14 APRIL 2016 http://www.stampandcoin.co.ukStamp update
Aland stamp marks
anniversary of rst witch
A new stamp from Aland dramatically
depicts the outbreak of the Swedish
kingdom’s earliest witch hunts. Due
to be issued on 8 April, the stamp
marks the 350th anniversary of
Aland’s questionable honour of having
started witch hunting in the Swedish
kingdom, part of a Europe-wide
movement of fear and hysteria which
led to the gruesome torture and execution of hundreds of women.
On 5 April, 1666, proceedings were instituted against Karin
Persdotter from Emkarby. Known as ‘the wise bitch’, Karin was
accused of practising sorcery; she was thought to be able to find lost
items, single out thieves and foresee who was going to die. The Åland
witch-hunts preceded the outbreaks in both Sweden (1668) and
Finland (1669). The last witch trial in Åland took place in 1691.
The stamp, designed by Juha Pykäläinen, features a dramatic
illustration of a woman accused of witchcraft kneeling before a
pastor holding a Bible. An expectant crowd watch the scene, whilst
next to the accused, an axeman stands ominously beside a fire.A sheetlet issued by the Isle of Man in October 2015 to honour artist Bryan Kneale RA,
features an error, with two of the stamps missing the Queen’s silhouette.
The sheet of thirty stamps, featuring three sets of ten, omits the Queen’s silhouette
portrait on two of the 44p values showing a sketch of a horse, making the one correct
version, showing the silhouette, the least common. A source told us: ‘The stamps were
checked by both the Isle of Man Post Office and the printers, but the fault was not
spotted until after the stamps had been released.’
Bryan Kneale RA was born on
19 June, 1930 in Douglas, Isle
of Man, but currently lives in
London. The set of ten stamps
was issued on 1 October, 2015 to
mark ‘over sixty years of exemplary
artistic practice and achievement’.Isle of Man error discovered
The April auction at Warwick and
Warwick auction house includes
a collection of Irish provisional
overprints on British stamps,
from 1922 to 1935, including
many rare varieties.
According to the auction house,
the errors include major re-entries,
inverted overprints, plate varieties,
missing accents, ‘flat accent’, circumflex
accent, ‘PENCF’ errors and many more
individually lotted. The collection will
be included in the 6 April sale and descriptions and scans of the lots will be
available on the Warwick and Warwick website before the auction
(www.warwickandwarwick.com).
Following the signing of the Anglo-Irish agreement an Irish Provisional
Government assumed power in 1922. Lacking their own stamps, the
decision was made as an interim measure, to overprint existing British
stamps until the Irish Free State were able to introduce their own definitive
stamps in December 1922. During this period three different printers
were instructed to carry out the overprinting, and, as is often the case, the
combination of printers, types, techniques and errors created a new area of
interest for philatelists to enjoy.
You can read much more about the Irish provisional overprints on British
stamps in an in-depth article in the May issue of Stamp & Coin Mart.Ireland overprints on o er
Thom 3d with missing accent; 1927
Seahorse set with wide and narrow datesCOMPETITION WINNERS
Congratulations to the following readers, who won HMS Endurance
presentation packs, courtesy of Royal Mail, in our February issue: Alan
Claremont, Huddersfield; Mrs S Smith, Syston; Ronald Fielder, Weymouth;
Mr G Bates, Sheffield; Bryan Dent, Whitehaven; Sybill Innes, Edinburgh;
Kenneth Hirst, Crossland Moor; Mr R Mansley, Darlington; Ken Moody,
Wakefield; Mr F Bacon, Bristol.The May 2016 issue of Stamp & Coin Mart will come with a
FREE copy of the brand-new 2016-17 PTS Directory, the ‘yellow
pages of the UK stamp trade’.
Normally sold for £10, the 116-page guide includes
comprehensive details of more than 350 stamp dealers, plus
advice, tips and in-depth cross reference guides giving you all the
information you need to buy and sell stamps with confidence.
The in-depth guide is given away exclusively with the May issue
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