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I recently acquired a fairly sizeable collection of 'special event postmarks' which seem to have come from a single collection and I was wondering if anyone here had any interest in these items?

The collection is predominantly on plain brown envelopes with handwritten addresses and are mostly between 1970-1973 although there are a fair few from George VI and early QEII, and some from dates later than 1973. The extraordinary thing about all these, quite apart from the sheer volume of different postmarks, is the choice of stamps on these covers. Most have got Wildings or Machins but they include booklet stamps, coil pairs, regionals, embossed and more besides.

I ask the question as despite being in touch with the British Postmark Society, putting some of these on well known auction sites and placing adverts in specialist publications I've so far sold just 8. No one seems interested and that surprises me.

Of course I could just chop them up and get some pretty nice kiloware but I am loathe to do that to over 600 covers when someone has obviously gone to so much trouble to collect them.

So before they go to the great kiloware collection in the sky, does anyone have any interest in these and is there any value in reserving them for future generations?

Looking forward to your thoughts? Sample scans are attached below so you can assess for yourself the type of postmark.

Jon

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G.B, Barbados, Line Engraved, Intaglio & Recess printed stampshttp://www.barbadosstamps.co.uk

Are there any postmarks with elephants or cars?

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Wolfgang
Papua New Guinea stamps and postal history: http://www.i-ng.org

Hi Wolfgang,

I can't be certain without checking and there are over 600 of them, although having said that I don't recall seeing any elephants on my first pass through them. There may be the odd car or motoring related postmark - I'll have to check this weekend and let you know?

Jon

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G.B, Barbados, Line Engraved, Intaglio & Recess printed stampshttp://www.barbadosstamps.co.uk

Don't chop them up, especially the postal stationery. Even if nobody wants the special postmarks (although there must be some demand for them), the postal stationery probably do have demand. If you cut those up, they will be worthless.

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My wantlist for Malta Revenues

There is limited demand for these, although they appeal to topical/thematic collectors for their exhibits/competition entries. I look out for some subjects to send to customers, who are usually unaware of them.

However, there was a time when a lot more people sent covers for postmarking - I did it myself for some in the 60s/70s - and, judging by the situation on eBay, I would think supply outweighs demand.

I would ask here for any interest, in the Sales/Trade folder, using the 'Topical/Thematic' keyword in the title. And offer to trade them for something you want (or anything useful!) Any that are left over after that would best be bundled into groups by theme (music, birds, plants, planes, trains) and offered on eBay that way, rather than at the 99p each that so many seem to be offered.

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Ian Billings - Norvic Philatelics GB stamps info: http://www.norphil.co.uk - also /catalog for our ecommerce site, blog.norphil.co.uk, shop.norphil.co.uk and Ian_norvic on twitter

That last one, RAF Ballkelly origin, but Wigan cancel is interesting. Most Forces mail went (maybe still does) went through the Postal Courier unit at Mount Pleasant in London.

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With kind regards, Jim

Re the final one, special handstamps were indeed applied by the old Postal & Courier section, which then became the British Forces PO Philatelic Bureau, first at Mill Hill and now at West End Road, Ruislip, aka RAF Northolt. Forces special handstamps are now applied by the Royal Mail Midland SHC in Birmingham as BFPS Ruislip's state-of-the-art facility handles mail for our forces at home and in theatre.
Edit - the Limavady postmark is not 'of forces origin' per se. It's a special handstamp that any collector/dealer could ask to be applied to their mail.

Currently any items to which a special handstamp is applied are returned to the collector inside a thin plastic sleeve to avoid any other postal markings or scuffing but that was not always the case, hence this one was run through the Wigan canceller when it got back to its point of origin, probably because they wanted to make sure the stamp was not reused - or maybe by accident.

The 'le shuttle', North Tyneside, Alec Rose, World Refugee Year, Guernsey (& Wigan), postmarks are normal operational ones. These too can be included in a topical/thematic collection/competition entry. The Post Office formerly operated a reposting facility for these too (without guaranteeing the quality of the output) but this service has now been stopped, save in exceptional circumstances.

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Ian Billings - Norvic Philatelics GB stamps info: http://www.norphil.co.uk - also /catalog for our ecommerce site, blog.norphil.co.uk, shop.norphil.co.uk and Ian_norvic on twitter

I've had another thought about these.

At some point a charge was levied for getting the special handstamp. Thus the items required additional stamps over and above the normal postage rate. This extra fee was increased over time and items with postage over the 1st class letter rate may* show this additional fee. These would have a place in a collection of postal history items, showing the usage of particular stamp values.

* I say 'may' because whilst some collectors used the basic 3d or 4d stamp (then the 3p, etc) others used a combination of stamps, often appropriate to the subject of the postmark, and paid even more than was required.

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Ian Billings - Norvic Philatelics GB stamps info: http://www.norphil.co.uk - also /catalog for our ecommerce site, blog.norphil.co.uk, shop.norphil.co.uk and Ian_norvic on twitter

Alternatively you could buy these books from Vera Trinder



and collect them yourself.

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Donald.
Aus KGV Head Addict !

They are collected, but it tends to be the case that any given collector only wants a few that fit into their particular theme or locality collection. So the best way to try to sell them would be in batches that way. They wouldn't sell for a lot, true, but the stamps are probably all common ones off-cover -- cut up into kiloware the value would be practically zero, so why bother? Much better kept intact.

Certainly even on the ones you've shown I could use the SAE to David Steel in my parliamentary collection, and the reply card with the Bermuda postmark in my postcard collection, and there are some nice slogans and so on there.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far, it's given me lots of ideas and options.


Ian, this may well be the way I go with it as having gone through them all this morning again it seems that they are pretty much themed around Armed Forces, Aviation, Sport, Maritime (loads), Philately and Religion.

I had previously offered some of the better ones on Ebid at 10p a cover and sold a grand total of eight so your suggestion of the trade/swap route might be better.

manfaefife - I had considered that but I've got way too much else going on already without starting another collection - Mrs JonEBoy would never stand for it


I have been through them all this morning and not a car in site nor any elephants although there was an antelope and a bear!

I'm attaching some more scans to give you an idea of the sort of thing that is there...










You're welcome to them - check your mail!

You can see from the new scans that whoever did these went to some trouble by using booklet stamps like the one with the Esso advert tied to a Silverstone cancel, the Eisteddfod linked to Caernarfon Castle, halfpenny blocks for the last day cancel and the 1966 issued 1066 stamp for Battle of Britain anniversary. Hence looking for a good home for these.

Halfpenny Yellow, you've convinced me - I won't chop them up!

Thanks everyone.

Jon

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G.B, Barbados, Line Engraved, Intaglio & Recess printed stampshttp://www.barbadosstamps.co.uk

A couple of comments about some of the covers:


The "stamp" of the last one is a cut-out from an aerogramme. I would keep it as a curio. You could also post it here: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=36823



The last one here might be interesting to those who collect space thematics. Member gavin-h collects Apollo missions, so (unless he already has it), he might be interested.

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My wantlist for Malta Revenues

SILVERSTONE shows a car!

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Wolfgang
Papua New Guinea stamps and postal history: http://www.i-ng.org

Aaaahhhh, yes. Well spotted

On the basis that I have been incredibly dim and can't claim it is anything other than a senior moment, the cover is yours. Email me and I will post it to you as I'm sure it will be going to a good home.

Jon

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G.B, Barbados, Line Engraved, Intaglio & Recess printed stampshttp://www.barbadosstamps.co.uk

Thanks HalfpennyYellow - I've emailed Gavin and cross posted to the other boards.

Regards

Jon

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G.B, Barbados, Line Engraved, Intaglio & Recess printed stampshttp://www.barbadosstamps.co.uk

Thanks to Jon for his generosity - and thanks also to HalfpennyYellow for "recommending" me for the Apollo covers.

Much appreciated

Got a very nice email from Gavin earlier saying that my envelope had arrived....empty. Seems like Royal Mail managed to split open the cover and lose the contents. To say I'm upset is an understatement

Given that I used exactly the same envelopes to send out other stock halfway round the world leads me to think the worst.

Still, as Gavin pointed out, the covers still have the original address on them so it should be fun to see if they get delivered!

Jon

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G.B, Barbados, Line Engraved, Intaglio & Recess printed stampshttp://www.barbadosstamps.co.uk