossing Stamp Catalogue was updated accordingly.

Thursday 14 July: Paris-Philex and how philately is the history of Empires and Globalisation.
The seventh article about France Philately Championship at Paris-Philex with some covers illustrating how philately and postal history are linked to the history of colonial empires and the rise of globalisation.

Lettre de Rhodes italienne pour Téhéran en mai 1933 (collection René Maréchal, Paris-Philex 2016).

But, between the conquest of people and their exploitation by big companies, there lies hope of human and sustainable development. And there are old proofs of that: aerophilatelist René Maréchal proposed a collection on the airmail of the Aegean See between 1929 and 1947, when Italy possessed Rhodes and the Dodecane islands.

The cover pictured here was sent from Rhodes on May 1933 to a relative living in Tehran, Persia and working at a school of the Alliance israélite universelle. Four airmail companies of four different countries, allies and ennemies two by two, forwarded the cover to a country where the jewish community is still a recognised minority - despite the difficulties of geopolicy.

Sunday 17 July: Fed up with French politicians.

Again a terrorist attack in France, again a French politician manage to say something... surprising ?

The only stamp I found on this topic: a rocket launcher as one of the weapons of the Cuban Revolution (1965 stamp, series for the Museum of the Révolution., colnet.com).

Henri Guaino regrets that no French soldier with a rocket launcher on his shoulder was present in Nice on the 14th evening... Yes! With a well aimed rocket, the lorry wouldn't have continued his murderous way any longer... And how he dismiss the civilian casualties around the explosion...

I think I begin to be aware of how some people lived the 1930s in France and Britain, watching the dangers growing while their national politicians dismissed them.

Austria Post got Postcrossing... Warum?!!

Saturday May 21st, the Austrian Postcrossers celebrated the issue of the 24th stamp about the postcard exchange website.

A wall of bricks? (Austrian Post via the Postcrossing blog).

Artist Robert Sabolovic proposed a blurred wall of postcards. Ach! Contemporary art...

#24 (AUT #1) : issuedmis 21 March 2016 by Österreichische Post (Austria), value 0.80 euro. Design by Robert Sabolovic. Printed in offset by Joh. Enschedé Stamps B.V., run of 250 thousands stamps.

The SebPhilately's Postcrossing stamp catalogue always available on the 24 December 2015 up to date post.

Second Postcrossing stamp for Russia

For a cross-country topic, go read the article on Mikhail Bulgakov on SebPhilatélie.

Let's find something gentle to say about Russia, whose pol... athl... gas prod... tigers?... landscapes... Artists!1

Yes! Russia, whose landscapes on postcards and artists are wonderful... especially with magic screens. Postcrossing it is then!

The stamp, the second on this topic for Pochta Rossii (rusmarka.ru).

The stamp with a surprising transport and housing design, plus an envelope "I love Postcrossing" (why not a postcard?), by I. Sidenko is the second for Russia on the blind exchanged postcard exchange website, launched 14 July 2005. A site where Russian postcrossers are the second most sending with soon 4 million card, while the leading German group is advancing towards 5 million.

Overall, since 2011, it is the 23rd of the topic.

The SebPhilately's Postcrossing Catalogue has been updated accordingly.


1: This little prank will give the same list for France: a government destroying the Labour Law, costly team sport players, too important nuclear energy... But the landscapes and the artists... Let's add the cheeses :)

Week #2016.13 on SébPhilatélie

Monday 28 March: the end of La Poste UK.

When you are a Stamp Magazine subscriber in France, receive it brings you a contemporary post paid printed sheet. Since January 2015 the British subsidiary of the French and Swiss posts served the magazine to France under a return address "La Poste UK"...

But this brand stopped 2012 when it become Asendia after the merger with the Swiss and some British marketing mail managers. By March 2016, the return address is finally corrected.

Wednesday 30 March: An Post's museum and Easter Rising Centenary event.

Part of the stories into RTÉ, the public radio and television network of Ireland, latest documentary on the Great Post Office of Dublin is the building and opening of  a new cultural place to celebrate the Easter Rising of 1916.

Witness History, that's the place, is now open and its website live.

And don't forget the Postal Museum and Archive, located in the same building.

Thursday 31 March: Postcrossing and the beautiful cancellation.

For a decade now, the cancellation by the French post are inkjet printed and do no more display any places: nor the place of mailing, neither the sorting plant...

Posted in Béziers... or 24585A. Promise!

If you want traditional round cancel, you need to send a parcel, stick stamps on it and hope for a postal-able postal clerk: an example.

Received through Postcrossing, a French born most famous Indian entepreneur and aviator, J.R.D. Tata, cencelled in Mumbai, 9 March 2016.

Or participate to Postcrossing and receive cards from many countries that allow you to learn by reading a cancel.

Sunday 3 April: British success in Madrid, fear of collapse in London.

While Ian and John Billings reported on the new Intelligence AR stamp distributor (Post & Go) to be launch by Correos at a Madrid philatelic show late April, StampBoards.com participants have been following the collapse of the share value of Stanley Gibbons since the group bought marketplace website BidStart.

The drop is so deep, many are afraid the catalogue and edition side of the British philatelic monument could be lost with the superfluous part of the ship. Hopefully the cameronite rats-captains would find a way to save themselves before that.

Merry visit of the GPO in Dublin

Until mid-April, you can watch the episodes of a documentary about the daily life of the Dublin Greater Post Office, its current employees, clients and operations on RTÉ, the public television of Ireland.

Logotype of RTÉ.

The branch is located in the rebuilt GPO, partly destroyed during the Easter Rising, during which the building housed the independentists' headquarters. Nowadays, the façade and the underground levels dated from the original construction between 1814 and January 1818.

During Tuesday 15th March episode, the GPO employees are presented from the counters to the nightshifters, including the helpful calling center. Costarring some colorful clients.

With Tuesday 22th episode, the documentary took surprising roads following the artistic events that take place in the hall of the post office during open door nights with concerts and the opportunity for visitors to post a special postcard. The clients and their happy life or their difficulties brought the first episode into perspective: homeless people getting shelter under the façade, a mother sending a bag of clothes to her migrant daughter unable to go further than France. Hopefully, a meeting of Postcrossers introduced the inventivity of An Post and its communication service.

The third episode, broadcasted Tuesday 29th March, Christmas and the Centenary both approaching, illustrated the importance for the Irish society of the GPO building: it's the rally point for demonstration in the capitale, a place for an association to offer hot meals and warm clothes to homeless people, and for refugee father to have a bank and begins saving money for the future of his children. Behind the counter, while Baby Jesus is difficult to find among the Christmas decoration put in storage last year, an employee tries to catch a pigeon... Finally, the construction site of the new centenary attraction, Witness History, are completed enough for six female dancers to prepare their interpretation of the Eastern Rising.

Christmas is approching in the fourth episode launched Tuesday 12th April. Aerial dancing show on the columns outside, music and singing in the hall, and carolling for charity under the portico, while specially prepared letters and parcels are being franked with the Christmas illustrated machine stamps at the counters. In the back office, Santa's secretaries are working to ensure all children will get their answers before the great day. And after a rare theft in the hall and the desperate very final client at closing time, Santa visited the GPO!

A lot of works are going on in the building in the fifth episode on Tuesday 19th April: the continuous renovation of the historic part of the place, the crane pilot who had got the best view on Dublin for eight months, and the mysrery of the "little house on top of the Post Office". Inside, the sixteen stamps of the Centenary issue are prepared by meeting the descendants of the stamped people, especially when they can provide pictures that Zinc Design put in form (example of the Malone brothers: the first killed in the Army at Ypres in 1915 ; the other while fighting the British Army in Dublin the next year). Finally, the Tanzanian mother, filmed in an earlier episode, comes again to post a laptop to her daughter, trapped in Paris by immigration laws.

In the last episode, on Tuesday 26th April, the  GPO Witness History is finally opened after two years of building. The final artworks, especialy the sculpture to the children killed during the rising, are placed and an original poster of the 1916 Easter Proclamation is hung there. Outside, groups of pupils and of tourists discovered the history of the place with their teachers or their guides. With a debate: are the holes in the columns really bullet holes?

This documentary series is part of RTÉ's programming for the centenary of the Irish insurrection.

The GPO building is also Ireland's public operator An Post's headquarters, and its postal museum and archive.

Week #2016.11 on SébPhilatélie

A week of wandering of my mind... even in philately.

Monday 14th March: a red postcard, nice for a quiz.
Just a card received from Germany thank to Postcrossing.

Red stamps by http://www.wildepixel.com/.

Can you identify all this modern red stamps?

Friday 18th March: when French politicians become delusional...
One of the French philatelic haven, the Kerguelen islands in the French Southern and Antarctic Lands become famous this Wednesday after a conservative right politician proposed on newsradio to arrest without due process every Frenchmen coming back from Syria and isolate them in the Kerguelens...

Stay tune for the new postal history of the French penitentiary colony revival.

Saturday 19th March: regional exhibition in Montpellier.
The local association organised in Montpellier the regional congress of Languedoc and Roussillon with a four dealer and almost thirty collection event.

Part of those collections I found interest in were already exhibited last year at the annual Spring show in May or at the Stamp Festival last October. But I didn't mind a new look at Claude Pesche's postal history of the Jerusalem post offices from the Ottoman Empire to 1948... How many "philatelic countries" could there be in a city or a region?

Two tickled my curiosity by reshaping known stamps or knowledge into something unusual. J. Paraseit studied the postal history of La Réunion during the franc CFA currency period (1945-1975) with overprinted stamps of France and he proposed covers cancelled by the travelling post office on the sole and now closed railway of the Indian Ocean island.

Back in France, J. Ara Somohano exhibited covers sent, received by or linked to the Spanish Republicans who took refuge in France after the Retirada ; many covers addressed to internment camp where the French Republic and then Fascist France put them.

Finally, in the court of honor, a guest from sister-region Midi-Pyrénées, Henri Taparel proposed a two time Grand Vermeil collection and lesson on the postal rates of Communist Russia from 1917 to 1923, a time of civil war and economic difficulties. Imagine the government telling you a one kopek stamp is now worth a ruble without overprints!

Mr. Taparel's presentation is highlighted by introductive text placed at the date of new rates to explain what was happening at the time of decision. Something some departemental and regional exhibited collections have trouble to perform on their first two pages (no bibliography or a personal pensum) or as a conclusion. I hope to see it again elsewhere, but you can grasp part of the Russian specialist's knowledge on his personal website.

Sunday 20th March: coin collectors should avoid those.
In French specialised magazine L'Histoire of March 2016, France National Library coin and medal curator Jérôme Jambu analyses the coins of the Islamic State/Daesh/ISIS, that were announced in November 2014 and seems to circulate since June 2015.

He presents the announced characteristics of the coins and the meaning of them in history and propaganda context of the djihadist organisation. Because all coins who were studied in Europe are all faulty to the announced norms, it is supposed that Daesh is creating only faulty described coins to trade them and gain world strong currencies...

To Mr. Jambu, as for oil and archeological items smuggling, buying these coins is helping to finance terrorism.

Week #2016.10 on SébPhilatélie

I got quite philatelic fun this week writing on both blogs.

Sunday March 6th: unusual rate drops and demonetisation.

From philatelic forums and Google searches, I learnt that strange things will happen in three countries in their postal system, inimaginable in France or many countries.

By a special agreement between the Unites States Postal Service and the Postal Regulation Commission, the former will be forced to cut down the first class rates on April 10th... Whereas the financial situation of the public company is not safe yet. Talks began on how the public will react that Forever stamps' value is going to shrink a little.

In Sweden, there soon will be one year that the European Court of Justice declared unlawful that PostNord in Sweden add value added tax on public postal services.

In Lithuania, Lietuvos paštas reminds in the press that stamps only valued in litas, the former currency before the euro became the national currency on January 1st 2015, will cease to be valid by the end of the year 2016.

Monday March 7th: Nigeria slowly ascending the philatelic world.

A lucky find on youTube from the Nigeria's news television channel, NTA News: early March, the National Philatelic Promotion Council, established 1992, successfully organised an exhibition and conference in Abuja.

Former Nigerian President (right) praising the study of stamps and honoring Ahmadu Ali, current chairman of the National Philatelic Promotion Council, who celebrated his 80th birthday (NTA News, March 3rd 2016).

A must-see video from NTA and a must-read article on my blog: how does stamp passionates in emerging countries succeed to make the public aware of stamps, stamp collecting, philatelic studies and competitions? Surely a translation in English will be coming here soon.

Wednesday March 9th: PostNL will double the Postcrossing stamp catalogue by March 29th!

The Postcrossing official blog announced on Wednesday that the historic postal operator of the Netherlands will issue a ten stamp minisheet, kitsch-like, promoting the postcard exchange website and touristic place and arts of the low country.

Look at them if you don't fear to loose eyesight (PostNL through the Postcrossing blog).

The Postcrossing stamp catalogue will be added stamps #13 to 22 in one issue, the second one on this topic by PostNL.

On a side note, I discovered that Dutch stamps are only available though a special philatelic website of PostNL - and not the postal site of the operator, and at street level in news/library franchise.

German underpaid postcard... or a New Year Bank Holiday too long?

Between January 18th and Saturday 23rd, I received this Postcrossing postcard from Germany with a mark indicating an insufficient postage.

Schloss Ludwiglust stamp at 80 eurocents double cancelled in Bremen.

Believing Postcrossing tools, the card was asked by Lara on Wedenesday December 23rd 2015. On a group of 69 cards I sent to German Postcrossers and 68 received since 2007, the trip from asking to registering is seven days.

One month's surprising.

Deutsche Post's postage calculator and its parent website provided the cause of the problem: since the beginning of the new year, the international rate rose from 80 cents to 90 cents. The stamp - a picture of Ludwigslust Castle in Mecklemburg - does not cover it completely, hence the taxation mark "T 10/90".

Now the cancellation from Briefzentrum 28 is the common pictorial cancel of Bremen mail center 28 and 29. On the left side of the mark is the map of both postal zones: 28 being the city of Bremen and 29 the neighbouring Landkreise of Lower Saxony. The main part of the illustration is the statue of the Town Musicians of Bremen, by the Grimm brothers' tales. Philastempel.de proposed a clearer view here.

Clearer because mine is double cancelled but I think not on the same day. I can decipher the same "-1 16" that would mean the card arrived at the mail center in January, new rate then. But one of them was surely stricken on the 5th...

The double cancel and the fact that the French post didn't ask me anything would mean that perhaps the postal operators decided that the long New Year week end, from Thursday afternoon to Monday morning may have lost some consumers.

Thank you Lara for the very nice and thankful card, and a late mailboxing that ended with the postage due mark. Thank you to La Poste or Deutsche Post to avoid me paying it or to avoid defacing the card with any sticker or huge announcement mark you're using these days.

I just wish that La Poste will put back illustrated cancellation on French mail.