Expensively philatelic

Chères nouveautés du monde :
(French play-on-word : cher means an expensive price and is the polite overture of a letter like "Dear")

Dear New Stamps of the world :

Regularly, the USPS renews its stamps for expensive services (registered, express mail, etc.), with a flying illustration from plane to eagle. For 2007, they are the president of the United States' vehicles that are photographed in action : Air Force One and Marine One. The latter is at the cheap price of 16,25 dollars. Cheap because you are sure your urgent parcel is open by your correspondent tomorrow morning (I wished it would be so easily for the normal rate...). Equivalent of 12,08 euros. Insatisfied ? The 20 stamp sheet will please you at only 325 dollars (twice what I eat monthly).

In Belgium, the centenary of Hergé merits a special issue : a 25 stamp sheet reproduces a picture of the artist and a cover of the 24 albums of the Adventures of Tintin, in 24 of the languages it was translated over the years. 25 times 0,46 € = 11,50 euros (15,47 US dollars). But every one of your twenty-five next letters will be different from the others (if you remember to buy two sheets, one for collection he ! ... 23 euros).

So, once out of many times, I admit that on the next July, 2nd, La Poste of France will be quite moderate with mini-sheets at the price of simple definitive booklets. For 5,40 €, you'll remember the lively ambiance of a rugby stadium with the ten stamps by fantastic sport stamp designer Éric Fayolle. Worse of all, you'll have to pay up to 2,16 € to own four monuments of Brussels with four other in the background of the sheet in the European Capitales series, painted this year by talentuous Marc Taraskoff. Pretty mail coming this summer :)

Boulevard Brune in Paris

This cover contained the thanks from friends of mine after their marriage. It wears the "Un grand merci" stamp designed by artist Ben (Benjamin Vautier). This stamp was advertized by Phil@poste because the point on the i is a perforation...



The place of cancellation interested me more than the stamp or the hole above the i : « 75 BRUNE PPDC - 75014 ».

Reading La Poste's website, a PPDC is a place where mail is prepared and distributed. The mail to expedit is prepared for an Industrial mail platform (PIC), sort of national and international mail crossroad. The PPDC, like the PDC, distributes the mail to firms and peoples.

The PPDC of Brune benefits of the historic importance of the postal places on this boulevard des maréchaux, in Southern Paris. Since the 19th century, the French posts have possessed large places there, quite empty at the beginning : mail platform, headquarters, and the Atlier des timbres-poste where stamps of France and overseas were printed from 1895 to 1970.

Before, from 1848 till 1876, Anatole Hulot used the Hôtel des Monnaies to print the first stamps for the Ceres and Empire series. In 1876, the postal authority gave this misson to the Banque de France for the Sage series, before buying its printer of the rue de Hauteville. 1895, everything was placed at boulevard Brune.

To learn more about the first postal print plant in France (1848 to 1895), I advice you the Catalogue spécialisé by Pascal Behr, Jean-François Brun and Michèle Chauvet, at the Yvert et Tellier editions. The two latter just publish an Introduction à l'histoire postale de France de 1848-1878, whose arrival in my postbox I am impatiently waiting for.

Lattes : how can this town be on a French stamp ?

An unexpected stamp begins the topical collection about the French commune of Lattes. Issued for a Stamp's Day in 1991, this stamp by Patrick Camblin is the second in a series about La Poste's activities : here, the mail sorting.


And, there, scrutinizing the newly bought stamp with my 13-year old eyes, the big surprise : the letter on the stamp has got an another stamp on it and a postal code. It is the 2,50 franc about the Winter Olympic Games of 1992, in Albertville, isued 9 February 1990.

The postal code was the biggest surprise : "34970 LATTES" was the city where I lived at that time !

Why this choice ? Did the artist have a bond with Lattes ? Did the minister of the Industry want to please the mayor ? This is the minister that signed the philatelic program in France.

Let's follow the second hypothesis : the mayor then is Michel Vaillat (UDF member, right aisle) and second-in-succession of Willy Diméglio, member of Parliament from 1986 to 1997. However, between 1988 and 1991, the minister is Roger Fauroux in the leftist government of Michel Rocard. Perhaps, the link I am looking for is with La Poste president : Gérard Delage appointed in 1986 by a rightist government, or his sucessor in 1989 Yves Cousquer ?

Simplier : am I paranoïac ? La Post simply just pick one of the thousands of post code ?

The scan I show you is extract from a First Day Cover stamped in Montpellier, the big city next-to Lattes.

Note of Sunday 16 October 2016:
This article, a little bit rewritten from the version in French, was published this week as the second Monthly Item by the Montpellier Philatelic Association. The major change was that I may have found the link between local politicians and the 1986-1988 Minister of Post and Telecommunication Alain Madelin, a famous liberal* leader of the 1990s like Diméglio and Vaillat.

*: French note: by liberal as in "less State, more private entrepreneurship" and not a conservative.

Cour des comptes' Saga : advantage philatelists

In the journey to knowledge about the untellable story of the Bicentenary of the French Cour des comptes stamp personalized with a label for the twenty-fifth birthday of the Chambres régionales des comptes, they may be finally have the decisive point : philatelists, their personal webpages and blogs :
* the Blog philatélie,
* quoting philatélistes.net.

Two good philatelic amateur ressources in France.

But, the tradition told by Dominique (a label made one stamp be considered different from the other) seems to start the problem again. I think you are reading the French philatelic saga of the year... but Claude Jamet thinks it may be a sequel-in-production with the TGV in the heroic role.

More seriouly, in the French philatelic magazines of last May, you can read about two new stamps issued in Wallis et Futuna. They pictured two newly considered fish species, discovered in local coral. How much time will I wait until a philatelist (postman, journalist or collector) teach me more of this fauna ? (more than for the number of personalised stamps above, I fear)

Arcachon from Daguin to 2007 stamp

Here is the second cancellation by a Daguin machine, that I bought during the Four Days of Marigny, two weeks ago.

The advert said : "Arcachon / In summer its beach / In winter its woods."

This cancellation with touristic illustration (a "flamme" in French) told the second life of Daguin machines in France. At the end of the 19th century, these mechanical machines were beaten by the speed and efficiency of electrical cancelling machines. But, in 1923, a State secretary for Post's decision changed that : from now on, cancellations can bear a message, under some conditions and -of course- money to the local post office. The Daguin machine was excellent for this since one of its two cancellation stamp can be easily replace by a square filled with a text. This period lasted till the 1960's, even more in some offices were it was decided to wait that the old postman left to stop using the Daguin.

News linked to this cancellation : since Monday 21st May, a French stamp wth a 0,54 € value is sold for the 150th birthday of Arcachon as a commune, French most little administrative division. Thierry Mordant's designs presents the Bassin of Arcachon, its beaches, city, houses and boat, with an evolution in the colours : from blues on the left to orange/yellow on the right. Mordant is well-known for stamps of Monaco these recent years.

See the stamp on La Poste's shop website.

The saga of the Cour des comptes : the magazine's war

Yesterday friday, is issued l'Écho de la timbrologie magazine whose chief-editor announces that the self-adhesive version of the Bicentenary of the Cour des comptes stamp will be sold in July by Phil@poste, and she proudly concludes : "One no more time, no hurry needed. And an excellent reason to read L'Écho de la timbrologie..."

Today saturday, it's the turn to Timbres magazine to appear. It announces that the Cour des comptes (that bought and sell the self-adhesive stamp in the first place) has some stamps left with the personalized label for the 25th birthday of the Chambres régionales des comptes (the reason every one wants to hurry). You have the right to purchase one stamp and label at one euro and write at the adress of one of the Cour des comptes' employee (see Sebphilatélie in French).

Since the hurry problem around this self-adhesive stamp seems to me not the problem of having it, but that collectors wanted it with the personalized label, I think that l'Écho should find another way to tease readers than using its relations with Phil@poste that has now the habit to issue this self-adhesive stamps producted at the demand of firms some months after gummed ones.

In order to watch for an accusation of me having favorite, here is a problem in Timbres magazine : they interviewed Yves Tardy, president of the French Philatelic associations' federation, one month to soon. He was asked about the projects of the FFAP and he answered : "I can't say anything before the board [of the FFAP] has been told" about these projects. More interesting is so the advertisment on page 25 for a book by Guy Prugnon : Taxes et modalités de taxation de la lettre ordinaire dans le régime général international (1876/1975), issued by Timbropresse editions. The author explained in the May issue of Timbres magazine that he tried to summarize the change in the way of calculating and showing that postage were due, on French letter to foreign countries between 1876 and 1975.

Kisses from Eastern Island

A couple of friends took some holidays and went to the Pacific ocean, with a quick stop at the Easter Island, Chilean possession. From there, they sent me a postcard on May 9th that arrives today.

Famous Eastern Island's statues : the moai (postcard by Chilean society Hispapel).

Stamps on the postcard (my friends know me :)

390 pesos ($) is the price for a letter less than 20 grams from Chile to Europe. The stock of stamps is going away slowly : 2001 and 2002 are the years of issue of these two items. On 6 May 2001 began this 100 peses "colocolo" to warn about the extinction of this species, designed here by Hector Carrasco. Roberto Sepulveda B. expressed one of the country's tradition with this 290 peso stamp issued 16 September 2002. They both are printed in offset by la Casa de Moneda de Chile.ar la Casa de Moneda de Chile.

The cancellation is quite big (cica 3.7 cm in diameter) and blue, ink color that begins to be very common on letter : I already knew the examples of Argentina and France. It wears the name of the Chilean post : "Empresa de correos de Chile", like the two stamps.

To go further :
* Correos Chile web site with an interesting philatelic part : each stamp has a little entry since the latter 1990's.

Machin, almost 40 years !

I took the last two days without blog in order to explore the first centimeter of the massive Machin jungle, this definitive series used in the United Kingdom since June, 5th 1967.

Here is a (little) branch :


Issued January, 19th 1999, this non-value indicator stamp (NVI, permanently valid stamp in France postal words) helped you frank a simple letter to Europe. This issued took place ten years after the first two NVI for interior tariffs : the "1st" class stamp for priority mail and the "2nd" class for non-priority.

Here, vines begin to multiply everywhere :
* Easy one to cut : Elisabeth II's profil and the light/dark colour binome are from series' designer Arnold Machin (1911-1999), and it will be a stories for anothers days.
* The dark blue binome and the design of the E letter are from graphic designer Jeffery Matthews, less quoted in France than Machin, but it seems British collectors are very fond of him, I begin to think.
* The idea of NVI, I talk about it above, but there is much more to tell.
* The elliptic perforation on the last third of the stamp are invented in 1993 to fight falsification (read an article in French by Dominique of the Blog philatélie about a perforator).
* For the disparition of this E stamp on April, 1st 2004, the British tariff jungle and the are-NVI-in-the-interest-of-the-clients questions open the dorr to a world I have never imagined since wednesday afternoon...

To go further
Apart a machete :
* In the June 2007 issue of Stamp Magazine, Richard West presents two specialised articles about the first Machin that were pre-decimals (1967-1970) and one monography about One pound Machin. These articles are a big first step into the history of Machin and their content is bigger than the article's titles.
* I advice you the Machin Mania section of GBStamps.com website where I find intels about the E stamp : news of 1999 and of 2003.

Mediterranean Games... again !

I love coincidences like this one : I wrote about the only stamp about the Mediterranean Games I earned for years, to find a new one in the following days, at Marigny stamp market.
It was issued for the 1967 Mediterranean Games in Tunis, inside a five stamp series. It represents the Olympic Stadium of El Menzah, built for this occasion.

The stamp wass designed by Hatem Mekki (like 211 others Tunisian stamps) and engraved by French Roger Fenneteaux. This last intel makes me think that the BEPTOM printed the series.

To go further :
* Tunisian stamps engraved by Fenneteaux (Tunisia-stamps.tn site), those of France (n the excellent Phil-Ouest site) and of the TAAF (on the other excellent Philatélie des TAAF site).

New episode of the French personalized Cour des comptes stamp saga

Next épisode of the saga telling the story of self-adhesive "Cour des comptes 1807-2007" stamp se-tenant with personalized label for the 20 years of the Regional Chambers of the same French institution. Last episode résumé : can you receive a cover with this stamp by simply writing normal letter to these Chambers ?

Answer : apparently, some may have more luck in Aquitaine than an other in Languedoc.