Competition Success

The quality of the entries on competition night was very high and we were able to send several down to the Convention competition.

The prize winners were Chris Baker for both postal history (GB Franks) and Great Britain (The British Countryside), Dennis Martin in the general class (Gibraltar Definitives 1938 to 1953) and Diane Cannard in the thematic class (Ambulances). Diane also won the Heidenheim medal for the best novice entry. Chris Baker also presented an excellent display of the Penny Lilac in the general class. Other entries came from Neil Jones (Chepstow postal history and Closed Post Offices of New Zealand), George Whitfield (Beethoven) and Lynne Davies (US Bicentennial).

Recent meetings

Members from Barry Stamp Club visited on 10 November 2004, with Bob Hunt and Graham Harrison providing the displays. It was Martyn Britton's chance to show us some of his comprehensive collection of Fiji at the end of November.

I missed the Christmas social but heard that it was the usual enjoyable evening with the "men" providing the food and the "women" the displays, including a fiendish quiz on GB Machins.

We have now reached the letter T in the alphabet nights. Members have become more inventive as the years have passed, with the prize going to Neil Jones for his display of New Zealand health issues. The connection here is that they come under section T of the Campbell Patterson catalogue. Please don't ask why. The second January meeting was the five sheets or 50p evening. Only the Treasurer was unhappy as nearly everyone brought displays.

The "what's this" evening was a bit like the antiques road show but for stamps. Members brought along items on which they needed information, and got some answers. This was followed by what is now an annual dealer evening where Roy Holliss brought his Cover Love stock along for "a good rummage".

Following the competition night, the annual auction was the usual fun event with several bargains available. For the Chairman's night, Alistair brought some antarctic items. The visit by the Cardiff club included displays of Morocco Agencies, Lighthouses, Cardiff slogan postmarks and an A to Z of Aden.

The computing evening demonstrated what can be done with the Internet and showed how computers could ease the writing up of that stamp display.

Club members visited Barry in February and Bridgend in March. Yours truly also gave displays of Scandinavia to Cardiff and to British Rail.

South Wales Federation

The Convention saw five entries from Newport, with Diane Cannard winning the thematic cup with her display of Ambulances and Chris Baker taking the GB cup with The British Countryside. Dennis' Gibraltar and Chris' Penny Lilac and Franks also did well. The best in show and the only gold medal of the show, however, went to Neil Prior with his Postal History of Swansea. Attendance was down but that left plenty of opportunities to pick up some good items from the dealers.

Stamp fairs

The annual Barry Fair is on 28 May 2005 at the Comprehensive School, Port Road West, opposite Tesco's.

The South Wales Federation Autumn Day is on 9 October 2005 at the Taibach Community Education Centre, Margam Road, Port Talbot.

Chris Doble's Dragon Fairs are at the Jury's Hotel in Cardiff on the first Friday in each month. The Cardiff Stamp Fairs at the City Hall run by AMP Fairs continue. All start at 10:00 a.m. Anne Scott continues her Bristol postcard fairs at the BAWA centre.

Stamp Matters

As a follow-up to the letter in The South Wales Argus on 29 October suggesting that the Post Office should release a stamp for the new Riverfront Arts Centre in Newport, I sent a reply that was published on 4 November. No response yet from Royal Mail!

The Royal Wedding miniature sheet was issued on 9 April, the day of the wedding which was postponed to enable HRH Prince Charles to attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II in Rome. As the sheet was dated 8 April it seems quite possible that Enschede are hurriedly reprinting the sheets with a new date, and that Royal Mail and the Post Office will have to ensure that none of the wrong sheets are issued. A nightmare! The miniature is uniquely inscribed in both English and Welsh.

Kate Muir had written in The Times on 2 April that she had to refrain from posting anything this month for fear of landing herself with the 30p or 68p stamp and offensively imposing it on friends and relatives.

The reason for the delay to the wedding was because of the funeral of Pope John Paul, on 8 April. He was born in Krakow, the same city that the Polish engraver Czeslaw Slania made his home. Slania had died just days earlier on 17 March and was buried in Krakow on 24 March. He had produced stamps for both Poland and the Vatican with engravings of the Pope, including a wonderful miniature sheet for the visit to Poland in 2002.

From The Times on 2 April 2005 but first published on a Jewish news website on 24 March (the festival of Purim): "The Royal Mail has been criticised for including a stamp of a glamour model in a set featuring eminent British Jews. Jordan, whose real name is Katie Price, is to appear on a set of First Day Covers in August which also features Jonathan Sacks, Lord Robert Winston, Maureen Lipman and Lord Granville Janner. Leonard Riskin, President of the Jewish Philatelic Association, said "Jordan hardly epitomises the values we wish to encourage in our own community. This is supposed to be the Royal Mail, not the red-blooded Male." A spokesman for the Post Office said: "The idea is to include someone from all walks of life. Jonathan Sacks represents religion, Lord Winston is science, Lord Janner is politics and Maureen is entertainment. But we needed someone a bit younger and a bit more lowbrow, whom kids could relate to. Katie was ideal." The stamp collection will commemorate the bicentenary of the Post Office, which was founded in 1805 by a Jew, Baron Herschel Montefiore."