14th February 2019
Eight members tonight displayed a fantastic 160 sheets of their stamps and covers.
Francis Podger FRPSL began the evening with a display entitled Preparation. This included sheets of his KGV Revenues which he is preparing for the Malayan Study Group presentation to the Royal Philatelic Society London. He also displayed "Publication", and proceeded to present a pre publication copy of a book on Revenues written by himself and due to be released in March 2019.
Colin Campbell then presented a display based on Petroleum showing a number of items from companies with some connection to Petrol.
Ron Goodfellow followed this up with a display of postcards with 20th century handstamps all of which began with the letter 'P' showing different types of postmark.
David Millar displayed a number of presentation packs relating to popular places and prominent people.
Robert Duguid thenpresented a disparate number of items such as postacrd with a Portuguese connection, including a presentation book of stamps from 1937, foreign FDC's and aeroplane covers. as well as one showing a puffer train from the Grand Canyon.
Charles Lloyd displayed a number of covers from the Peoples Republic of Mozambique. Perfins and propaganda covers, some of which were aerogrammes. and petrol rationing covers were also shown. Postage Due stamps, Portuguese East Africa covers and stamps and Postal Stationery from the Belgian Congo were also on show.
Norman Kelso presented a set ogf Post & Go strips all of which were printed at the Scottish Congress in Perth begiining with the Perth 2012 issue up to last years issues at the 89th Scottish Congress. Included in the display were strips from Royal mail, Jersey Post, Guernsey Post and Gibraltar Post.
Harry Jackson finished off the evening with a display about the German Pneumatic Postal System, explaining how it worked and showing cards which were used within the system.
5th February 2019
Frank grew up in Pontremoli, a small town in the hills to the north of La Spezia, Italy.
He trained as a tailor before doing his national service in the Alpini. After that he opened his own tailoring business in Pontremoli, however, he wanted to come to Britain and was sponsored by the Cabrelli family in Dundee.
He married Carol and worked in gents tailoring in A. Caird & Sons in Reform Street rising to become head of department.
Frank had an interest in stamps and joined the Dundee & District Philatelic Society.
His family grew with the arrival of daughters Vivienne and Francesca.
Frank’s career took a different direction when Caird’s closed. It saw him move to Debenhams before breaking out on his own.
From premises in King Street, he opened a stamp shop and tailoring business. The stamp shop along with other collectibles, Cornucopia Collectors, was in the front room, whilst Frank’s tailoring was in the back room. By then he employed home workers to carry out much of the tailoring work.
Taking over the running of Dundee Philatelic Auctions, he held public auctions in the Tay Centre Hotel (Malmaison) before moving the auction to Glasgow for a wider audience.
With changing trends there was much less demand for bespoke tailoring so he concentrated on the philatelic business becoming a weel kent figure at stamp fairs and a much respected figure in the trade. His interest in stamps waned to some extent when he became a member of Tayside Postcard Club. With his stock, mainly of postcards, he grew to become one of the UK's most familiar and respected philatelic dealers, with customers from around the country and beyond.
He had left Italy but he was still Italian with a love of good fresh food and partial to red wine. Frank could never understand why the Brits didn’t make use of the food which was in abundance whilst they ignored it. The family would go out foraging for wild mushrooms, collecting and drying them. Frank’s Italian family were always pleased to see him back in Pontremoli in the summer school holidays. His stash of mushrooms were also much in demand!
Frank was above all a family man and in Cornucopia Collectors’ case, family business did mean family as Carol, Vivienne and Francesca ran the business with him. That family business has grown since grand-daughter Rachel also works part-time when she’s not at university in St. Andrews.
Many others will share their sorrow on the passing of this colourful, friendly, congenial man.
24th January 2019
Tonight's meeting saw members enthralled by a display of Norman Watson's Penny Red Dreadfuls.
Norman began by outlining why the Penny Red's were devised. Concerns were being expressed in
May 1840 about the public being able to remove the red Maltese cross cancellation from the stamp
to reuse it. Black cancellations were attempted but these could not be distinguished from the
colour of the Penny Black, so the Penny Red with black cancellation was introduced in Feb 1841.
The covers on display showed a cross section of the different types of abuse of how the stamps should be used on letters, which mainly went against the postal regulations.
Norman explained that in the early days some of the public were frightened to lick the stamps due to a fear of catching some form of illness, so some of them used sealing wax to attach the stamp. A variety of covers on show such as a cover with 3 distinct Maltese cross cancellations which is extremely unusual, another cover where a tiara had been drawn of the stamp, some covers where instead of placing the stamp in the top right hand corner of the cover it was used on the back to seal the envelope, even indicating on the front that the stamp had been affixed to the back. Other covers included one where the Penny Red was printed using a Penny Black plate, another cover posted in 1850 in Golspie which arrived in 1856, another with a bisected stamp, again contrary to regulations, and another cover which is probably the only one in the world with a redirection to Queen Victoria.
Part 2 of Norman's display covered four different topics, the first of these was a short display on Votes for Women. The covers shown gave an inkling as to how the Suffragettes used the post by issuing propaganda postcards, defacing mail by putting chemicals in the postboxes, using tar and burning mail. One cheeky postcard showed a collage of a postbox chasing a suffragette. Norman then displayed a number of items all of which were related to Armistice Day 1918. All letters on show were cancelled on 11th November 1918 and included letters from family to soldiers on the front and vice versa. One cover on show is probably the first known cover to show the poppies logo. The next section on show were Penny Black covers showing their usage and anomalies. This included covers with 4 stamps from the same plate, one unusually with a vertical pair, another cover with what is thought to be the last red Maltese cross cancellation and other covers sent from Robert Peel to William Gladstone. The final part of his display concerned the fight to get a Burns stamp issued, and quite appropriately included a cover with a handstamp from Alloway.
10th January 2019
Tonights meeting was a change from the scheduled meeting. Instead of "The Learning Zone",
members were invited to bring along some of their Thematic displays and show them off to the other
members. Such was the response that 10 members showed off over 250 sheets, which is probably a
new record for the society.
13th December 2018
Tonights meeting was a members night where members competed for the Rosebowl in the One-sheet
competition. This year's winner was Francis Podger with his entry of 'Singapore Free Post 1945'.
There were five entrants in the single sheet competition:
All entries had been well researched and were neatly mounted with suitable explanations. As can be seen from the titles, there was a great variety of subjects which were extremely interesting. Judging the winner was difficult! The winner was Francis Podger. The Vice-President presented Francis with the competition rose bowl.
Six members displayed their Recent Acquisitions:
22nd November 2018
Our visitors tonight were three members of the Scottish Philatelic Society, John Law, Ian Anderson
and Richard Cuthbertson (see photo on the left).
Ian Anderson started off by providing a display of the German Colony of Togo. During the war the
occupying forces sent mail using German stamps overprinted in English, French and Franglais. All
stocks were used up by 1915 so the British brought in stationery and stamps from the Gold Coast.
The French brought in their own stamps. At the end of the war part of the colony was given to
the Gold Coast and the bulk was given to the French. Ian's display consisted of stamps and covers
during the occupation.
John Law then provided members with a display of charity stamps. John explained that there were
three types of charity stamp, overprints on existing stamps, a single or small set for a specific
cause with 2 values, a single postal value used on a long series of stamps. On display was what is
found to be the earliest known charity stamp from Jamaica, Danish, Austrian and Swiss stamps.
Richard Cuthbertson then followed on with stamps and covers from the Portuguese Colony of Timor.
Included in this display was the last stamp issued by Timor as well as charity stamps of Timor and
war tax and other types of tax stamps.
The final display of the night was presented by Ian Anderson on behalf of Eric Mason who was unable
to attend the evening. This was a display of stamps and postcards all of which had some relevance
to the tea industry.
8th November 2018
Unfortunately due to illness members of Dunfermline Philatelic Society were unable to attend the meeting. Secretary Charles Lloyd at the last minute organised eight of the local members to bring along some of their own material and at least 250 sheets of stamps were put on display.
Charles Lloyd displayed stamps and covers from Nyasaland 1934 up to Independence.
Ron Goodfellow displayed a series of postcards with scottish postmarks from Aberdeen to Torphins and all places inbetween.
Robert Duguid displayed some of his Madeira collection
David Easson displayed some of his Uganda 2010 to 2014 stamps and miniature sheets
Colin Campbell displayed Hong Kong stamps and miniature sheets up to 1970.
Harry Jackson displayed stamps from 2 Indian states, Bhundi, and Charkhari
Peter Dix displayed a collection of animal stamps from various countries
Norman Kelso displayed stamps from the Gold Coast and Ghana from KGV up to 1966
25 October 2018
Due to unforeseen circumstances the speaker for the evening was unable to attend so our secretary
Charles Lloyd stepped into the breach to provide members with an absolutely fascinating display
of UDI Rhodesia and Zimbabwe.
Charles provided members with a comprehensive overview of the transition period in the 1960's when
there was a push for more equality, eventually leading to UDI being declared in 1965 and eventually
to Zimbabwe in 1970. Charles also explained how the mail during the UDI period was subject to sanctions.
Great Britain did not acknowledge the declaration therefore every letter sent to the UK was deemed
invalid and incurred postage due. On display were a few covers which confirmed this fact.
More covers were shown with propaganda stickers and others which were sent OHMS but were still subject
to taxation. Quite a number of sets of stamps were on display including some stamps with dual currency
following the change to decimalisation. Charles also displayed a cover which had a postage due of 7/-,
as would be expected this was refused by the recipient. This was followed by the last cover of Rhodesia
following the change of government in 1970 when it became Rhodesia-Zimbabwe.
In the second part of his display Charles showed a number of sets of stamps from the newly named
republic of Zimbabwe which included commemoratives and definitives with neutral subject matter such
as rural life, railways, bees, fish and the air force.
At this point Charles provided an overview of the effect inflation had and how that led to
hyperinflation and the significant increases in stamp prices. This eventually led to the abandonment
of using Zimbabwe Dollars in favour of US Dollars. Charles finished off his display with an unusual
first day cover issued in 2018 which had no stamps on it.
11 October 2018
This evening members welcomed as a guest speaker Richard Cuthbertson from the Scottish Philatelic
Society, who would present a display from the Portuguese colony of Macau, which is situated at
the bottom of China facing the China Sea. Richard explained that he previously lived in Hong Kong
for a number of years and collected Hong Kong before giving this up to collect Macau. He has now
accumulated practically all of Macau leaving very little for him to now collect.
The display covered the period from 1910 right through to the 1950's and consisted of a variety of
stamp sets, sheets and some covers. Some of the overprints were carried out in Lisbon and others
were done locally in Macau. The overprints were usually done whenever there was a requirement for
extra stamps as supplies were running low and replacements could not be received in sufficient time.
Included in the display were a number of bisects, used when insufficient stamps of the value required
were available and higher values used and cut in half.
Major issues of stamps such as the Empire issue, Padroes issues and Ceres issues were on show as well
as two Prisoner of War covers. Richard informed us that Macau was a neutral country during the war.
Following the war the colonies were given more autonomy about what types of stamp they produced and
this gave rise to topics such as cultural themes, omnibus issues (with the other colonies), views
issues, some of which were surcharged and were overprinted.
27 September 2018
As is customary the President began the new session with a display, and this year President David
Millar displayed a series of covers and letters from Victorian Times. David explained that he
spent a lot of time carrying out research on the internet on the letters on display, tracing
genealogy and postmarks. Deciphering the handwriting provided quite a challenge and he sought help
in achieving this task.
The bulk of the covers were penny reds, but David did show a penny black
cover as well. One cover on display had the writing crossed over which David explained was done
to save on weght which kept the postage charges down. With such a number of covers on display it
was also possible to see how the cancellations developed over years.
28 August 2018
My name is Martha Smart and I am the deputy manager for Oxfam Books and Music on Reform Street
Dundee. As I am sure you are aware our shop relies entirely on donations, some of which happen to
be stamps. Currently however, all of our donated stamps (bar the ones that are relatively easy to
find and price) are being sent to other Oxfam shops who are lucky to have a volunteer who has a
good knowledge of stamps and their value. This is why I thought I would get in touch, just in case
you have any members who might be interested in giving up a couple of hours in the week to help us
value our stamp donations and get more of our donated stamps on sale. We have a great team of
volunteers and there is always plenty of tea and biscuits, it's also great opportunity to meet
new people whilst enjoying a hobby, not to mention all the money raised will be going towards
very good causes. If you have anyone who might be interested then they can pick up an application
from our shop or fill one out online (https://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/local-shops/oxfam-shop-dundee).
Alternatively, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch. It would be great
to hear from any of your members.
Martha's contact details are:
Tel: 013822296891
e-mail: marthasmartica@hotmail.com
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This page was last modified on 16th February 2019.