Where are the famous names?

famous names?

By John Hunter

FINDING a good printer for stamps

is always a problem for stamp issuing countries. In recent years many of the top printers have gone from the scene. Such famous names as Tho mas De La Rue, Bradbury Wilkinson, Waterlow and Sons no longer add their names to the corner block of a sheet of stamps.

The list is reduced further with the voluntary liquidation of Format Interna tional Ltd, the printers involved in the unauthorised production of Tuvalu

Stamps. Thus only three stamp printers

are left for the whole of the stamp secur ity printing industry in the United

Kingdom.

Many agencies are turning to other countries for their printing. Even the British Post Office has had stamps printed in Holland. Furthermore the cost of many of the European security printers has risen so steeply that many Pacific countries are now using Austra lian printers. The most notable Austra lian company now doing very well in deed from orders from Australian Post, Norfolk Island and Papua New Guinea is Leigh-Marden Pty Ltd.

The Australian Domestic Airline pilot strike hit the Philatelic Bureau of Nor folk Island. A very limited flight service to the island meant delays in stamp orders to customers and in receiving stamp supplies on the Island. The tourist industry on the Island also suffered bad ly due to the strike.

New issues New Caledonia: November 4 20th Anniversary of the New Caledonian His torical Society: 74f three founders of the

Society.

Samoa: November 1 Christmas 1989: 18s Mary and Joseph, 50s Two Shepherds, 55s Cattle, $2 Three Wise Men.

Norfolk Island: October 9 Christmas 1989: 30c, 60c, 75c, 80c, Bounty Hymns; November 21 50 Years Radio Austra lia: 41c First announcer, 65c Map, $l.lO Radio Australia Logo.

Fiji: November Christmas 1989: 9c Church, 45c Christmas Tree, $1 Natwity, $1.40 Islanders.

Kiribati: October 16 Transport 8c Telecommunications: 30c Satellite Dish, 75c MV Mataburo French Polynesia; October 12 Micro shells: 60f Triphoridae, 69f Muricidae Farartia, 73f Muricidae Morula.