9 minute read
Classic Issues : Christer Brunström
CLASSIC ISSUES
There are undoubtedly many philatelists who view modern stamp issuing policies with a certain degree of unease. There is a steady fl ow of new issues which is quite surprising in view of the steadily shrinking mail volumes. Modern self-adhesive stamps are furthermore diffi cult to handle and in many cases used stamps must be collected on piece as they cannot be removed from the envelope paper in a water bath. Collecting modern postage stamps gets more complicated with each year.
The ever increasing postal rates are another problem in this connection. A recent stamp set can easily cost more than $10 and with the additional products usually offered (FDCs, souvenir sheets, etc.) it gets even more costly. Designs are frequently chosen to depict the season of the year and they are thus of very little permanent interest. In no way can today’s offset printed issues be compared with the beautiful recess-printed stamps of the past. But perhaps I am too conservative when it comes to stamps?
A typical example of a modern stamp issue is found in Fig. 1 – three se-tenant self-adhesive 10c stamps issued by Finland in 2008.
But you don’t need any recent stamp issues at all to create very interesting and enjoyable collections as there are hundreds of thousands of older and far more exciting stamp issues to choose from. It is a well-known fact that many country collectors have already selected a year after which they don’t add any new issues. Some have put an end to their collections at the start of the new millennium while others have selected other years.
Numerous collectors have decided to limit themselves to the classic period of philately but this immediately creates an intricate problem. When exactly was the classic period? As we shall see there are several wildly differing opinions on this and it gets really confusing when we check how catalogue editors handle this problem. In Sweden, the editors of the FACIT Classic catalogue have chosen to limit
Figure 1
Christer Brunström
the period to all Nordic stamps issued until 1951.
Shown in Fig. 2 is the one-krona value of the long 1924 set commemorating the UPU. I suppose most collectors would consider this to be a classic stamp.
There are certainly many collectors who would place the classic period much earlier or in the period between 1840 and 1900, i.e. the fi rst 60 years of stamps. There is much which speaks for this kind of classifi cation. This is where we fi nd the early imperforate issues. It was also a period when almost all stamps were printed to pay postage on covers and packages even if there were a number of notable exceptions towards the latter part of the century.
When I discussed the matter with a collector friend of mine he was adamant that the classic period ended in the 1870s. He obviously associated the classic period with the early imperforate issues. The imperforate 1855 Bremen imperforate stamp in Fig. 3 can certainly be described as being a classic issue.
Many early stamp albums comprised the period from 1840 until the beginning of World War I. In some cases they were complemented by a slimmer volume devoted to the many stamps issued during the Great War. Over the years I have met numerous very serious philatelists who have enjoyed fi lling this kind of general worldwide stamp albums. In Fig. 4 I show an Australian 1913 Kangaroo and Map stamp which obviously would be needed to fi ll a space in the albums discussed above. This is not only a classic stamp but a classic design as well.
Amos Media in the USA publishes its annual Scott 1840-1940 Specialized Stamp Catalogue listing all worldwide stamps until 1940 with one notable exception. When it comes to the British Empire they have decided to continue until 1952 or the end of the King George VI era. Collecting King George VI is very popular both in Great Britain and North America which explains this rather unusual decision. Thus the classic period becomes 1840-
Figure 2 Figure 3
Figure 4
CLASSIC ISSUES
1940/1952. The Crown Colony of Hong Kong celebrated its centenary in 1941 and in that year a set of stamps (Fig. 5) was issued to commemorate this event. According to the Scott editors, this is a classic stamp issue and I suppose many collectors will agree with this assessment.
Stanley Gibbons in the UK has a slightly different take on the classic period and especially regarding the British Empire. The Commonwealth & Empire Stamps catalogue covers the period from 1840 until 1970. Obviously the editors feel that the classic period extends long into the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. It was only in the 1960s that the previously engraved stamps were replaced by offset printed stamps. I suppose this change of printing method meant the end of the classic period for many collectors. Shown in Fig. 6 is a “classic” stamp from St. Helena in the South Atlantic issued in 1959. I suppose most readers will agree that this stamp has what be described as a classic appeal.
In the stamp trade classic is a powerful word. I remember a Swedish auction company called Klassisk Filateli and I recently noted advertisements for a new auction company called Le Timbre Classique with offi ces in Geneva and Paris. Numerous stamp companies have specialised in the classic era of philately (mostly referring to the 19th century issues).
But it is of course up to each collector to make up his or her mind about the extent of the classic period of philately.
It is interesting to note that a single volume will suffi ce to list all the stamps issued during the fi rst century. The fact that most nations only released a limited amount of stamps from 1840 until 1940 is of course good news to most collectors. An up to date complete catalogue of worldwide stamps will probably need far more shelf space than most collectors have available and at an astronomical cost. It is thus not at all surprising that many collectors look to the past for philatelic pleasures.
Figure 5 Figure 6
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