Stamp_&_Coin_Mart_2016_01_

52 JANUARY 2016 http://www.stampandcoin.co.uk

Readers’ stamps

Thsasasas

A block of five 2c values to pay a foreign letter rate to the USA

A pair of 5c values on a cover to Oroomiah in Persia

A three-colour franking to make up a 10c foreign letter rate to the USA

Two single 20c values to pay a registered triple foreign letter rate to

Canada. The only recorded cover with more than one 20c value

Exhibiting with the ABPS

The Association of British

Philatelic Societies (ABPS) is the

national organisation in charge of

exhibiting in the United Kingdom.

Competitive exhibiting takes place

at a variety of levels within philately

and provides a friendly forum

for philatelists to meet, exchange

philatelic research and study, and

share knowledge to fellow collectors, and the general public.

Exhibiting requires research, organisation and discipline, with

rules to follow, and your collection will be scrutinised by

accredited judges, but the challenge of creating an exhibit can

give you new skills, improve your collection, allow you to meet

like-minded collectors and give you a sense of accomplishment.

To find out more about exhibiting

visit the ABPS website: http://www.abps.org.uk

Expert opinion

Exhibiting in traditional philately has a number

of specific challenges, the chief of which is completeness,

and it is hard to imagine how an exhibit can be more

complete than this, writes Chris King.

Traditional exhibits are often built to a formula, die and plate

proofs, essays, issued values, mint and usages on cover, generally

in the order in which they were issued. So the treatment of

a traditional exhibit doesn’t always offer the same kind of

challenge as exhibits in some of the other classes.

The small quetzal issues of 1879 and 1881 are an excellent

choice since they are relatively limited in scope - which means

that there’s a reasonable chance of reaching completeness.

Many exhibitors choose impossibly large subjects, and fail to

reach their goal.

Another problem here is that Clarence W. Hennan (1894-1956),

formed a major collection of this issue which was sold by Robson

Lowe in Basel, in 1975. This is good news for the judge, since the

auction catalogue gives a guide as to what can be achieved, but bad

news for the exhibitor since the judge knows what to expect.

So completeness in this exhibit has to equal or better the

Hennan collection. Dr Woo has spent more than twenty years

in doing this, with great success. What should be included

is relatively straightforward, given application, good luck,

and sufficient funds. The unique proofs and inverted centres

are difficult enough. But it’s the supplementary material

demonstrating usage which makes this exhibit shine. The unique

railway cover, and the two stagecoach covers, the destinations and

multiples, the surcharge, and combination frankings, show an eye

for the unusual - and uncommon patience.

Chris King is the Chair of ABPS National Exhibitions and International

Committee and a member of the Stamp & Coin Mart Advisory Board.

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