International Day of Human Space Flight

 

 

Yuri Gagarin, the world's first cosmonaut to have travelled in outer space

The United Nations (UN) celebrates the International Day of Human Space Flight on April 12 each year. The day remembers the first human space flight on April 12, 1961.

April 12, 1961, was the date of the first human space flight, carried out by Yuri Gagarin. This historic event opened the way for space exploration. In 2011 the UN declared April 12 as the “International Day of Human Space Flight” to remember the first human space flight and to promote the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes and to the benefit of humankind.

Club News

From the Readers…

Error Variety on 2012 India - Israel Joint Issue Stamp

While going through the recent stamps, I noticed an error in the Diwali stamp of 2012 - India Joint Issue with Israel stamp issue.

I name it as 'Ring of Fire' variety - a small ring in yellow color above the letter 'A' in 'INDIA' .This stamp is from the full sheet, which means, it is not from the sheetlet.

I am not sure whether this is a constant error (i.e. similar stamp can be found in each sheet at the same position of this stamp in row and column). so, stamp collectors can check and see if they find any similar stamp in their collection.

- Kasinath R. - Tanjore

 

New pictorial cancellation from Germany

On May 8th a new pictorial cancellation (FDI-postmark) will be issued at 53113 BONN. The cancellation is featuring the head of a White-tailed Sea Eagle(Haliaeetus albicillia). Interested philatelists may please contact: Wolfgang Beyer, Vice Chairman of the German Philatelic Collector Group ARGE ZOOLOGIE. Mail: Wolfgang.beyer1@aol.de. Postage rates:
2,90 Euro Registered AIRMAIL( Registered mail possible only).

Courtesy: Mr.Wolfgang Hölzl from the IG New Guinea(www.i-ng.org.)

Read More

USPS reissues Inverted Jenny ….

 

Date of Issue  : 22 September 2013

This souvenir sheet features a new version of perhaps the most famous error in the history of U.S. stamps: the Inverted Jenny, a 1918 misprint that highlights the ways a single stamp can turn history upside down.

Nearly a century after it was first issued, America’s most famous stamp — the misprinted 24-cent Inverted Jenny — will be reprinted as a $2 stamp as part of the Stamp Collecting:  Inverted Jenny souvenir stamp sheet. The sheet of stamps will be issued Sept. 22 to coincide with the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum opening of the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery — the world’s largest stamp gallery.

This souvenir sheet features a new version of the most famous error in the history of U.S. stamps:  the Inverted Jenny, a 1918 misprint that mistakenly showed a biplane flying upside down. Reprinted with a $2 denomination to make them easily distinguishable from the 24-cent originals, the Inverted Jennys on this sheet commemorate the many ways a single stamp can turn a moment in history upside down. The original engraved dies to produce the 1918 Inverted Jenny are being used in the design to produce the new stamps.

The 24-cent Curtiss Jenny invert error

In 1918, to celebrate the first Air Mail flight, the Post Office Department had the 24-cent Curtiss Jenny stamp produced.

Because the design required two colors, sheets were placed on the printing press twice — a process given to human error — as stamp collectors at the time well knew. One collector, William T. Robey, was on the lookout for stamps with printing errors on the morning of May 14, 1918, the first day of issuance for the stamp and the day before Air Mail service began.

To Robey’s amazement, a postal clerk handed him a 100-stamp sheet of the new Air Mail stamps mistakenly showing the biplane upside down within its frame. “The clerk reached down under the counter and brought forth a full sheet,” Robey recounted 20 years later, “and my heart stood still.”

Robey would soon learn that he had purchased the only sheet of misprinted Jenny stamps to fall into public hands. Within days, he sold the sheet to a stamp dealer, who immediately resold it to another collector. The sheet was broken up and the stamps were sold individually and in blocks of four.

For nearly a century, stamp collectors, referred to as philatelists, have chased the Inverted Jennys, accounting for nearly all 100 of them — even as the stamp became one of the country’s best known philatelic treasures. One of the remaining originals recently sold at auction for $625,000.

Source : United States Postal Service

Read More

Olympic Gold Postbox tour of Oxford Postman..

 

110 postboxes were painted gold in 2012 to celebrate the achievements of Olympians and Paralympians

Hi !

I am sharing here a news about an Oxford Postman’s tour of golden post boxes published by BBC . The tour by this Postman is for a noble cause…. I am also sharing here a discussion on stamp errors published in Sandafyre. 

A postman from Oxford is visiting all of the gold postboxes on the UK mainland that celebrate Britain's Olympic and Paralympic champions. Gary White, 29, began his 3,200-mile tour of 104 boxes at Kirkby-in-Ashfield in Nottinghamshire.

He aims to complete his journey on 25 July at the Olympic Park, east London. At each location, the nomadic postman said he would photograph the postbox and send a postcard to himself to document his journey.

Andy Murray

He plans to use the corresponding commemorative Olympic stamps produced by Royal Mail during the 2012 Games. At Dunblane, the stamp will feature Andy Murray, recognised for his gold in the men's singles tennis.

Postman's holiday: Gary White hopes to complete his tour on 25 July

The postman's tour is raising money for the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association in memory of his stamp-collecting aunt, Christine Goodall, who lived in the US.

Mr White said: "I have chosen the MND Association as my charity because my aunt sadly died last year, after battling with this disease for five years - she was only 56 years old.

"I had bought all of the special gold medal stamps with the intention of using them to send her a postcard... sadly, time passed too quickly for me to do this.

"I thought that this event would be a good way to raise money and awareness for this disease, to continue the helpful, happy and charitable mood that was present during London 2012, and to use up some of those stamps for a good cause."

He believes he is the first postman to undertake such a tour.

Courtesy : BBC News

Discussion

Why do Stamp collectors like errors ?

Sometimes discovering philatelic errors is easy, particularly when examples have been identified and are accurately described. This is not always the case and many hours can be spent searching philatelic material to find that illusive mistake. Such items are keenly sought by collectors who need to satisfy a unique personal desire.

why do we find printers mistakes so alluring? It was around the turn of the last Century that the so-called “French Method” of collecting became fashionable, no longer did the best collections simply aspire to total completion but the proofs, drawings, subtle colour changes, plate alterations & damage, and all the other fascinating stuff that makes our hobby so interesting became de rigueur in the highest collecting circles, but errors were already popular long before then...

THE RAREST ERROR is widely considered to be the world second most valuable stamp. The Swedish 1855 3 skilling-banco printed in yellow instead of the correct green colour. It was discovered in 1885 by a Stockholm stamp dealer who bought the stamp from an unsuspecting schoolboy. The stamp has been shrouded in controversy but it has been a famous error for over 100 years and it is generally accepted that a single 3sk cliché had found its way into a printing of the 8sk orange- yellow. Back in those early days of stamp production anything was possible!

DIFFERENT TYPES OF ERRORS exist, mistakes made by the printer are the most dramatic, perhaps the most well- known of these is the American so-called “INVERTED JENNY” stamp. The United States issued a set of Air Post stamps in 1918, the top value was a splendid 24c depicting a Curtiss Jenny biplane in blue within a red frame. The day after issue a stamp collector, Mr William T. Robey visited his local post office to purchase a sheet each of these first airmail stamps. He didn’t like the centering of the sheets available so at the suggestion of the clerk he returned later that day and was amazed to find a complete sheet of 100 24c values with the plane upside- down!

This discovery, perhaps more than any other in philately convinced collectors to carefully check newly issued stamps for printing errors! A block of four from this sheet is currently the most valuable philatelic item.

DESIGN ERRORS CAN BE FUN (AND DANGEROUS) as they are often mass- produced the mistake can be available to thousands of collectors, a typical example would be the Monaco 1947 Air Post stamps depicting President Roosevelt inspecting his stamp collection – look closely and you will see he has been given SIX fingers by the engraver! Sometimes design errors can be a lot more serious, for example the Peoples Republic of China issued, during the height of the Cultural Revolution an 8f stamp known as “the Whole Country is Red” depicting workers with a map of China coloured red – however Taiwan was left in white, a terrible mistake (albeit accurate as the Communists never controlled the island). The stamp was withdrawn after 2 days and is a renowned rarity. There is no record of what befell the hapless designer...

During the 1960s many other countries saw exciting (and less dangerous!) new concepts in stamp production with modern multi coloured artistic designs. Printing errors occurred and many collectors specialise in locating examples from this period including missing colours & and incorrect values (to name just a couple). The choice is virtually endless. Perhaps one of the most infamous errors from that period would be the Falkland Island 1964 6d stamp depicting HMS “Glasgow” instead of HMS “Kent”. Examples of the error are extremely rare with only seventeen known to exist. The committed collector will still seek to find number eighteen!

Collectors follow their desires. Psychologists have identified a need in many of us to acquire and collect. Philatelic errors probably fulfill those who may possess that particular gene! This could be just one of the many reasons why stamp collectors like errors but there must be many other reasons. Compulsive collectors cannot bear distractions, just as my friend focused on the details of the Australian discovery, they are immersed in their subject and driven by the need to accumulate and acquire. Philatelic errors offer just such an opportunity. Human nature relishes and thrives on the search, the hunt, the hope of finding something unique, the use of the “sharp eye” and discovering the unexpected. This alone makes the subject more exciting, dramatic and also challenges the dull image that is often associated with stamp collecting !

Read More….

Read More