Autumn 2013 STAMPEX Instant Smilers

Transcription

1 Jul-Sep 2013 Autumn 2013 STAMPEX Instant Smilers The Autumn STAMPEX show had an instant Smilers booth again at the show in a similar set up to the spring show last February. What was different this time is that in addition to the personalised Smilers sheets on sale, Royal Mail were offering two show specials one featuring the STAMPEX logo, the other the Royal Mail Stamp Bulletin 50th Anniversary logo. 1

2 We can supply either design in a matched pair of left/right halves at 45 a pair or 80 for both designs in matched pairs (four half sheets). Limited stocks are available so early ordering recommended. Please drop me an e mail if interested. (21/09) 75th Anniversary of the RMS Queen Elizabeth Buckingham Covers have released details of their latest business customised stamp sheet, another ship themed stamp sheet this time featuring the RMS Queen Elizabeth which commemorates the 75th anniversary of the launch of the great liner. We don't have an official release date yet but we expect to see it out by month end, to coincide with the actual anniversary on the original launch date of the 27th September (18/09) Royal Babies The Benham Group have announced the availability of a new commemorative business customised stamp sheet issued to mark the birth of Prince George. The sheet features eight generations of Royal babies from Queen Victoria in 1819 to that of Prince George in 2

3 2013, almost 2000 years later. The sheet is priced at and is from a printing of 200 sheets, reflecting the popularity of Royalty as a thematic collectible. This follows the recent announcement of a similar issue by the Isle of Man Post Office which chose the same event as the subject of a new souvenir stamp/label sheet issued on 30th August 2013 to celebrate the birth of the new born Prince. (16/09) 3

4 Shottermill Air Crash Memorial Smilers Ridgewood Stamp Sheets has produced a themed Smilers sheet to raise funds for, and awareness of, an event in history that occurred 71 years ago which is being marked by the unveiling of a memorial stone on 22nd September 2013 at Shottermill, Haslemere, Surrey near the spot where an RAF aircraft crashed, tragically killing all three aircrew. In September 1942, a Douglas Boston night fighter broke up and crashed over an area of Haslemere, Surrey known as Shottermill. The three aircrew died instantly and their story has largely gone unrecorded, until last year on the 70th anniversary of the air crash when the story was featured in a BBC South Today TV news broadcast. One local resident has been instrumental in raising local awareness and has campaigned to raise funds to erect a memorial stone near the spot where one of the aircraft's main engines came to rest having having first smashed through the roof of the Rex cinema in Haslemere where mercifully no one was injured. The fighter was part of the "Turbinlite" project which was conceived at the height of the Blitz in late 1940 to counteract the presence of enemy aircraft and to give our boys eyes in the sky before the introduction of radar. The Turbinlite was a 27Mw candle power carbon arc lamp consuming 14,000 amps mounted in the front cone of a fighter aircraft, turning the fighter aircraft into a flying torch which lit up the sky to a width of about 950 yards at a distance of about a mile. Based at RAF Tangmere in West Sussex, the particular Aircraft was on an exercise on the afternoon of the 22nd September 1942 when it was last seen heading north in pursuit of a contact. It was next seen emerging from low cloud over Hindhead common and descending at speed into Polecat Valley followed by its eventual disintegration and break up over Shottermill. 4

5 The Shottermill Air Crash Memorial Smilers sheet is available to order at 50 each (including post and packing). As these sheets are likely to prove popular with collectors please send me an e mail to reserve your sheet (max three sheets per customer). These will be sent out following receipt of order and will be supplied on a first come, first served basis. The sheet is from a limited printing of just 25 numbered sheets. (08/09) Christmas is Coming! Royal Mail have released details of the 2013 Christmas Smilers sheets, to be issued on 5th November The first thing to note about these sheets is the slight increase in size of the stamps (and consequently adjoined labels) that make up the sheet. The Christmas stamps are larger than the usual Machin sized definitive stamps with each stamp being 4mm wider/taller than past issues. As a result there is less background design but more stamps/labels! This year s theme is a religious one and the generic sheet is made of five values taken from the 2013 Christmas issue: 8 x 2nd, 8 x 1st, 2 x 88p, 1 x 1.28, 1 x Printed by Cartor in Litho, this will be (we think) the only source of the litho stamps. The generic sheet will retail at The personalised versions of four of these stamps will also be available from that date: 2nd, 1st, 88p and

6 Apart from the 2nd class value all sheets will be sold in A5 format with 10 stamps/labels as standard. The 2nd class sheet format is 20 stamps/labels in a horizontal format A4 sheet. From past experience we believe it will be possible to order full A4 sheets of the 1st, 88p and 1.28p but not via SnapFfish or via the iphone app. These will need to be ordered via Tallents House. We are placing an order for these and can offer full sets of four personalised stamp sheets with our usual Ridgewood Publishing Christmas label design. I have yet to fully find out the cost of these personalised sheets in A4 format but when I do I will advise the cost of the sheets. (05/09) New UniversalMail Issues UniversalMail have issued seven new international postcard stamp strips this month and these are illustrated below, further details are available at our UniversalMail web page. 6

7 The strips are entitled/referenced as follows: 7

8 UM 073 ST. Paul's Cathedral UK /13 UM 074 Eileen Donan Castle UK /13 UM 075 Stonehenge (Colour) UK /13 UM 076 Stonehenge (B&W) UK /13 UM 077 The Beatles Story UM 078 Visit Oxfordshire UK076 07/13 UM 079 The Mary Rose UK077 07/13 In addition eight existing strips have been re printed and now feature a redesigned backing incorporating new branding in the form of an updated UniversalMail logo. Some of these strips have also had their print date changed but not all. These are illustrated below together with an image of the redesigned backing showing, in all cases, the new UniversalMail roundel logo. The strips are entitled/referenced as follows: UM 002c London Night 4th Edition (UK /11) UM 004c Tower Bridge 4th Edition (UK /11) 8

9 UM 030a Historic Scotland #4 2nd Edition (UK /11) UM 033a Historic Royal Palaces #1 2nd Edition (UK /13) UM 043a South England 2nd Edition (UK /13) UM 058a Animals Of Scotland 2nd Edition (UK /12) UM 059a Scottish Icons 2nd Edition (UK /13) UM 063a Inverness 2nd Edition (UK /12) I have obtained a supply of these new strips and can now offer these from stock. The strips cost 7 each (please specify which ones you require). For a complete set of 15 (7 new and 8 re prints with redesigned backing) I can supply these for p+p. Please e mail me your requirements, limited stocks available. (31/08) The Great War Part 3 Adrian Bradbury will shortly release the third Business sheet in his Great War series of sheets, this one sub titled Caring for the Wounded. The sheet will be released on the 28th August 2013 and is No. 96 in the History of Britain series of Stamp sheets. Priced at 50 per sheet, the design utilises the definitive sized remembrance poppy stamp and is available now to buy from (26/08) 9

10 Pigeon fanciers take note! Terry Mitchell (Bletchley Park Post Office) has written in and advised that the British Forces News featured the BPPO World War One Pigeons business customised sheet in a recent news broadcast. Terry has provided a link to this broadcast and I repeat it here in the event that you would like to view it the item is near the end of the broadcast if you want to skip forward to find it. (22/08) forces news.html Portsmouth FC Promotion Heroes 2002/2003 As promised, here is a better scan of the newly discovered Benham footie sheet which has captured the interest of many of you judging by your follow up e mails. 10

11 Regrettably, I do not know of a source of supply and I can't be sure if it was ever sold to the public. Until we can uncover more of this story I am holding back allocating it a Catalogue reference. If it was never made available to the general public my view is that it can hardly be classified as a collectable. If, subsequently, more sheets are discovered and these are made available to collectors then we reserve the right to reverse that decision. (21/08) Baffling Benham Business Sheet surfaces after 10 years... This edition of Smilers News is turning out to be an intriguing one to say the least!! First the discovery of the Frankel and Bank of China sheets and now a hitherto unknown business sheet dating back 10 years!! This week I received an e mail from one lucky collector who advised that he had spotted on ebay, and subsequently purchased, a Victory Cards/Benham business sheet commemorating Portsmouth FC First Division success in the 2002/2003 season. The sheet in question is a gummed, A4 landscape orientation of 20 greetings stamps/labels featuring the players and coaches responsible for Portsmouth FC's promotion to the Premier Division in the preceding season (2002/2003). My guess is that the sheet would have been printed around 3Q 2003 for the start of the 2003/04 season and as the sheet was produced by Benham exclusively for Portsmouth FC it probably was never offered to the public. I am guessing but it may have been presented to staff and players as a souvenir of their success in Division One in the previous season. Only 250 sheets appear to have been printed and possibly all were framed as souvenirs of their historic victory. 11

12 The reverse of the frame provides a little more information which points to the source of the sheet as the Benham stable via their sporting subsidiary Victory Cards, subsequently absorbed into the Benham brand. The buyer has kindly offered to send me better images of the sheet in the next couple of weeks or so and when received I will of course share these on this website. If anyone can throw any further light on the story behind this sheet or has first hand knowledge that they wish to share, please let him or her step forward! 12

13 By way of follow up I did contact the ebay seller to determine the history of the sheet but sadly the framed sheet was apparently purchased at an auction as part of bulk buy and consequently, was a one off! (10/08) The 30th Gold Medal Winner stamp of the 30th Olympiad Last month I provided some details of the 30th Olympic Gold Medal Winners stamp that had turned up in miniature sheet format (see Q2 News). These have now affectionately become known as the Nelson "winner", due to the printer's location printed in the margin "Nelson, Lancashire". I have managed to secure a very small stock of these Nelson printings in whole A4 sheet format (24 stamps/4 miniature sheets) and for anyone with a collection of these personalised stamps in sheet format they are a must have! Single stamps are selling for 25+ on ebay with miniature sheets of 6 stamps selling for 150 each. I can offer a complete A4 sheet of 24 stamps/4 miniature sheets for 475 including special delivery, available on a first come, first served basis. To reserve your sheet and confirm your order just drop me an e mail. (08/07) Frankel/ Bank of China Update Further to the news snippet below concerning the Frankel sheet from Racing Post, I have now managed to obtain a small supply of these and have upgraded the image for this sheet. These are available to purchase from me at 35 +pp, contact me by e mail with your name and address and I will send you an invoice. 13

14 The sheet was made available to the public in December 2012 so I have had to revise the numbering system of the business sheets to include this as BC 395, please take a moment to understand the numbering of all sheets issued since December 2012 as these will have changed. So far I have been unsuccessful at finding out any more information about the Bank of China sheet but continue to pursue this. As this sheet was never made available to the public it is unlikely I will list it in a future edition of the catalogue as it is hardly a collectible if no one can obtain one! It may be that there are 10's if not 100's available from employees from Bank of China etc., but unless one of them is a budding Smilers stamp sheet collector they will never know what they are sitting on! If used on promotional mail they may turn up in kiloware and if so will have a curiosity value for Smilers collectors. At least two of you who read my earlier piece about this sheet spotted the following image on the internet (my thanks to Chris and Keith for writing in with details) relating to the Bank of China anniversary and it seems that the Business Sheet (if indeed it was ever 14

15 issued, see below) was perhaps inspired by a sheet of Let's Celebrate personalised stamps also apparently produced by, and illustrated on, the Bank of China web site. According to the Bank of China web site..."in honour of the Bank of China's 100th anniversary, Bank of China London Branch and the UK subsidiary released a special edition stamp presentation pack, customised from Royal Mail? The presentation pack includes a 10 first class stamps sheet featuring the BoC Head Office Building in Beijing and the London Branch and UK subsidiary Office Building in London, completed with an iconic Queen's head portrait in grey on the top right corner and a colourful birthday cake below it. The presentation pack also features a brief introduction of the Bank's 100 year history and over 80 years' development in the UK."Maybe there were two versions produced. The Business Customised version as illustrated below and the Personalised Stamp version as above, but I find it odd that the latter is the only illustration to be found on their web site. I do hope that this is not a case of Royal Mail advertising a sheet that was never actually produced! (28/07) 15

16 MIDPEX and York Stamp Fair Instant Smilers Sheets now available Here are some images of a couple of recent stamp show instant smilers sheets. I have acquired a small stock of these and added them to my on line store, click on the above images to go to the buy it now page if interested. Regrettably I have only managed to acquire a hand full of each of these for sale, so be quick! (27/07) It's a Boy! 16

17 Congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the birth of their son George. I am sure this happy event will be celebrated by the release of various philatelic inspired keep sakes. The first we spotted, of interest to Smilers collectors, is from the Westminster Collection in the guise of a special customised stamp sheet, a rare event in itself these days. I get the bear and label, but not the bunting looks like Pudsey Bear dropped in to say hello! However, I have to hand it to the Westminster Collection; the choice of a blue background seems to have been an inspired one! According to the Westminster website... "Only 200 commemorative sheets have been officially postmarked by Royal Mail with the 22nd July date. Each will be individually hand numbered in gold and will arrive presented in its own Presentation Folder." At a penny short of 50 plus around 4 post and packing you had better grab yours while they last as these could be gone in a flash. Orders are limited to three per customer. (24/07) Post Note: The sheet has now been issued and we can now confirm that the sheet utilizes the Teddy Bear smiler stamp printed by Cartor with square edged, elliptical perforations, 17

18 the first time that the stamp has appeared on a business customised stamp sheet, we believe. The stamp first appeared on customised variants from March 2013 this year. We did check with Westminster as to the availability of mint sheets but were politely told that they were not available. How terrible disappointing. None of the oversized first day cards produced by Westminster will fit the Smilers albums so it will be a dilemma for most collectors whether to buy their sheet or not. We can supply the sheets mounted on a card but cut down to just slightly bigger than A4 to a size that will fit the Royal Mail Smilers albums, sheets cost Please e mail me if you would like to order one. (26/08) Royal Mail Customised Stamp Sheets Adrian Bradbury recently brought my attention to an updated version of Royal Mail's Business Customised Stamp sheet brochure and the updated version contained one or two surprises!! The brochure is available as a downloadable Adobe Acrobat (*.pdf) file and you can download a copy at this link: Perhaps the most interesting aspect for the Smilers sheet collector was to be found on the first couple of pages. 18

19 The brochure illustrated two hitherto unknown sheets, one produced by the Bank of China to celebrate their 100th anniversary in 2012, the other produced by the Racing Post celebrating the legend that is Frankel. Adrian had followed up the leads and advised me that the Bank of China do not have any sheets remaining (I am subsequently following up Adrian's lead to determine when and how many were printed etc.,) but the Racing Post sheet is still available from their website priced (max two sheets per person) via this link. If anyone does manage to track down a Bank of China sheet please let me know. (24/07) 19

20 New Bradbury Business sheet Adrian has released another somewhat unexpected business sheet this week in the guise of the History of Britain Sheet No. 94 entitled King William IV. Like similar sheets issued in this series. Adrian has tried to capture something of the life of King William IV in the sheet deign and has successfully blended these vignettes of the life and times of King William IV to produce another stunning sheet. (22/07) York Stamp Fair First Look First look at the York Stamp Fair Instant Smilers sheet. We have some on order and when received will be able to supply matched pairs of 2 x 10 stamps/labels for 50 a sheet + 2 pp. Orders by e mail to graham@smilers info.com (22/07) 20

21 New Commemorative Sheet due out in September Royal Mail have announced a new Commemorative sheet to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sir Edgar Bertram Mackennal, KCVO, the Australian sculptor famous for designing the stamps and coinage bearing the likeness of King George V. Due out on 19 September 2013, this appears to have been timed to coincide with the Autumn STAMPEX event in London. (01/07) 21