28 FEBRUARY 2016 http://www.stampandcoin.co.ukasasas
Stamp sidelines
As the Earth shrinks and broadband internet connections make
communications with contacts on the other side of the world
as easy as chatting over a garden fence, we sometimes get so
tied up in our texts that we forget that Cinderellas dealers just
about everywhere can now display their wares in high resolution
on our screens writes Ed Fletcher. Better still, as on-the-spot
experts, they can provide us with lots of information about local
Cinderellas that we would find difficult to dig out if we limited
our searches to GB dealers.
Take New Zealand, more than 11,000 miles away, but with many
ties that still bind. One of them is that the vast majority of NZ
adult males who can trace their ancestry to emigration and come
from families in which stamp collecting was a childhood passion.
It spilled over into Cinderellas, with youngsters collecting them
and local organisations using them as promotional material well
before the 20th century dawned. Probably the most famous issue
came from the Great Barrier Island Pigeongram Service, used on
mail transported via a service including pigeon carriers from that
island to Auckland in 1898 and in 1904. The service launched
following a disaster in 1894 when a steamer struck the cliffs on
Great Barrier Island and 135 passengers and crew died in a location
where there was no telegraphic connection to the mainland.
Genuine labels from that service will, of course, cost an arm
and a leg no matter from where you place an order with a New
Zealand dealer; but there are many other attractive pieces to add to
a collection. The Christchurch Exhibition of 1906 spawned more
than half a dozen different stamps which can often be found on
covers alongside NZ postage stamps. Local carriage labels, health
stamps, charity seals, Safety First campaign poster stamps, fantasy
and bogus issues all add to the interest. The vast physical distance
between New Zealand and Europe gave rise to swift steamer
services and to airline services which also produced Cinderella
material. And let’s not forget Antarctica, not a snowball’s throw
from New Zealand, and another rich source of material we can
now look at, bid on, and buy from the comfort of our computer
chairs. Dip your toe and check out Oxford Cinderellas of Akaroa
as your first step on the road to New Zealand.Try Down Under
CINDERELLAS
The National Museum of the Royal Navy comprises four different
establishments: National Museum of the Royal Navy Portsmouth,
Portsmouth Dockyard, Hampshire; Royal Marines Museum, Southsea,
Hampshire; Fleet Air Arm Museum, RNAS Yeovilton, Ilchester,
Somerset; and Royal Navy Submarine Museum, Gosport, Hampshire,
writes Stuart Leigh.
The first static Post & Go kiosk after the BPMA was at Royal Navy
Museum at Portsmouth, opening on 28 July, 2014, dispensing the two
current definitive designs, Machin and Union Flag stamps, with the
identifier (or overprint) as ‘The NMRN’; typical of the MoD (Ministry
of Defence) everything is done with initials.
During 2015 the other three museums followed, with The RMM,
Southsea, in January, The FAAM, Yeovilton in April and The RNSM,
Gosport in July. All having the Machin and Union flag as the standard
issue, with the Poppy, from the Symbolic Flowers series, making
an appearance for Remembrance Day. In 2014 at Portsmouth the
overprint should have read ‘The NMRN Remembrance’ but due to a
programming error the ‘Remembrance’ was missing for the first half
hour during which some seven transactions took place, approximately
150 collector strips (900 stamps).
This group of museums is ideally suited to celebrating memorial
occasions. As well as the Poppy for Remembrance Day, in October
2014 the Union Flag carried ‘The NMRN Trafalgar Day’ overprint,
the following May the NMRN, RMM and FAAM all had the ‘V.E.
Day 70’ overprint.
On 19 October, 2015, the Union Flag and re-introduced Poppy
(with MA15 in the underprint) were seen for the first time having
the ‘initials’ replaced with ‘Royal Navy’, ‘Royal Marines’, ‘Fleet Air
Arm’ and ‘RN Submarine’. Only the Royal Navy and Royal Marines
kiosks had the additional ‘Trafalgar Day’ overprint from 19 October
to 15 November.
A location specific logo graphic, at all four museums, was added to
the Machin stamp only, issued on 16 November at the Royal Navy
Museum, the other three museums were on winter opening times
(closed Monday and Tuesday) and therefore the first day for Machin
was Wednesday 18 November. So do watch out for the errors, where
the rolls of stamps are loaded into the wrong printers and the Union
Flags have the logo!Royal Navy Museums
POST & GOPOST & GO These exhibition labels are the sort of colourful delights to expect from New Zealand dealers
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