Great Britain Philatelic Society

I read it as "Charleston, by North Queens Ferry". From Google it seems these are both villages in Scotland, and near to each other (the former now spelt "Charlestown").

Ahem. The reason they were missing from the displays index page was ... the site admin made a cock-up. I made some organisational changes to impose a bit more order on the displays and allow more flexibility to rearrange them, so the KGVI displays are still there at https://www.gbps.org.uk/displays/...

Unfortunately there isn't a registration sheet for plate 77 because it wasn't approved for production use -- if there was it would make things a lot easier.

Try checking it against the letter positions for other plates on the registration sheets:

https://www.gbps.org.uk/information/sou ... plates.php

Position QL should be there (i.e. not removed to be presented to some bigwig) on all of them.

Best bet is John Parmenter's London Late Fee and Too Late Mail 1840 to 1930, which is available as a PDF in the downloads section:

https://www.gbps.org.uk/downloads/lphg-publications.php

This mark is illustrated on page 80.

Checking Tabeart and Moubray, 1s was set as the standard basic rate from the UK to any British dominion or colony from 10 January 1840 (on the 1-2-4-6... rates scale for ½oz-1oz-2oz-3oz...). This was the Treasury Warrant: https://www.gbps.org.uk/information/sources/treasury-warrants/warrants/TW-1840...

Yes, 29 February 1972 was the last date, and naturally a number of philatelists sent covers with old issues on the day. :) These stamps look to have trimmed perfs on the right edge, so probably come from booklets? Those (and the stamps from them) tended to hang around for a while in wallets, handbag...

I think you're right -- the squiggle next to the 5 is probably a hastily written ½. Scottish mail routes aren't something I have a lot of information on, but I would have thought it would have gone on a four wheeled vehicle at some point. The Dunfermline mark would read "18 ----- E" by the...

Yes, they seem to be somebody (presumably the addressee?) using the envelope as a handy piece of scrap paper to doodle on. Not a clue what the marks might mean, if anything!

As far as I can tell, the towns finder is now gone. I'm not sure if anyone has a copy of the database for it. A close replacement is the GB post offices list on this site: https://www.gbps.org.uk/tools/ukpo It's not quite the same thing as the towns finder, as that was based on actual postmarks seen...

I'm no handwriting expert, but to me it looks as if that "Immediate" is in the same hand as the address? Not too many letters common to both, unfortunately, but the vowels and "d" look very similar, and neither "t" has a cross-stroke. You do see "Immediate" wr...

Definitely collectable (some of the offices may have been closed by now), although not much in demand.

There's a listing of Northern Ireland post offices at Ken Smith's "UK Post Offices by County" project:

https://sites.google.com/site/ukpostofficesbycounty/home/northern-ireland

Thanks.

The notes at the top of the page did describe the additional ½d -- I've expanded them a bit and added a note to the 1812-38 revision to make it clearer that it continued until 1839.

Yep, all post offices, same day as the stamps. Post Office Circular , 30th June 1948: OLYMPIC GAMES Issue of Commemorative Stamps A special issue of postage stamps of 2½d., 3d., 6d., and 1s. denominations, and air letters bearing a replica of the special 6d. adhesive stamp, is being made to mark the...

Hi Mike, I faced this problem back in 2020 when doing an article on these stamps for the Philatelic Bulletin (Vol 57/10 June 2020, see the downloads page ). I contacted Stephen Weir (who had displayed KGV/KGVI commeomoratives to the GBPS) who commented: "The HLP variety exists as follows - (1) ...

That'll be a Newspaper Branch postmark -- the bottom line would read "NPB" if the whole postmark was on the stamp. They used a lot of these rather crude-looking cancels. If that is a "D" (not sure) it would be a code letter to identify the handstamp. Probably quite an unusual pos...

The general answer is that they didn't -- the originating country was supposed to mark the letter, and the destination country take their word for it. The procedure was for the office of posting to draw a box around the stamp without cancelling it to indicate that it was invalid, and put a "Tax...

I have his email address (somewhere!) -- I could pass on a message with your Gmail address?

I don't, I'm afraid, but there are sheets of the Coronation 1½d (in quarter-sheets) in Robin Restall's displays:

https://www.gbps.org.uk/displays/four-kings.php

Stephen Weir might have some?

MIKE wrote: ↑Sun Sep 03, 2023 1:01 pm Does any member have any details relating to John K Templeton who published an article in the Stanley Gibbons Monthly regarding the Liberation issue.

He's not a GBPS member as far as I can see. Is this a recent GSM?

Not that I know of -- best guess is that they're just numbers to identify the handstamp (presumably to indirectly identify who was using it, should a query come up about the way a letter was handled). Unfortunately, unless some archive record shows up or someone manages to spot a pattern, I suppose ...

I can remember wondering about one of those ... sadly the answer is simply that the pink ink has a tendency to oxidise to black sometimes. (Actually, come to think of it, it was probably more the case that it had a tendency to get sulphurised in the highly polluted Victorian city air! But you do see...

This thread is for GBPS members to introduce themselves to each other (if they wish). Let us know who you are and what you collect, and other members who share your interests can get in touch -- either by replying here or using the board's "email a member" facility.

Yeah, Michel have it right. According to the Post Office Scheme taking effect 1 March 1972 that covered the demonetisation by redefining what was valid for postage (see https://www.gbps.org.uk/po-schemes/inland.php): (3) Payment of postage or fees payable under these regulations may be denoted: (a) ...

This has been asked in the postal history section as well:

https://www.gbps.org.uk/boards/viewtopic.php?t=1946

Scotland has been rather left out, unfortunately -- the published references are somewhat old and only available second-hand now.

James Mackay did a self-published book "Scottish Numeral Postmarks" in 1987 (which I've not seen), but other than that I don't recall a more recent comprehensive coverage of them. For England & Wales you have the Parmenter books, and for Ireland the recently published book, but Scotlan...

Er -- unless you have news I haven't heard, Glenn is very much alive (he sent me some files last week). I can alert him to this thread if you like?

That's because it wasn't there -- I'd forgotten to add it to the menu.

... the next step is 1s 5d (5d British plus 1s foreign). How does the "5d British" arise ? .... I can't see any UK 5d rates at the time ? British rate on mail to/via France -- this is the period 1843-54 where the rates get complicated because they're made up of a British component of the ...

OK, well I guess the clerk must have made a miscalculation then -- there aren't any 1s 4d rates listed in Moubray for that date?

Are the postmarks clear enough to say it's definitely 1852? From 1/1/1855 the second step was 1s 4d (8d per ¼oz).

Can't help with the steamship I'm afraid -- possibly there are some online newspaper archives which have a record of ships landing in New York? US postmarks aren't my area, but I suspect the "F" or "E" may simply be a code to distinguish the handstamp (or its user)? That's what t...

The Rossiter Trust are independent -- they were left a sum in Stuart's Rossiter's will to publish books on worldwide postal history topics. We don't have any special relationship with them that would let us sell their books. (This one had a review in a recent newsletter as I recall -- so we have a c...

I've edited the title so it'll show up. :) The paper and gum would have been the standard types as used for the definitives -- uncoated paper in a reel with KGVI cypher watermark, and gum arabic. (Might be some more detail in volume 2 of the current SG Specialised.) I can't offhand remember seeing a...

Welcome to the boards! They're marks from a postage meter -- i.e. the machines businesses can buy to frank their mail, more conveniently than keeping and sticking a lot of stamps. They always had to be prepaid in the UK as far as I know (i.e. loaded up with a certain amount of credit). The ones on t...

Not my particular area, but from memory, the gum was usually pretty thick and yellowish and probably quite glossy when dried -- and not always that good at attaching the stamp unless thoroughly wetted! So it could be some of the original gum left over, although you'd better see if somebody who colle...

I wonder where the previous owner got that collecting point, not something that could just be dreamed up I would have thought. I suspect Ray Simpson would argue that it probably was, and that collectors have a habit of making guesses that then end up being treated as based on definite information. :)

It's "GERRARDS CR"(oss) I think. BTW, the search tool's handy for unclear postmarks -- https://www.gbps.org.uk/tools/ukpo -- I didn't see the mention of it being from Gerrards Cross (Buckinghamshire) until after, so got there by searching on what letters I could be confident of (*r*rds*). :)

The AGM agenda, together with the 2022 report and accounts, can be downloaded below.

Hi Steve, welcome to the boards! Fairly sure the boxed mark reads "Found at Ipswich / without contents". It's a mark that was normally used on empty envelopes found in a mailbag, from which the contents had apparently fallen out somewhere along the way. As for why it's on a postcard -- I s...

I'm informed that the company that actually hosts the sites have had hardware failures, and are presumably (hopefully!) working frantically to get it fixed. Unfortunately, with that sort of thing the ETA is usually "no idea, keep checking back".

They look rather like the ones in Tony Walker's display here:

https://www.gbps.org.uk/displays/pre-decimal-machins/frame1.php

(pages 9-13)

From the Wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viscount_Melville), it looks like the 4th Viscount -- 1876-1886.

Hm. The Postal Museum site ( search link here ) does say that the designs were submitted as bromides as there was no time to prepare essays, so it could be related to that. The TPM photos aren't high resolution enough to be really helpful as a comparison. Not sure why it would be gummed, mind you, u...

Is this an item you have, or one you're hoping to get? A picture would make it clearer if you have one.

I don't have that on the site -- I'd basically be drawing on Furfie. Actually, he's the best person to ask -- as far as I know he still has the same email address?

They're known as "cypher labels" -- from 1701 revenue stamps were fixed to the document with a metal "staple", and these labels were stuck over the bits on the other side to prevent them catching. They continued in use as late as the George V period. See Chris Harman's display (s...

Received from Isobel Klempka at the Philatelic Traders Society: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am delighted to let you know, that you have been nominated for a PTS Award. The judges are currently deciding who the winners and runners up will b...

As someone with an interest in GB express mail (albeit a somewhat piecemeal collection), I can state confidently that I can't recall any other examples of this use of special messengers, or even that I've ever noted that the possibility existed! Many of these non-standard express services are rare. ...

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