Collecting Also

Your World of Stamps.—VI Post-marks Are Worth Collecting Also

A column for new stamp collectors, conducted by K.N.

APART from the many stamps marking all manner of personalities, events or occasions, you will find that nowa days greater use is being made of illustrated postmark cancellations.

Some postmarks carry important messages and reminders, while a number relate to anniversaries, national festivals and celebrations and important conferences.

From France. Switzerland, Holland, Germany, Austria, etc., have come some deightful pictorial postmarks pubicising outstanding tourist landmarks. In some instances postmarks have been issued to coincide with the first day issue of stamps, bearing repro ductions of the stamps themselves.

At the same time, a lot of interest can be created by seeking out unusual postmark names. There are in almost every country, odd names whose origins cause comment.

The acquisition of postmarks bearing such names widens our knowledge of the world and satisfies one’s curiosity regarding the origin of places in many lands.

Many collectors like to secure postmarks from out-of-the-way parts of the globe: from the South Pole; the North Polar regions; from the furthest north post office in Canada; the highest, hottest and most isolated localities, etc. This Christmas (1956) special efforts were being made by the Australian postal authorities on behalf of philatelists—they made arrange ments to collect mail from a special box at the highest point in Australia, Mt. Kosciusko.

Some Recent Issues

IT is strange how often stamps on the same subject come from widely-separated countries. The Philippines recently issued two stamps, showing a Nurse with two bewildered children amid the ruins of their homes, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the local Red Cross organisation.

Two stamps from Colombia have also publicised the national body, featuring portraits of Jean Henri Dunant, the Swiss banker and philanthropist who founded the international Red Cross organisa tion in 1864, and Santiago Brush, founder in 1902 of the Colombian Society.

And again, a nurse teaching first-aid to children and assisting in a textile factory appeared on

the two Russian Red Cross issues.

The stamps carried the inscrip tions, “Acquire the sanitary learning”, and “Safeguard the working-masses health.”

North Borneo has issued stamps to mark the 75th anniversary of tne founding of the old Chartered tympany of North Borneo. The 50th anniversary of the body having been celebrated in 1931, with eight special stamps, the new series will show a native prahu; the 13,455 foot high Mt. Kinabalu, sacred to the Dyaks; the arms of the old company; the Borneo railway service in 1902 and a portrait of Queen Elizabeth 11.

One of the few countries to bring out Christmas Stamps regularly since 1951, has been Cuba.

To capture the spirit of the season, attractive designs have been used on the “charity” stamps, which sell at a premium to benefit the Anti-TB Funds. These stamps have included representations of Christ mas floral emblems, including poinsettia; a Christmas Tree, surrounded by decorated bells: the smiling features of a Santa Claus, and a fat Turkey!