Postage Stamp Chat Board & Stamp Bulletin Board Forum
 

Folks,

The series is actually called 28th International Congress of Orientalists. This series has always been one of my favourties. Not that I have much material from the group. It is quite scarce on commercial cover used within the correct timeframe.

The ACSC vaues the 7 cent letter rate stamp on cover at $12 and the 15 cent at $25. This indicates its scarcity as the catalogue does not value letter rate stamps for most issues very highly at all. I probably have half a dozen from this group and I think about two solo usages.

The Congress was held in Australia and this series issued to commemorate that event. It was on sale for about nine months. Issued on 6 January 1971 with the idea that it would be withdrawn in July. It was kept in service until 31 October 1971 due to the postage increase.

I will start the post with one of my favorites. Its a common letter rate that is scarce. This cover is a looker in my opinion. Covers like this are what making collecting on cover such a fun part of stamp collecting. It has the added advantage of the T perfin for Tasmanian Goverment usage. This would be very scarce I am assuming. It was cancelled on 11 November 1971.

What can others find from this great series?

Tim

Folks,

Here is the 20 cent from the series with 5 QE 1 Cent stamps paying the 25 cent rate to Zone 4.

Tim

A question from the uninitiated:

Usually, a postage rate increase would be more likely to cause the early withdrawal of a commemorative set. What was different on this occasion?

Folks,

Here is the real hard one to find solo or combo for that matter. It the 15 cent. It was primarily used for the Zone 2 Airmail rate. This one is paying the postcard rate to Zone 4. Rod Perry has seen one other.

Tim

Ottawa Mike,

Thats a really good question and helps explain the scarcity of the 7 cent as a letter rate stamp. When it was issued in January the letter rate was 6 cents. Why issue a 7 cent stamp when the rate was 6 cents who knows. Not many people would have used the stamp at that time as they would have been overpaying the rate by 1 cent. The letter rate was changed to 7 cents on 1 October 1971. So the stamp was only on sale for one month of the 7 cent period.

Tim

I wonder if it was issued in anticipation of a rate increase that was then delayed?

A good thread, and have to agree with Tim one does not seen much at all of this set used in correct period.

Downie's in particular used this a lot on philatelic mail later on, but the above cover are are 100% commercial in my view.

Glen

Glen,

Later use is not of any value. I get the odd letter with it on today. I gather its not a valuabe series mint?

Tim

GREAT thread Tim. I will do a few posts.

Not so much NOW, but in the late 70s and 1980s these were several dollars a set MUH.

So no philateic use would have been made then as mint were far more pricey than used.

John,

I thought that I might get your attention. Show me what you have.

I thought the T perf might be in your ballpark.

Tim

Tim, I've got one with a T Perfin also. I'll post a scan later.

John,

Nice mate. I got mine from Ross Ewington (not sure if thats correct) at Tasmanian Stamp Auctions. I picked up a few T perfin items from him.

Tim

And I THINK I have a non-perfin on a postcard - I need to check. (I hope I do!).

John,

The 7 cent or the 15 cent. Both would be nice but the 15 cent would be a beauty.

Tim

The 7c perfin T must have been very popular. I have four examples dated between Oct 1971 and Dec 1971. Maybe the Tasmanian government got a special price or some other inducement.

And I also found a 7c Asia series perin GNSW used from Broken Hill in Jan 1973.

DW,

Nice mate. Perhaps State Governments cornered the market? It would be nice to see them.

Did you find any of the other values?

Tim

Since they are all the same as the others posted I decided not to scan.

And no values other than 7c.

DW,

Are the envelopes on the T perfins all the same as the one I posted? The NSW would be worth scanning.

Tim

Most of the known examples of the 7c T Perfin on cover are addressed to the Housing Department, Tasmania. Examples are still scarce. The period of issue of this stamp was smack bang in the middle of the Housing Dept. correspondence. It is a freak of nature that they have survived.

OK, here goes.

First the G/NSW



And the Perfin T versions

DW,

Nice mate. I like the Broken Hill one. My Dad used to run a trucking business from Mildura to Broken Hill in the 60's. Its about three hours from Mildura. I have spent a bit of time there over the years.

Tim

Nice covers DWH. Don't anyone think though that because DWH has posted 5 covers that the 7c is easy on cover. That is a good part of the world supply!

John,

True. The 7c is hard. We have not seen any others of the 15c and 20c though. They are harder.

Tim

Here's a tag showing the 15c. I've managed to crop the nicely readable "71" from the 3c side of the tag.



I have the 20c on similar but can't make out the date although I'm sure it's in period as they all came from the same source.

Mark.

_________________
Reddog aka Mark Rowen.
I have a red dog, his name is Buddy.

Mark,

Nice mate. Unusual usage and rate. I wonder what it was on?

Tim

Tim,

I got the impression these were from parcels received by a publishing house given the context in which I picked them up.

Mark.

_________________
Reddog aka Mark Rowen.
I have a red dog, his name is Buddy.

Here is a letter to the US from June 1971 with the 20c Australia-Asia uprated by 6c.

Should the rate have been 25c or 26c?



Phil

Flip,

25 cent but definately commercial and a nice cover. Just slightly overpaid.

Tim

Goodness, Tim, that was a fast reply! Thank you for the information!

The sender's address was the G.B.R.E. Bookshop, 323 Bourke St, Melbourne. GBRE appears to stand for the General Board of Religious Education. The recipient organisation, Venture Press, published books about church organs.

Phil

Phil,

Definately sounds commercial to me. Nice cover.

Tim

Multiple franking of the 15c value on registered cover.

Wonder why a 57c franking in a 7c postage era?

Even a trable or 4 x weight letter would not attrect that, and it looks small sized.

Reg'd fee was only 25c as I recall? Looks 100% commerical so there must be a reason!

Rod mentioned that the 15c "is a difficult stamp to find on any postal article".

The rate is:

1971 (Nov 9) Kings Meadows - Natone, Tas (via Launceston and Burnie). Rates effective 1.10.71 - Registration 50c + 7c Standard Letter Rate (up to 1 oz) = 57 cents. Paid by 15c Aust/Asia x 3 + 12c Animals.

John and Glen,

Yes 57 cents is the correct rate. Unusual way to pay it makes a great commercial cover.

Tim

It's commercial alright.

There seems to be a distinct lack of 20c covers so far.

First welcome back, second 20c should be my domain, Airmail to Zone 5 in 1971 was 30c so combinations were required for using this stamps. (2x15c or 20c+7c+3c) I will show you mine.

usage 1971:




used 1974, a little bit late but to Siemens AG



last but not least my favourite cover of this series. Commercially used to Finland

_________________
1978 45 Cent Tree on cover counter: April 2010 - found 10
Ten covers found in one year by stampborders. Call it common now.

Hi Robert

Thanks the post. You show great covers (as usual).

One of those 30c rates to Germany might be a spare

Folks,

Here is another 20 cent used as a make up rate. I dont have a solo use. There should be some out there somewhere. Its combined to pay the 25 cent rate to the US. Nice use with the 5 cent Cook as well. Its interesting that we have come up with more 15 cent stamps than others. It is a rare stamp especially solo.

Robert,

Nice to see you back posting. You always come up with something nice.

Tim

Here are a few that I've managed to collect from the series.

The first picture shows solo use of the 15c on postcard to the US, canceled with the canceler from the 'Orientalists Congress' for which the stamps were produced - hence rather interesting. I'm sure it isn't philatelic, rather 'tourist'.

Here are the other two I have with stamps from the series.

Seapaw,

Nice too.

Tim

I've got a 15c one uprated to 18c by a 1c and 2c QEII, on postcard to zone 5.

Also a 7c solo used on a domestic postcard.

I would post scans, but the scanner won't work since I moved a month ago!

Scott

I just remembered I had already scanned one of them.

Here's the former:

Scott,

Nice mate. Get that scanner back and start scanning. I would love to see some of your decimal fish on the thread that I started on them.

Tim

Folks,

This thread has also gone a bit quiet. I thought I would bump it as well. I am amazed that till now we have not had a solo use of the 20 cent. It paid the Zone 4 rate at the time. Here it is going to Hawaii.

Tim

Also picked up a few more recently.

20c plus a 10c oil & gas Zone 5 airmail
20c plus 7c plus 3c queen, Zone 5 airmail
2 x 15c Zone 5 airmail.

Not too special, but nice.

DW,

Nice the 2 x 15 cent sounds better than the pack. Its amazing that the 20 cent solo is so scarce. I picked the Hawaii one recently and its the only one I have or have seen. It should not be that elusive I dont think. There must be more out there. The 7 cent postcard rate to New Zealand is also very scarce.

Tim

Couple of recent acquisitions.



Top one pays the correct $ 0.25 Zone 4 airmail rate.

Second one should be franked $ 0.50, $0.25 postage plus $0.30 registration. Instead it totals to $ 0.53. Looks commercial enough to me, but....??

Since I also collect Queensland postmarks it can always go into the Mackay section.

Folks,

Any sort of collecting is always about the chase and getting a new addition brings great pleasure. This one has certainly done that for me. I think this cover is probably the key to this set. Its the 15 cent paying the unsealed greeting card rate. A great cover.

Tim