15 minute read
Stamps in the News : Margo Campbell
Compiled by Margo Campbell
The petition’s key demand, “Care Parity for CP”, is simple enough to fit on the back of a stamp, says Livingstone (literally so – flip the celebrity faces over to see it).
Postal stall in Nepal
Reported at https://kathmandupost.com
Recently Harka Tamang went to the GPO at Kathmandu to send a package to a friend in Germany.
However, he was told that the post office was not taking outbound letters and parcels except to India.
The suspension of international flights into the country in March last year meant that no letters or packages came in or went out from the country. While they started coming in when international flights resumed in September, outbound posts are still not happening. “Our agreement was with Thai Airways so when everything came to a halt we were unable to continue our outbound service,” said a Nepal Post spokesman. “Establishing another agreement for the outbound postal service is not as easy as one assumes. Our rules don’t allow us to work with different airlines.”
Nepal’s postal service does not use cargo flights but depends on passenger flights to keep the service affordable to citizens.
Despite its importance, a reflection of the authorities’ attitude to providing postal services is the fact that services to India restarted only in March even though air services resumed in December.
As for the rest of the world, the contractual
Stamps in the News - Globally!
situation with Thai Airways is an obstacle.
“We have a two-year contract with Thai Airways, and we didn’t want to scrap the agreement right away,” said the PO director general. “We were waiting to hear from them given the terms of the relationship.” The department is yet to hear from the bankrupt airline.
The lack of urgency on the part of the government reflects the lack of interest shown in the service by the government, according to postal officials.
“In India, the postal services are looked at with more respect and authorities there are proactive,” said a postal official who wished to remain anonymous.
Government inaction has definitely benefitted other courier and parcel businesses but at the same time made things more difficult for the people as DHL and other services are expensive.”
Shetland postal services gone to the dogs
Reported at https://www.shetnews.co.uk
Post news regime in Hungary
Reported at https://www.dw.com
Hungary’s postal service is due to stop daily newspaper delivery in July. The official line is that it is no longer profitable but critics regard the step as another move to squeeze the country’s independent media.
Hungarian newspapers, TV stations and media platforms have been under pressure from President Viktor Orban’s government for many years now. Advertising revenues from state and private sources have practically dried up. In recent years, press and media platforms have been bought up by business people with close ties to the government and have either been closed down or co-opted.
Now the government appears to have found another way of taking aim at the country’s independent media. Magyar Posta, Hungary’s state postal service, made the shock announcement last week, tersely stating that nationwide delivery services for daily newspapers would be terminated on 1 July.
The options for small independent publishers are limited as they lack the distribution networks to sell via kiosks and food outlets.
It is not the first time that the Hungarian postal service has sought to restrict newspaper deliveries. It has previously blocked some specific areas and delayed weekend paper delivery. Subscribers to independent Hungarian newspapers have reported repeated delivery problems.
Coronavirus travel restrictions are forcing drug dealers to become inventive. Drugs dogs are involved in checking post coming to Shetland “almost on a daily basis” as restrictions on travel to and from the isles remain in place.
Shetland area commander said the “use of the postal system has been more frequent” for dealers. This trend has been replicated in other island communities around Scotland.
He told a meeting of Shetland’s community safety board on Thursday that Dogs and Against Drugs is
Compiled by Margo Campbell
Moissy-Cramayel parcel reception area – part of €120 facilities upgrade.
heavily involved in screening packages.
He said the local police force has a “very good working relationship” with postal services.
The chief inspector said the police continues to charge people both on the mainland and in Shetland when packages are intercepted.
In the period between April and December last year there were 110 charges of drugs related offences, which was an increase of 30 on the same period the previous year.
Romania looks forward
Romanian postal operator Posta Romana has launched a €49m investment program, its largest in 40 years in a bid to increase the quality of postal, parcels and related services in Romania. The investment program comprises introducing an automated sorting line at the post’s main sorting
France looks forward
French postal operator Le Groupe La Poste has presented a comprehensive 10-year strategy, ‘La Poste 2030, committed to you’, to its board of directors, which focuses on profitable growth, public service and international expansion. The group notes that 2021 will be a year of uncertainties, given the persistence of the health crisis, fraught with macroeconomic impacts and contrasting effects on its activities. In this context, it states it will continue the work started with its savings plan implemented in 2020, in order to limit the impact of disruptions on its future results. La Poste also hopes to continue enhancement of its parcels and express delivery businesses by building on the growth of e-commerce and hopes to further develop its local valueadded services. The Group anticipates operating revenue growth for the fiscal year 2021.
Stamps in the News - Globally!
centre, upgrades of the sorting centre in the northern part of Bucharest to increase productivity and the speed of processing postal items and the digital transformation of Posta Romana, covering an integrated computer system to centralize operations, a new management information system and new IT hardware and software. Posta Romana is also developing five major policies for structural and sectoral reform.
The Ukraine looks forward The US looks backward ?
Reported at https://www.nbcnews.com
Reported at https://www.kyivpost.com Print
Ukrainians have invested heavily in postal and delivery services in 2020, which were in demand as more people stayed home and ordered food, clothes and electronics online during the pandemic.
Capital investment in these services reached $17 million last year, showing a 635% increase compared to 2019, according to the State Statistics Service.
The European Investment Bank and JSC Ukrposhta, Ukraine’s national postal service provider, have signed a €30 million loan to continue the modernisation and digitalisation of the country’s postal services.
The loan will allow Ukrposhta to start modernising its logistics network with three new sorting hubs, 20 postal depots and IT infrastructure.
U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is set to implement a new strategic plan that includes higher postage rates and the elimination of first-class tier of mail, two sources familiar with the move have reported.
The plan to eliminate first-class mail, which includes letters, magazines and catalogues would slow down mail that typically arrives within two days and make it more costly to deliver for both consumers and businesses. The Washington Post reported that all first-class mail would be lumped into the same three- to five-day window as non-local mail. This comes as the postal service under DeJoy, a top donor for former President Donald Trump, has already seen serious delays in mail delivery over the past several months. “Now is not the time to aggressively increase prices when so many businesses are struggling and hanging on by a thread,” the president of the American Catalog Mailers Association said, warning “this will force more mail out of the system and contribute to a postal system death spiral.” In an emailed statement, DeJoy noted the plan is not yet final, but declined to provide additional details.
Glen Stephens Rarity Offers
For 20 years, my ’Stamp Rarity Page’ has been a “must visit” place for many collectors and dealers, globally - tinyurl.com/GlenRare Large clear photos, and lots of detail, and FIXED NETT PRICES. “Philatelic Porn” as one client jokingly described it as! No 20% “Buyer Fees” to add on top etc. All credit cards accepted - even Amex, and with NO insulting extra fees to you either! Each month I’ll add here, a couple of items from that page, for the possible interest of readers. Choice material, and special collection offers etc, from all over the globe. Material on that page often sells FAST - within hours of being listed up, and it changes often - weekly mostly, so do bookmark this page, and check often - tinyurl.com/GlenRare
Luxembourg 1956 **RARE** Europa set 3, Hoard - Superb MUH:
SG Cat £700=$A1,400, for well under 9% of SG! Bought a few sets very attractively this week in an Estate of an old French gentleman, who had bought them off leading dealer BEHR in Paris, as an Investment, some years back. This is the KEY set to the entire EUROPA Omnibus series, and has always been highly sought. Mint Unhinged, with guaranteed fresh original gum. This set is 65 years old now of course. One of the scarcest mint sets from post-war Europe, and the absolute KEY to any “EUROPA” Omnibus collection. Bright, well centred, with good perfs, and guaranteed original gum mint unhinged, and will look brilliant in any album, at under 10% of SG. THREE sets of 3 for the “bottom drawer” - SG cat $A4,200, for just $A350 = just $US260 as I type. (Stock 568UR) One set 3, SG 607/609, cat £700=$A1,400 - $A135 (Stock 568UQ)
GB 1854 6d Purple Embossed, Cat £1,000 = $A2,000 - just $A300!:
The GB Embossed stamps were carelessly hand impressed/crimped, one at a time, onto very thick sheets of stout ivory paper. So the units often touched or even overlapped badly, as we see readily on the few multiples that survive. So 4 margins are almost never seen on these. Clean and fresh, no thins or foxing or creases, or tears, and very good sharp embossing. SG #60, at £1,000 = $A2,000. Incredibly light cancel for these as you can see. MANY that exist were cut-toshape octagonally shape by bored postal clerks in advance, and sold and affixed to mail in that mutilated form. Many you see on cover are cut-to-shape thus, proving that, and they are worth 5% of cut squares like this. LOTS of those have had corner added over the last 167 years - often very skilfully - this is GUARANTEED by me to be without faults or repairs of ANY kind. An above average fault free example, at just - $A300 (Stock 482LQ)
Roo 1913 3d First Watermark, superbly fresh MVLH/ MUH Block 4:
Unusually clean and fresh. Very Light hinge touches, or totally flat MUH clean original gum. Most readers know my views on BLOCKS of 1913 Kangaroos, and the huge future they have. In WWI folks were not spending 1/- on Mint blocks of current issues! Nice colour, GREAT perfs of any 1913 multiple, and for not much more in price than the current PO Year Album - tinyurl.com/APyear - Insane. ACSC 12, Cat $1,350 as 4 singles - a pretty mint block is RARE. Other dealers charge you this much for a MUH SINGLE! $A525 (Stock 482KL)
Order via: tinyurl.com/GlenOrder All Cards accepted with ZERO fee - even Amex! Bank Deposit fine, or Money Orders. PayPal is accepted in ANY major currency, saving you fees - contact me first. LayBys/Layaways always OK with me!
GLEN STEPHENS
PO Box 4007, Castlecrag, NSW, 2068, Australia. - Phone 0490 399 888 - e-mail me: glen@glenstephens.com - www.glenstephens.com/rarity.html
Postal Stationery
Welcome to the postal stationery column for April 2021. This month’s column includes new issues from Australia, United States priority and express postal stationery envelopes and Canada STO postal stationery Envelopes for Reader’s Digest.
On 9 February 2021 Australia Post issued four prepaid postcards to mark the centenary of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) which was formed in March 1921 although its history traces back to the Australian Flying Corps which was established in September 1912 and served in the First World War. All four postcards had the RAAF Centenary logo on the front of the postcard (Figure 1). Two of the postcards were in the smaller (14.6 x 10.4 cm) size and were sold with a cancelled adhesive stamp on the reverse. They had no barcode and were sold as a set of two for $5.90. The other two cards were in the larger (16 x 11.8 cm) format, have a barcode on the front and were sold singly for $2.40 each. The pictures on the reverse of the postcards were an A2-32 SE5A bi-plane taking off (illustration by Jamie and Leanne Tufrey, no barcode, Figure 2), A2-32 SE5A bi-plane and hangar (photo from the Australian Department of Defence), F-35A Lightning II (plane horizontal in flight, photo from the Australian Department of Defence, no barcode) and F-35A Lightning II (plane diagonal in flight, photo from the Australian Department of Defence, Figure 3). Figure 1 Front of a Prepaid Postcard for the Centenary of the RAAF Figure 2 SE5A Bi-plane Pre-paid Postcard Figure 3 F-35A Lightning Pre-paid Postcard
Ian McMahon
Ramsar Wetland Prepaid Postcards
On 22 February 2021 Australia Post issued eight prepaid postcards to mark the 50th anniversary of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance that was signed on 2 February 1971. This international convention recognises important wetlands around the globe and was the first modern intergovernmental treaty aimed at conserving natural resources. Four of the postcards were in the smaller (14.6 x 10.4 cm) size and were sold with a cancelled adhesive stamp on the reverse. They had no barcode and were sold as a set of four for $12.80. The other four cards were in the larger (16 x 11.8 cm) format, have a barcode on the front and were sold singly for $2.40 each. The reverse of the postcards illustrate four of the wetlands (which are repeated in the two postcard sizes): the Cobourg Peninsula wetland in
the Northern Territory, the Riverland Wetlands in South Australia, Moreton Bay Wetlands in Queensland (Figure 4) and the Blue Lake Wetlands in New South Wales (Figure 5).
Frontline Prepaid Postcards
On 16 February 2021, Australia Post issued five prepaid postcards to pay tribute to the workers in the frontline of the pandemic in Australia. The postcards were in the smaller 14.6 x 10.4 cm size and were sold with a cancelled adhesive stamp on the reverse. They had no barcode and were sold as a set of four for $9.25. The designs on the reverse of the postcards were by Robert Elliot: Healthcare workers (Figure 6), Paramedic and aged care worker, Australian Defence Force and police services, Postal and delivery services (Figure 7) and Teacher and supermarket worker.
igure 4 Moreton Bay Wetlands Prepaid Postcard Figure 5 Blue Lake Wetlands Prepaid Postcard Figure 6 Healthcare Workers Prepaid Postcard
United States Priority and Express Postal
Postal Stationery
Figure 7 Post Office and Delivery Workers Prepaid Postcard Figure 8 Address side of Air Force One US Priority Mail Envelope Figure 9 Reverse of ‘Joshua Tree’ US Priority Mail Envelope
Stationery Envelopes
In Australia we are used to using prepaid Express Post envelopes which have no traditional imprinted stamp but still prepay express post service throughout Australia.
The USA has, however, retained a traditional denominated impressed stamp on their priority mail envelopes (or ‘mailers’) issued since 2003. As the postage rate has increased this has led to some relatively high value impressed stamps. The Prepaid Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelopes (31.8 x 24 cm) were issued to prepay a three-to-four-day delivery service anywhere within the USA of any material that would fit in the envelope. When sealing a Flat Rate Envelope, the envelope flaps must be able to close within the normal folds. All of the envelopes were made of card and have the general format shown in Figure 8-9 with the stamp on the flap folding towards the back.
The first of the priority post envelopes was the $3.85 Jefferson Memorial envelope issued on 29 December 2003. Due to an increase in postage rates in 2006 a $4.05 envelope was issued in January 2006. Since then, a new envelope has been issued each year due to an annual postal rate increase. The designs of the issues featured national monuments, landmarks, national parks and aircraft: • $3.85 Jefferson Memorial Priority Mail envelope (29 December 2003) • $4.05 X-plane Priority Mail envelope (January 5, 2006)
