Pacific Stamps: Overkill?

IN 1985, Tuvalu a nation ofjust over 8000 people issued no fewer than 373 different postage stamps. In 1986, Tuvalu was a little more restrained; the to tal number of new issues was down to 245.

Tuvalu is the most extreme example of the philatelic disease that has struck many nations seeking new ways of generating revenue. Most of the countries of the Pa cific have indulged in the practice, with the result that the number of stamp collectors has dropped dramatically in recent years; the high number of issues has made it an expensive hobby. “Collectors feel ripped off,” says Michael Sanig, editor of Aus tralia’s Stamp News. “The people who run these postal authorities don’t understand the phyche of the collector. If they collect they want to get everything, and if it gets too expensive to collect everything of one country, they’ll drop that and switch.”

The high number of issues is a world wide phenomenon, but in the case of the small Pacific countries stamp revenues are a major economic item: certainly in the cases of Kiribati, Tuvalu, Cook Islands and Tonga. Some of these countries are mak ing short-term gains at the risk of destroy ing the value of their stamps in the future.

For countries such as Tuvalu, the Cooks and Kiribati, disaffection could threaten an industry that produces significant amounts of foreign exchange.

Michael Sanig says Tuvalu’s stamps are “wallpaper”, while Sydney stamp dealer John Hall, of Alan Jones & Co, says the Cook Islands is a “joke” in the philatelic world. Hall’s case is that collectors like stamps that reflect their country of origin; stamps that speak of history or that tell a story. But several countries have issued stamps this year with either Expo ’BB or Australian bicentennial themes (Western Samoa, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji), and the Olympic Games in Seoul has been well marked (though the Cook Islands, celebrating their first Olympic participa tion, may be more justified than most).

Tuvalu has taken this to an extreme. Its recent or planned issues include Leaders of the World (now dropped), the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the Amer icas . . . and gold stamps for the Queen’s 40th wedding anniversary. Tuvalu has already issued stamps in the names of its individual islands, something the Cook Islands did when it branched out into is sues for Penrhyn and Aitutaki. Tonga has issued stamps in strange shapes (includ ing that of a banana) and though it now has gone back to issuing “real” stamps, it may be too late to restore the country’s philatelic reputation. Even the Solomons,

one of the more conservative stamp issu ing nations in the region, last year came out with a gimmicky gold America’s Cup stamp that inspired a savage editorial in Stamp News, headed “The Shame of the Solomon Islands”.

The stamp world is unsure whether the new sobriety in stamp agencies may have come too late: Michael Sanig says Aus tralia Post’s philatelic sales are down 30 per cent this year, and reports from Port Mo resby indicate Papua New Guinea is no ticing a major downturn in collector activity. “Collectors are going rather than coming in,” adds John Hall.

There is no question that some auth orities are aware of the problem. The Sol omon Islands has made it publicly clear that it now recognises the gold stamp was a mistake (the 23,000 stamps with a face value of SAS and less than $2 worth of intrinsic gold were sold at a premium of $2O). Between 1985 and 1986, several countries hauled back the number of new issues, including Vanuatu, Tonga, Kiribati and Cook Islands. In a recent leaflet Papua New Guinea’s philatelic bureau stated it would be “issuing sufficient stamps each year to make Papua New Guinea worthy of the people who collect its stamps, but not too many that the collector feels ex ploited”. It also stated that values would be kept realistic, that stamps would show only PNG subjects and that it would be “staying clear of gimmicky issues”.

One way in which the stamp agencies have tapped into collectors is by doing what are called thematics for collectors who concentrate on stamps depicting, say, trains... so island countries that have no railway system have been known to issue stamps with trains on them.

Stamp dealer John Hall argues that the glut of new issues has also affected older stamps from these island countries. While some collectors may limit themselves to pre-war stamps, those who may have wanted to collect all stamps from one country may have dropped out altogether: it was one thing to collect Gilbert and El lice Islands, but Tuvalu has spoiled that.

Old stamps still command good prices, however, because they reflect both history and the country that issued them. A Sol omon Islands 1 George V red mint is worth up to SA3SO; canoe stamps from the Sol omons issued in 1908 can fetch up to $A225. A Western Samoan overprint on a New Zealand stamp is worth collecting because it reflects the colonial era. Prior to 1952, today’s PNG issued stamps for Papua, New Guinea and Northwest Pa cific Islands which reflected adminis

trative divisions while German New Guinea stamps (especially those over printed after Australian troops captured New Guinea) are highly prized.

John Hall says he doesn’t bother to stock many of the Pacific new issues be cause there is no demand for them. But this is not to say all the countries are in the Tu valu category. According to Michael Sanig, Nauru, Norfolk Island, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Western Samoa and the Sol omon Islands still have a credible base.

Countries with Crown Agents are gener ally reputable, but those that have placed their issues in the hands of private com panies have suffered the greatest loss of reputation (the Solomons’ gold stamp, for example, was produced by a company in Western Australia).

Agencies in private hands fall foul of the law of diminishing returns as the num ber of people collecting the stamps of such a country falls off, more and more stamps have to be cranked out to extract money from the remaining collectors. In 1985, it would have cost a collector 21 times the amount needed to collect new Solomon Islands stamps to buy all the new Tuvalu issues; similarly, the face value of new Cook Island stamps was six times that of new issues from New Zealand.

The extent to which philatelic sales are important to revenue is adduced by Aus tralia Post’s latest result: stamp sales through the philatelic bureau reaped $42 million, enough to push the organisation into profit. Pacific Islands Monthly’s, phi latelic editor, John Hunter, has com mented on growing resistance to Australian material on the basis of cost (at one stage Australia had eight different $1 stamps on sale, and between July and No vember 1987 there were 15 stamps avail able to the public with a 37 cent denomination). There is also growing concern in philatelic circles that New Zea land Post, now that it is required to make a profit under the government’s corpora tisation policy, is about to resort to print ing more stamp issues as a way of generating revenue. It is tempting for the managements of postal authorities to view the philatelic world as a bottomless pit.

The question that remains is how much damage has been done already: those who have bought many recent Pacific issues now find those stamps difficult to unload.

Even countries with conservative policies have shown little appreciation: the 1979 Norfolk Island issue commemorating Rowland Hill had a face value of 55 cents, and is now worth at most about SAI —in real terms, less than at the date of issue.

Whatever the long-term outcome, it is clear collectors will steer away from any country that tries to milk them too hard; and when stamps account for a significant proportion of revenue, the countries con cerned could find philately’s golden goose has been well and truly killed.

Robin Bromby