Pacific stamp box

A must for any stamp collector is a good stamp catalogue. The authorita tive catalogue for the Australian and near Pacific region is The Australian Stamp Catalogue now released in full color for the 22nd edition by Seven Seas Stamps of Dubbo, NSW, Aus tralia.

Apart from a thorough revision of text and stamp values, the catalogue has been enlarged to include the recent Frama labels and annual collections.

Apart from Australia, the catalogue includes Australian Antarctic Territory, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Is lands, Nauru, Norfolk Island and Papua New Guinea. The value of stamps listed now more closely reflects retail values so that the collector is better able to determine the value of his or her holdings.

The value of some areas has shown a decrease in value but there are some areas, particularly scarce and quality pieces, that show increases. The com pany also has available similar cata logues on other Pacific countries.

For those hooked on trivia, did you know that the stamp which has the highest number issued of any country is the 1953 3d Violet Wilding head of Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain? The number issued was 19,290,000,000.

Stamp News has calculated that, con sidering Britain’s population in 1953, that amounts to 400 stamps for each man, woman and child. That’s a lot of licking.

As an extra to last month’s notice of the issue by Papua New Guinea of the 1985 Stamp Album, I have discovered that only 5,000 of these are to be printed. Don’t say I didn’t tell you of their investment potential.

PNG has also released a beautiful set of Living Marine Shells. There is no doubt that this country has set a high standard in stamp quality and maintains this with each issue. The country has used the Swiss printers, Helva Cour voisier S.A. for each of its issues over the last four years, producing superb quality and detail.

The country’s next issue will be April

21 commemorating the 60th birthday of Queen Elizabeth 11. Many other Commonwealth Pacific nations will have issues to mark the event Several other Pacific countries have also recently issued marine life stamps.

Norfolk Island issued a set of four on January 14 featuring the island’s reef creatures, while Cocos (Keeling) Islands issued a set of four on January 14 featuring shells.

Pitcairn Island, on February 12, issued a set of four on sea turtles and French Polynesia produced a set of three on January 22 featuring sea crustaceans.

Finally, Tuvalu, on January 7, issued a set of four on local crabs. And there lies an interesting story. The stamps were to have been issued in December last year. They were sent by airfreight in November, went missing, were then located in New Zealand and subse quently waited for several weeks in Fiji for space on an onward flight to Tuvalu.

All aircraft were fully booked by students returning for Christmas and there was no room for the stamps.

The famous land diving ceremony of Vanuatu features in the country’s latest stamp set on tourism. Congratulations must go to Vanuatu for an excellent set of four stamps.

Scuba diving, volcanoes, land diving and wind surfing are all featured. As tourism is a major revenue earner for Vanuatu, the set has been designed as a clever “holiday brochure.” It’s a very collectable set and an excellent base for a collection on a tourism theme. I think Vanuatu may have a world first in featuring wind surfing on a stamp.

Reports from Solomon Islands indi cate that the St Martin’s Rural Training Centre marathon run from Brisbane to Melbourne and back (5,000 km) in December failed to make the target of $lOO,OOO. Philatelic items from the run are still available from the Solomon Islands.

In conclusion, I note that Tuvalu has issued large numbers of souvenir sheets for the 85th birthday of Queen Eliza beth the Queen Mother. A total of 36 miniature sheets in gold and silver were issued at a face value of SABB.