Seaford Stamp & Post Card Club

A profitable printing industry arose in the 1890s making copies of rare and valuable Victorian stamps, which were almost indistinguishable from the originals, and selling them for lots of money to the popular collectors’ market. Genuine stamp dealers, and the Inland Revenue, eventually put a halt to this trade when they took the printers of the Chalon Head stamp, shown below left, to court in the early 1900s and imposed a hefty fine. Even so, fake and forged stamps continue to be a problem for collectors to this day. I work on the principle that a valuable stamp is a fake unless it has a certificate from an expert which says otherwise!

Tony Hope showed this ‘fake’ stamp as part of his wonderful display of the stamps and history of New Zealand. Tony worked for many years as the catering manager for the army in New Zealand and travelled widely across the country. His account of his time there was full of fascinating anecdotes, such as the time he asked his close Maori friend, Toby Rickihana, who had a wicked sense of humour, ‘What is the Maori’s favourite food?’, to which his friend replied, ‘Pooka’, a pork dish with spinach. Then he added, ‘If you can’t get that it is ‘Pakiha’, which translates as ‘white man!’

His display included most of the earliest stamps, the Chalon Heads, many of them displayed on envelopes, and some mint examples including this proof of the first stamp (above right) which has a blank space instead of the value.

Along with his stamps were lots of original prints from the Illustrated London News and old postcards tracing the history of the settlement of the Island (top left), which shows the first Missionary colony from the 1840s. That Tony loved his time in New Zealand and the Maori people, (modern image top right) was clear from his enthusiastic presentation of his display.

Our next meeting (11th January) should interest any railway buff. It is an

extensive display, detailing the creating of our railway system and includes early stamps, covers, prints etc. The club meets on the second Wednesday of each month at 7pm for 7.30pm at the Seaford Constitutional Club. You are welcome to come along or if you would like to find out more about the club visit our website at Seaford Stamp and Postcard Club: http://www.seaford-sussex. co.uk/sspc/ or from our club secretary David at david. manthorpe10@gmail.com. Tel. 01323 492433.

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For a free quote Call Tim on 07731548067