Is there anybody out there with an interest in the Post Office Telegraphs? If so I would very much like to start some discussions but as this topic has had no interest since the board was started I want to make sure there is somebody out there to talk to first!!!

I should have thought there would be more people. Maybe they're too shy! I have built up a collection of these over the years and it is almost compete; I still a clear CDS copy of the 1/- plate 12 L226 which oddly has been more difficult to find than the 3/- wmk crown. Some of the sideways inverted are also difficult. The main problem is that I live in Malaysia and these Telegraphs rarely feature on the dealers' lists sent to me. Can you recommend a good source where I could look for ones I still need?
I find them a fascinating issue as the printing techniques and overall appearance are very similar to the postal issues; it is surprising that they are not more popular. After all, most of the postal issues we see with good CDS postmarks were probably used on telegraph forms anyway.

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the response to my message and it is good to know there are a few of us interested in these issues - are there any more of you out there?

I am also interested that you are collecting them from Malaysia - I started my telegraph collection whilst resident in Singapore and although I am now back in the UK I spent ten years collecting them in S.E.Asia, so I sympathise with your difficulties in obtaining material. In fact it is the realisation of their true scarcity that in part makes their collection and research so interesting - well for me anyway!

As for where to obtain these issues - I have a lot of contacts, both dealers and collectors, that may be able to help but because of the rarity of many of these stamps, as you have discovered, it can take a while to find exactly what you want!! For example, there are but a small handful of nice cds copies in existence of the 1/- plate 12 on spray that you seek, interestingly almost all used in Scotland - the Crown watermark is actually more common - but still a scarce stamp. They are both much rarer than their catalogue values hint at. This year there have been only two used examples on spray sold on e-bay, both wing margin examples, these were the first since 2005, when one poor example was sold! Last year Cavendish sold one at auction and in 2007 there were 5 sold (all in collections) that I am aware of, two by Grosvenor (both poorer examples), two by Harmers (one lettered MA with a Stornoway cds being the finest used example I am aware of) and one by AJH Stamps (earliest known usage) which I purchased. I hope this highlights the problems you may have - if they were postage stamps they would be worth thousands, there are probably more examples of many of the postage abnormals on the market than some of these telegraphs!! Interestingly the 3d Plate 4 is actually even scarcer than the 1/- P12 on spray, although a higher percentage are fine used, and the 3/- on crown is equally as scarce, but you are right they do crop up more often - probably because dealers take note of them because of the high catalogue??

On the basis of your response I will start a thread in the next few days on the relative scarcities of these issues based on a mass of data I have collected over the years (information on over 8000 P.O.Telegraph examples - so far), I hope you will find this interesting and will be able to contribute in whatever way you can as it is certainly an ongoing project. I also hope it may be interesting to other people reading this thread and hopefully prompt some additional response? Thanks

Ian, I'd be interested to see if your data reflect the numbers issued which we printed in the Telegraphs book by Langmead and Huggins.

Hi Ian

Many thanks for your detailed reply. No, unfortunately I don't know anyone else out here with similar interests.
I can happily give you details of those in my collection (complete date and place of posting) if the information will be useful to you. Anyone you can recommend who might find me a clear single CDS copy (not wing margin) of the 1/- on Spray would be very welcome. Scotland, England, Wales, never mind, lah! Odd that I should have had no trouble finding the 3d plate 4 - just good luck perhaps.

I do enjoy these too but have seen recently that almost anything on offer is being snapped up often at fairly high prices but agree that the value is certainly higher. As always supply and demand dictate but I am sure more collectors will get into these areas as they get more and more complete on normal areas and look for a challenge.
cheers
James

Very pleased to see some interest out there.

Mike, thanks for your comment as it gives me a focus to start the new thread with. I will try and put up some data in the next few days relating to actual used scarcity but I'm currently on business in the Czech Republic and do not have the graphs I need at hand!

Tony, I would be very grateful for any information, in particular a set of scans would be very much appreciated as then I can add the stamps to my database where I can ensure they never get counted twice! I hope you have the time for this, if so I'll give you my e-mail. As soon as I see a 1/- P12 on Spray for sale I will let you know. I have a duplicate mint one but not used, as I said before they do not crop up often! If there is anything else you need do let me know as I do follow what is about literally on a daily basis.

James, you are right, the prices are definitely up and interest on e-bay for these issues is well up on the last few years - this is good news in that there is more interest but bad news for the wallet!!

Good to hear from you all, Ian

Hi Ian!

I'm sorry I can't send you scans as my collection is safely in the UK and I'm here in Malaysia. The humidity here is not kind to paper so I don't have them with me - otherwise they'd all be on toned paper! I can send you details of corner letters, place and date of posting and these should fix them satisfactorily. If you send me your e-mail address I can do that immediately; mine is finchktj2@hotmail.com .
I'd be very grateful if you could let me know about a 1/- plate 12 on Spray. All the stamps I have are with a singular CDS, with no trace of another cancel, on which I can clearly make out the place and complete date. This doesn't make the search easier but I am loath to give up this condition at this stage. Strangely, I don't see many out here!
I do check e-bay but I'm never very confident about buying things through it; one reads so many stories of things going wrong.

I have an interest in the private company telegraph stamps of the UK, i have a small collection, but find that whenever these stamps come up for sale, they fetch very high prices.
I would love to see a display of these items at future GBPS meetings if any member has a good collection.