Newport & Gwent Philately - May 2007 - Number 37



Newport Club 60th Birthday





Federation Autumn Stamp Fair: 29 September2007

Maes Ebbw School, Maesglas Road, Newport

10 am to 4 pm





For this day, we hope to have postcards and the 1 March “Smilers” sheet with a label for the club's anniversary. The autumn fair has a mixture of dealers and club tables. Please come along to support your club and pick up some bargains.



Recent meetings



I finished the last newsletter with the visit from the Barry Club. The run up to Christmas saw the annual visit from the Bridgend club when Nigel McGaw showed First World War internment camps in the Isle of Man, Maureen Phillips some recent issues from New Zealand and Ron Gregory dug out some more unusual Albanian items. Peter Coldrey led the next meeting and we ended 2006 with the ladies evening.



We are now up to the letter V, and members took unusual approaches to this challenge with violins, Victoria Cross and V-mail being among the items shown. The next challenge was to beat the treasurer by bringing along five sheets, no more no less or 50p. Shuna, Svalbard and the Ranulf Fiennes Transglobal Expedition were some of the items on display. Only the treasurer was unhappy pocketing the grand sum of £1.



Our first visitor of 2007 was Rolf Scharning. Rolf and I are long-standing members of the Scandinavia Philatelic Society. Rolf, the current president, delighted us with a range of Norway ancient and modern.



Due to a commitment at Philatex early the following morning by Roy Holliss, we moved our dealer evening and your secretary stepped in for the meeting on 21 February.



Competition night attracted a small but select groups of entries. Dennis Martin achieved the first gold standard with his entry of King George VI definitives of Gibraltar. Your secretary's display of Venetian postal history before unification of Italy won that class and his Czeslaw Slania gained the thematic cup. That made three entries for the Convention, to which we added Chris Baker's Irish Free Mail and Dennis Martin's Gibraltar airmail silver standard entries to complete the five to be sent to the Convention. One of the students from the Newport college photographic course came along to take some photos for a project on “collecting”.



The auction was the usual fun night even though bidding was not very competitive. The Cardiff club visit followed with Shirley showing Zomba postmarks, Roger bringing along Cardiff machine cancels and his book on the subject, David showing postmark from France and Dennis ending the evening with Aden transit mail.



Unfortunately Gwen was ill for the Leipzig evening but Martyn brought her display along for the two-hander with Bernie.



The season is due to end with the Thornbury club visit and the AGM but we have squeezed in another meeting at the Civic Centre on 13 June, when Alistair will host his rearranged “Chairman's Evening”. The meeting on 20 June is then cancelled. You should have a copy of the amended programme but please make a note in your diary.



Visits to other clubs



For the Barry visit Gwen, Martyn, Roy and I took post boxes, Fiji, Lundy and Svalbard. Only three of us could get to Bridgend. Gwen and Martin reprised the displays from the Barry meeting, although Martyn had acquired and showed a lot more of the recent emergency overprints from Fiji. Your secretary took the opportunity to show Summer Isles locals and the story of Newport's “Mole Wrench”.



South Wales Federation News



The Convention has passed once again. The club sent five entries and gained two silver and three bronze medals. There were no prizes for the club this year, with Swansea scooping the lot.



Here are Dennis and Gwen discussing with Buster Shimmen his winning entry. Reg Lyon produced new display pockets for the entries. This was after a lot of discussion involving some expensive and complicated solutions to the “drawing pin” problem. The result is neat and secure, with none of those annoying extra perforation holes that affected previous convention displays.






Stamp News



On 1 March, the Post Office issued one of its “smiler” sheets, this time with the Welsh first class definitive and labels with ten views of Wales. On the left the labels were in Welsh; on the right the inscriptions were in English.









This sheet produced two new items for a rather sparse collection of Monmouthshire on stamps; labels for Tintern Abbey and for the Second Severn Crossing Bridge. The bridge label was particularly welcome, not only because we watched it being built from our bedroom window but also because the Post Office failed to honour the first crossing when it opened in 1966 and totally ignored the second crossing in 1996.



Here is a copy posted at the Tintern Post Office on the day of issue (picture thanks to Stuart - a unique item? ). Note that the postmark says “Mons” instead of Mon. Are there any examples elsewhere in the county?






Another gem from the Post Office was the printing of stamps for the Isle of White that were due to be issued on 23 April 2007. Needless to say the Isle of Wight has not been renamed and the error was pulped.



At the end of 2006, the Royal Philatelic Society commemorated its centenary with an exhibition in London. Unfortunately I could not get to it but neither could the patron, the Queen. The Times newspaper carried a story on 27 March about the event with the title “Stamps Get Royal Treatment”.



Welsh Philatelic Society



The WPS held one of its all-day meetings at Llangynidr. With the main display entitled “Started in Newport and got diverted”, Monmouthshire collectors just had to attend. Stuart Geddes was the speaker. It was the first time that he had displayed but that did not show. Trevor Wigmore, who was back in Newport for the week-end, gave the vote of thanks. Peter Coldrey, Martyn Britton and your secretary were also present. The village location was idyllic and the food superb.



Stamp fairs