Sunday Stamps 105 - a new beginning (KGVI Coronation)

The obvious stamp for me to share in this week's Sunday Stamps would have been the Penny Black, but having featured one in my previous Sunday Stamps blog post I had to really think about what would be fitting for this week's theme of beginning. I did think perhaps I'd feature some stamps relating to independence but couldn't seem to find them, so instead I decided on a different kind of beginning ... the beginning of the reign of a new monarch in the UK, in this case George VI. The stamp featured below was issued to commemorate his coronation on 12th May 1937.

Coronation of King George VI, 12th May 1937

    

Sunday Stamps 104 - black stamps

I've not managed to participate in Sunday Stamps for a while but will try to make more of an effort in 2013. I suspect my choice of stamps, well the first one of them anyway, for this week's theme of black is not particularly original. My only Penny Black stamp it is pretty battered,  but it's still special in its own way.

Penny Black stamp, c.1840, and a £1 stamp from the 1980's

For any recent new recruits to Sunday Stamps, I have to confess that it's vintage postcards that is my main passion, but stamps, being inextricably linked, do of course get a look in every once in a while. If you want to find out more, check out some of the other posts on my vintage postcards blog

 

      

Sunday Stamps 70 - votes for women

Well unfortunately I don't seem to have any stamps which specifically refer to Mother's Day (plus it's not actually Mother's Day here in the UK today ... ours is in March) but as the theme on this week's Sunday Stamps was extended to cover, amongst other things, women's rights, I have featured this stamp from 1968 commemorating 50 years of women having the vote. It shows the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, which is in Victoria Tower Gardens, London SW1.

Votes for Women, commemorative stamp, c.1968

    

Sunday Stamps 38 - British Architecture (Cathedrals) c.1969

Well, coming from Europe and having a reasonable number of British stamps, I was spoilt for choice for my submission for this week's Sunday Stamps. I did originally think of sharing some Victorian stamps, but although interesting the colours are quite muted, so I decided to jump forwards 100 years and share a First Day Cover from Elizabeth II's reign in 1969. I'm not quite sure why the theme, whilst claiming to be 'architecture' is exclusively Cathedrals. I would have thought that there were plenty of other great architectural feats like palaces and bridges which could have been equally good candidates.

First Day Cover, British Architecture, c.1969

The architectural feats pictured on the stamps are clockwise from top left:

Durham Cathedral

York Minster

St. Paul's Cathedral

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral

Canterbury Cathedral

St. Giles Edinburgh

and the cover itself shows Coventry Cathedral.

    

Sunday Stamps 36 - South America

This week's Sunday Stamps was a bit of a challenge for me. As I've no doubt mentioned before, my stamp collection was handed down from my father and mainly consisted of stamps that were sent on letters and postcards from relatives who were serving in various British Commonwealth countries (mainly Africa). I had to search low and high for any South American stamps at all, but I eventually found these 2 in what was probably a page from my very first stamp album. Unfortunately however I know next to nothing about these stamps. I did tyr and research them on the internet but became not much useful information turned up ... suspect I was being too impatient. So I have no idea of the dates of these stamps.

The first stamp is a 3 Pesos stamp of Tierra del Fuego, and the second is a 50 centavos stamp of Pozo de Petroleo en el Mar (which roughly translates to Oil Well in the Sea). This one has been overstamped with Servicio Oficial.

    

Sunday Stamps 34 - Fishing

Here's my contribution to this week's Sunday Stamps. This is a First Day Cover from September 1981, commemorating the British fishing industry. The insert of the envelope refers to the abundance of cod, which is now sadly depleted in our waters. I did see a very good documentary featuring a number of chefs, Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, etc., talking about eating sustainable fish, as opposed to those in danger. There's a whole wealth of information on The Big Fish Fight web site.

First Day Cover, Fishing, c.1981

    

Sunday Stamps 33 - Southern Rhodesia Royal Visit 1947

Thanks for everyone's comments and interest from my last week's Sunday Stamps posting. As this week's Sunday Stamps is 'themeless' I've decided to share a few more from Southern Rhodesia. These stamps commemorate the royal visit of 1947 by King George VI and the Queen Mother on the red 1d stamp, and Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret of the green 1/2d stamp. I must have bought these stamps separately at some stage in the past as I'm pretty sure they weren't part of those I inherited as they look very clean and unused. They're probably not as interesting as others I've shared as there's no indication of their history as they're unused, but I guess they have a history of their own ... like how did they make it out of a post office in Southern Rhodesia and back to the UK ... or maybe they were part of the stamp collection of someone living in Southern Rhodesia ... or maybe these stamps were printed in the UK and never made it to Rhodesia in the first place.

Southern Rhodesia Royal Visit, 1947

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Sunday Stamps 32

My contribution to this week's Sunday Stamps is a bit of a cheat, but please bear with me while I explain my story. Some of you who have read my previous stamp related posts will recall I inherited a family stamp collection many years ago. This 'stamp' was part of that collection, and although not really a stamp, I've always regarded it as one and it's been kept alongside my British Commonwealth stamps ever since. Rather than a stamp which has been stuck on to an envelope, it's more like one of those transfers that you rubbed on with a coin, that you used to get (and maybe still do) with packets of kids' sweets. It's a 4 pence registration stamp from Southern Rhodesia, although curiously postmarked in Deal, Kent. Hopefully there's another Sunday Stamps reader who might know a little more about this registration stamp and what it was used for.

Sunday Stamps 30: Tasmania, c.1903

For this week's 'themeless' Sunday Stamps, I've decided to share a couple more stamps from my inherited collection today. These 2 are of Tasmania and date back to the early 20th century. Although Tasmania ceased to be an independent colony in 1901, it seems stamps continued to be produced after that date until about 1913 when they were replaced with a more generic Australia stamp. The first is a 2d stamp of Hobart, c.1905. The second is a 1/2d stamp of Lake Marion, c.1903. Apologies for the skew of the scan - no matter how hard I tried I could not get them any more aligned on the scanner.

Sunday Stamps 29 - Ceylon

I suppose like many people of my age, stamp collections were passed down through parents and relatives. I can't say that my parents actually had a stamp collection as such, but I do remember one day being handed a box which contained hundreds of stamps that they had accumulated, rather than collected, throughout the years. This was back in the early 1970's, and the stamps in the box were, as a far as I can remember, all from the various British colonial outposts that my relatives had visited and sent cards and letters home from. I have plenty to choose from but these 3 are probably my favourite. I'm not sure if they are from the same set, but have always felt they were. The stamps are from left to right ... 9c Plucking Tea, 6c Colombo Harbour, 2c Tapping Rubber.

3 stamps from Ceylon, c.1936

Check out Viridian's Postcard Blog for more Sunday Stamps submissions

    

Sunday Stamps 27: Birds

I had quite a choice for this week's Sunday Stamps theme but in the end decided on this set of 4 bird stamps from Great Britain, c.1966. Clockwise from top left they are: Robin, Blue Tit, Blackbird and Black Headed Gull. I still see the first 3 on a regular basis in my garden, but the gull is generally only seen on the coast.

 British Birds, set of 4, c.1966

    

Theme Thursday: Square

I'm a bit late again this week for Theme Thursday as I've been working away this week. I like the 'square' theme and have found something that fits the theme in 2 ways.

Vintage postcard of Leicester Square, London, c.1905

and on the back of the postcard ... a 1905 Alfreton squared Circle postmark

100's more vintage postcards can be found on my web site

    

Sunday Stamps 26: the British Army

Good to see Sunday Stamps back again this week after a week off. Interesting to see that this week's theme was inspired because of all the national holidays in July - here in the UK we don't have any at all in July, although we did have plenty in April this year because of the Royal Wedding. So, a belated Happy 4th July to all my US friends. In terms of patriotic stamps I was a bit spolit for choice as I think almost all of our stamps have the Queen on them in some form or other, but after looking through my First Day Cover collection I came across this one from 1983. It shows various regiments of the British Army throughout the ages. The Parachute Regiment, the Irish Guards, the Royal Green Jackets, the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, and the Royal Scots.

British Army, First Day Cover, 1983

    

Sunday Stamps 25: Summer (butterflies)

When the theme for this week's Sunday Stamps theme was announced as 'summer', and in particular butterflies, I knew I had just the stamps to share. This is a First Day Cover from 13th May 1981, and features the Small Tortoiseshell, the Large Blue, the Peacock, and the Chequered Skipper. We get a few butterflies in our garden, but not that many ... which is just as well as the cats seem to like chasing them

First Day Cover, Butterflies, 13th May 1981

I must admit however, that the background colours on the butterfly stamps made them look a little drab. In terms of summer stamps I prefer this second First Day Cover, from 16th January 1980, showing British Birds ... Kingfisher, Dipper, Moorhen, and Yellow Wagtail.

    

Sunday Stamps 24: International Stamp Exhibition, 1980

Sort of continuing from last week's Sunday Stamps theme of se-tenant stamps, I have chosen one of my favourite first day covers for this week. It's the British Post Office Third Miniature Sheet, issued to commemorate the 1980 International Stamp Exhibition, held in London. This is, in effect, a stamp within a stamp. The inner stamp was 50p, and the outer stamp was 25p which was put towards the cost of running the exhibition.

International Stamp Exhibition, Miniature Sheet, First Day Cover, c.1980

    

Sunday Stamps 23: Liverpool and Manchester Railway

Having managed to miss last week's Sunday Stamps, I hope I can make up for it this week. This week's theme was stamps that have their design continued between stamps. I think this one fits the bill quite nicely with the train carriages all linked, and the background landscape also. This First Day Cover dates back to March 1980 and was issued to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Liverpool and Manchester railway.

First Day Cover, Liverpool and Manchester Railway, 1980

Sadly the golden era of train travel is long gone in the UK these days. Fortunately there are plenty of preserved railways around that help to remind us of the age of steam. Some investment still goes into the railways, the regeneration of St. Pancras is a fine example, and it will be interesting to see what the cross-rail service (west to east London) end up like when it's completed. I see it most days when I travel into Paddington and it all looks very slow progress.

    

Sunday Stamps 21: British Polar Explorers

As regular readers will know, occasionally I deviate from the postcard theme on this blog and sometimes blog about related topics - today is one of those days. It's been a few weeks since I've taken part in Sunday Stamps, but having managed to strain my back all the gardening I planned to do this weekend has been put on hold, so I now have more time for blogging. This week's prompt was to 'share anyone honoured by a stamp'. I had a quick scan through my First Day Cover collection and decided upon this one, 'British Polar Explorers', from 1972.

From top left, moving clockwise, they are ...

James Clarke Ross (1800 - 1862)

Martin Frobisher (1535 - 1594)

Robert Falcon Scott (1869 - 1912)

Henry Hudson (1560 - 1611)

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Sunday Stamps #8 - internet

Most of my stamps are from a much earlier age where of course there was no internet, but I have just about managed to stay with this week's theme from Viridian's Sunday Stamps blog. This 6d stamp from Zambia shows communications, old and new. I'm not sure of the age of the stamp so not sure what sort of machine is being operated on the right hand side of the stamp - some sort of telex machine possibly?

6d stamp from Zambia

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Happy Valentine's Day

Although this blog is primarily for vintage postcards and vintage carte de visite, I do occasionally blog the odd stamp, or other postal history item. This is my first submission to Viridian's excellent Sunday Stamps blog, and given that tomorrow is Valentine's day, this seemed appropriate.

British Commemorative stamp, Folklore series, February 1981

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Sepia Saturday 55 - Christmas and the Empire, c.1898

My blog entry for the Christmas Sepia Saturday is causing my normally ordered mind some internal grief ... it's not Saturday, my posting is not sepia, it's not festive and although it's not a postcard I'm putting it on my vintage postcard blog. The reason for breaking all 4 unwritten rules is that I was inspired by the word 'Empire' in Alan's post. I can't have looked through my childhood stamp collection for years, but the vivid memory I had of this stamp was overwhelming. It took a while to find it but I had at least remembered it came from Canada, which narrowed it down a bit.

Actually, since starting this write-up I realised that I have in fact, albeit accidentally, not broken one of the rules. Something I had never noticed before until I scanned the stamp was that it infact is a Christmas stamp, from 1898. The 'empire' link was obviously more memorable to me with the wording 'We Hold A Vaster Empire Than Has Been'. This is not meant to be a jingoistic post, but more a reflection on our history, and the importance placed on 'empire' by many nations at the time. Perhaps I should do a follow-up in the New Year called 'The Empire Strikes Back', to reflect the decline of the Empire and the quest for independence from it.

1898 Christmas stamp from Canada, 'We Hold a Vaster Empire Than Has Been'