On Tuesday 4th February Banbury Stamp Society provided their own entertainment with members encouraged to display philatelic material with a link to the letter “M”.
To start the club’s Chairman advised that this would be the last meeting attended by long standing member Gareth Williams as he and his wife Rachel were both attending to say goodbye before their move to Dorset. He thanked Gareth for his support for the club over many years both as a member and as the club’s Treasurer. All agreed that he would be greatly missed and wished him and Rachel a long and happy retirement in their new home.
The meeting started with Gareth showing miniature sheets issued by Royal Mail to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first issue of Britain’s Machin definitive stamps and magazine articles relating to crossings of the Atlantic Ocean to and from Newfoundland. Rachel provided a display of stamps relating to the monarch butterflies of North America.
Members were also treated to a display of early stamps and by the Falkland Island Dependencies. They were all mint stamps some had maps on them. Alas this collection has a few missing items which were very rare and thus presented miscellaneous problems to the collector.
In acknowledgement of the work by Stamp Active which seeks to encourage young stamp collectors members were shown attractive material relating to music compiled at a stamp club which operated in North Newington school until lockdown regrettably stopped it.
There then followed a series of specialist displays on the Madagascar and Mauritania specimen archives of early Bahamas stamps, the machine cancellation experiments carried out in the 1880s by the German post office in Hamburg and a mileage map of Shropshire showing how postal rates were calculated before the standard rates for postage were introduced. A much less specialist display showed maps on stamps from around the world and the world’s largest stamp – a massive stamp.
The penultimate display was very personal and entitled “my life in stamps”. This started with a letter to India bought by our member aged 11 which started his collection along with material bought by his mum at auction as a present and a sheet of stamps in the style of the penny black showing his 14 year old self, produced at a London stamp fair.
The final display involved early letters from the island of Madeira relating to the wine trade. The letters sometimes requested wine orders, complained about the quality or quantity of wine shipped and complained of non-payment of debts.
All agreed that the letter “M” had provided an excellent opportunity for members to display interesting material and to think imaginatively about their topic.
Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 4th February when members can compete for the Robson Cup. Meet at 7:30pm at Hanwell Fields Community Centre. The Banbury Stamp Society is on-line at ‘www.banburystampsociety.co.uk’, or contact John Davies on 01295 255831. All are welcome.