South of France stamped

Read in the free newspaper MontpellierPlus this 17 October 2008, page 7, the Région Languedoc-Roussillon distributed last tuesday sheet of personalized stamps during the Montpellier Fair.

The stamps reproduced the commercial for the label "South of France". Alexandra Rosenfeld, born in Béziers and awarded Miss France and Europa 2006, plays a little red riding hood adept of Asian fighting sport; she can obviously defend her regional agricultural and traditional food products against a poor wolf of Gévaudan (watch the commercial clip).

The Blog philatélie whose author specialized in following the French personalized stamp service, Montimbramoi, helps retrieve the sheet format that the model is holding in her hands. Remark that the big board beside her depicts the personalisation only, not the postal mentions. These mentions could help precise some details of the Région's order.

I do not translate the article, but be sure that the little philatelic knowledge the author had, was all used in a sexist way. Madam, welcome in South of France :(

It's everywhere!

The eternal effigy of the British monarchy under the reign of Elizabeth II is everywhere.

Sold in its original plaster form, I should have had more than fifteen thousands pounds sterling to buy it.

For a more mass-consumption (and to help close faster more post offices), the machine version with value indicator printed on demand walked its first steps this week. A member of the Virtual Stamp Club braved technical and fellow collectors hazards, including devilous postal clercks to obtain the new stamps at the Ludgate Circus post office. In the financial district of the City, in the heart of London, this office is surprisingly one of those the Royal Mail is wanting to close in the United Kingdom.

(google.co.uk)

Finally, even Google used the legendary effigy to commemorate the visit of its British offices by the Queen and her husband.

Long is the wait
Until I travel again
To the head of the Britain

Reexpedition sticker

Since I moved, the Parisian post office reexpedite my mail to my new adress. Only one postcard required to use the official reexpedition enveloppe presented here by Dominique on the Blog philatélie.

Almost all covers were revamped by a plastified red stickers, easy to take off, and a sticking paper with the new adress on the back.

Sent by the philatelic service of the Royal Mail, this cover helps to understand why postal employees used the red sticker: to hide the pink barcodes and the old adress. Here, the French bottom barcodes and the adress are to separated, hence the need of two stickers.

The british barcode is printed below the adress. On a smaller cover, it will be printed under the stamps.

The French post's reexpedition service, available for six or twelve months, is not free, but has been very efficient until now.

Scannalach!

Distributed in September, this flyer from the Royal Mail seemed to have passed like a letter at the post office, without any Irish commenting.

On the back, it announced for 29 September 2008 the stamp issue for the fifty years of Regional Postage Stamps in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

It bears a reproduction of an old map of the British Islands (thank you, public domain)... a time when Ireland was govern under the British rule. No more the case in 195 when Ulster issued these local definitive stamps, designed after the Wilding series.

And that fact comprised every insitutional bias British people invented (or how to lose an Empire without losing your face): independence accepted in 1922, change of the United Kingdom's name in 1927, the Republic of Ireland out of the Commonwealth in 1949,...

Martti Ahtisaari and philately

Former president of the Republic of Finland, awarded Nobel Prize of Peace this week, Martti Ahtisaari has been working for the development of Southern continents' countries and Peace for all his adult life, at the United Nations before his presidency, and after. Though, some are very critical for his actions in Kosovo, because it leaded to the independence of this region, and potentially created a precedent for all ethnical population feeling menaced inside their country.

The honor of a postage stamp by his own country already happened in 1997, for his 60th birthday. The Finnish post seems to have this custom to stamp the president around the middle of his term, like Tarja Halonen in 2003.

He revealed a child past of stamp collector in a speech while receiving the chief of government of Andorra, Marc Forné, in November 1999. The text is written in a political neutral language, but he linked the two countries thank to philately, despite their bright new relationships:

"My generation learned about your country at an early age, when stamp collecting was one of our main hobbies. I still remember how exciting it was to obtain Andorra's splendid stamps for our modest collections. They were the pride of our collection. Thanks to our hobby we also learned exactly where to place Andorra on the European map."


Update, 30 October 2008 :
Stampnews.com, specialised in new issue announcements, reports the arrival on 10 December 2008 of Finland's second stamps picturing the former president and now Nobel Price of Peace.

British Columbia: back to fundamentals

In these times of crisis, during which speculators are feeling the moment the cycle will return like the surfer feels the wave beginning to break..., let's go back to fundamentals thank to Canadian stamps.

Canada Post issued, on 1 August 2008, a stamp for the 150 years of the creation of the British Columbia colony, on the Western Canadian coast on the Pacific Ocean.

(Canada Post website)

Cartographic profile and the origin of pioneer effort during the 19th century: the quest for gold when the long and hard labor built the hope and, sometime, the wealth of the argonaut. Maybe should I read something else than Carl Barks and Don Rosa? :)

The stamp is very well designed and efficient in communicating the intended message. Bravo to Matthew Clark et Roy White de l'agence Subplot Design Inc. of Vancouver.

A little marketing though to justify why you accept to buy the indivisible sixteen adhesive stamp sheet (8.32 Canadian dollars, circa 7.10 United States dollars or 5.25 euros): old photographs of European habitants of the colony on the back.

Fifty years ago, this mythified work of the gold worker was the principal topic of the centenary stamp. The British Columbia was founded in 1858 by separation from the 1849 colony of the Vancouver Island.

J. Harman was classic in this illustration for an instutional stamp, while many stamps of Elizabeth II's reign had been already graphically modern.

Two stamps, tow styles, but fondamentals last: beautifully deliver the message.

In 1908, no commemorative stamp. The times were not at illustrating every passing-by events, only royal heads.

Machin in Gibraltar

Like many British postal entities, Gibraltar used the Machin head on its stamps.

This is a stamp from a four stamp series, issued 1979 for the centenary of the death of Rowland Hill. The portrait, of a young and vigorous reformer, would be used on a British stamp in 1995 too.

On this red 9 pence, the stamp depicted is a definitive one of 1971. Yvert et Tellier catalogue gave a precision: it was sold by machines inside a roll of five: two half-pennies, two of this blue penny and one two-pence. And it bears the royal profile that became as famous as the Rock of Gibraltar profile stamp of 1969.

tem'post and postal history

Mail sent through tem'post are part of the postal history of France, despite their philatelist receiver putting them in the paper trash. tem'post is a service of La Poste dedicated to big sender of bills, mensual listings or social checks.

This week, I had a thought for those who are trying to follow this history of the contemporary postal service when I discovered that the proof of franking is on the inner correspondance, not on the cover.


When EDF (French former electricity monopoly) and a large part of firms print the tem'post mark on the cover, the MGEN (a professional social security service) print it on the letter, just above the receiver's adress.

Like amateurs of classical covers, the correspondance will always be as interesting as the cover for the historian.

Alice, philagenic princesses

Modified message: too many Princesses Alice. I confused two princesses. My apologies to Saturday morning readers.


Princess Alice, wife of Henry, Duke of Gloucester, was King George V's daughter in law and aunt to Queen Elisabeth II.

In February 1945, she and her husband were honored by three stamps of Australia, where he was becoming Governor-General, representing the King in the place. Their uniforms reminded that the time of war was still on.


Another Princess Alice, the daughter of Queen Victoria's younger son, was honored by one of the stamps issued by Trinidad and Tobago this 3 October 2008 for the sixtieth anniversary of the University of the West Indies, whose she was the first chancellor. But, it was not the first stamp of her long life (1883-1981).

(TT Post)

In 1951, the States participating to the creation of the University of the West Indies launched a omnibus two-stamp issue: the arms of the university on the first, the new chancellor on the second. Certainly, the English-speaking Caribbean post offices may have issue stamps in her honor since the fifties (but I lack catalogs).

During a Google search, I found two text cancellations of Jamaica around 1955 (1 et 2), visibly a call to donate to a charity leaded by Princess Alice because the first years of the university were financially difficult.


Thank to the Stanley Gibbons' Commonwealth & British Empire Stamps 1840-1970 catalog, very useful: British world only, stamp designers and printers quoted, precise dates of issues, etc.

States-General of the Press

The French news website Marianne 2 wrote about the States-General of the Press beginning today, with the same scepticism some, like me, considered the States-General of the Philately (or in French political jargon Grenelle de la philatélie, even reunion on how thirty people conceived philately).

Because French newspaper press is a more serious topic than the collection and study of philatelic and postal items, the Omni-President moved himself to open the discussions on the future of French press.

How to attract young people? What inside: costly report by journalists or verbatim of government's briefings? How do you move it to the press shop or the subscribers? And at what price, when newspaper's website are free or sold dematerialized?

About this last question: same price for the paper and the numeric version, but what a huge margin for the magazine made on printing and postage! Different prices with a bonus for the numeric reader, but what is then the value of work and research, and of the knowledges discovered?