http://www.stampandcoin.co.uk FEBRUARY 2016^29Your monthly guide to specialist stamps, stamp-related material and postal ephemeraAt first glance this month’s cover looks like a very unusual 1978
Historic Buildings Official First Day Cover, writes Brian Austin.
Produced by the Doddington House Park and Carriage Museum
it commemorates a special Mailcoach run between Bristol and
Birmingham. This is where you grab your cover catalogue to find
out how much it is worth and then look puzzled because you can’t
find it. The reason for this is, it is not first day; the miniature sheet
came out for 1 March.
From the cover design it would seem the people behind this cover
always planned to use the complete sheet, when all they would have
needed to get the special postmark is 1st Class postage. The sheet does
have a mail connection as it was the first of three to be issued to help
for the London 1980 Stamp International. So the lesson to be learnt is
always check your dates, things are not always what they seem.
For this issue you could put together a nice set of four First Day
Covers, one for each of the buildings. You could start with theTower of London Official for the 9p value (catalogued at £20),
a Holyrood CDS for the 10½p (£50), Caernarfon FDI (there was
no special postmark) on the 11p (£25) and the Benham official
for Hampton court (£100). If you were really thinking ahead you
would of course have gone to Earl’s Court and got a CDS postmark,
as this is where the International took place two years later.Better late than never
FIRST DAY COVERS
These exhibition labels are the sort of colourful delights to expect from New Zealand dealers
Major errors rarely get to market any more, writes Tom Pierron.
And that’s despite ever more material being pumped out in a
dizzying array of formats. Better controls and computer checks
mean there’s little cheer for the modern variety collector. Not
all is completely lost though. Two imperforate Buckingham
Palace miniature sheets, originally issued 15 April, 2014 and
technically still available from Royal Mail, have been discovered
imperforate. Both were found in new issue orders.
It’s probable more exist (or existed) as an uncut printer’s
sheet typically comprises fifteen miniature sheets arranged
three across by five down. Normally these would be perforated
before being trimmed. It’s probable an entire printer’s sheet
failed to be perforated. Perhaps due to oversight, perhaps due
to mechanical failure. Whatever the cause, examples exist on
the market and Stanley Gibbons will reportedly be listing the
error in future catalogues.Tom Pierron sources errors and varieties for ZEBOOSE.COMTrouble at the Palace
ERRORSERRORS
British Exhibition in
Copenhagen, 1955
POSTMARKS
In the years following the First World War it became apparent
that the balance of trade between Great Britain and Denmark
was heavily in Denmark’s favour, writes David Gwyn. There was
concern in Denmark that there might be government intervention
in Britain to cut the level of Danish imports. Consequently in
1930 the British Import Union was formed to encourage the
Danes to buy more British goods. One method was to establish a
series of British Exhibitions (Britisk Udstillinger). One was held
in 1931 with a second larger event in 1932.
Here, however, we are concerned with the large Exhibition
organised in 1955. This was held between 29 September and 16
October on several sites around Copenhagen, although centred
mainly on Tivoli. A British warship docked in the harbour and
football matches were organised. The King of Denmark opened
the event, and on 12 October the Duke of Edinburgh arrived
on the Royal Yacht Britannia. One of the most talked about
features was the full-size public house built by Whitbread and
named The Britannia. This incorporated fixtures and fittings
borrowed from working public houses in Britain.
The event was publicised throughout Denmark, in part by
the use of a slogan postmark which featured a British heraldic
lion rampant – although I have to admit I am not sure about
those back legs.p28 Sidelines.indd 29 21/12/2015 09:40