FOR STAMP COLLECTORS

Evening Star, Issue 21819, 7 September 1934, Page 3

FOR STAMP COLLECTORS

[By Philatelist.]

' The following article, entitled ‘My Current Events Album,’ by Montgomery MuJford, a vice-president of the Philatelic Journalists of America, appeared in the August number of 1 The Australian Stamp Monthly ’Being interested in current events, 1, have been arranging an album mounted with only those stamps which mark current happenings. The album includes annotations of a brief nature on the events in question (news clippings, etc.), as well as being supplemented by a few pictures. For an instance, the fall of the Spanish monarch in 1931, the resignation (not abdication) of Alfonso XIII., last of the Spanish Bourbon kings, brought about over-printed postage stamps for the creation of the new republic. Such stamps feature a page of the album, with a short writeup of the upturn, plus a rotogravure picture of King Alfonso XIII. Being an ex-newspaperman 1 am naturally interested in the formation of such an al-

bum j and in this article I desire to attempt to illustrate the interest of such a collection. 1 am still doing reportorial duties, since ) continue to write on current events (articles as well as books), and the album in question is one of my “ old'loves.” In such an album maps should play a conspicuous part; they do in my album. Take the story of Austria, or even of Hungary, or the parts of the old Austrian Empire; there, maps will serve quite inStructively. ‘ The Fall of Austria ’ is told on one of these album pages. The map included shows present-day Austria, dwarfed, insignificant, in comparison to the pre-world war Austria. My map is large enough to.include, in a shaded line, the boundaries of Austria up to 1917; the Austria of post-1917 being a shaded portion. Old Austria was about the size of the State of

Texas; to-day’s Austria is about the size of the State of Maine—so one may observe the decrease, territorially, of that country. The appropriate stamps are mounted on the page, which I mention here to show the value of a map. Such an album is not only a lot of fun to make up, not only pleasing in appearance, but it is likewise instructive when completed. The story of Lindbergh’s goodwill tour of 1928 is 'here, too, upon a page containing such stamps as those in his deference from Cuba and Costa Rica, etc. A small “ thumbnail ” portrait of Lindbergh in 1928 (being then current) is featured. There is also a small map showing with a black line, the line of the flight Lindbergh took. Then, of course, there are the Press reports of the Belgian as well as the stratosphere flights, with the stamps of those flights included. The contest between Bolivia and Paraguay over the Chaco Basin in South America holds the attention on one jmge, with a map, the newspaper reports, plus three stamps. The Paraguayan issue, of which the central design is the map of Chaco, holds the place of honour, and there is another Paraguayan stamp showing a map of the country,.* and a Bolivian ■ stamp showing a map of that country. Both map-stamps show a portion of Chaco, which each nation claims. The Chaco page is one qf my On the page celebrating the inception of the N.R.A. I have a unique presentation. I believe. A cover cacheted with an N.R.A. design and the N.R.A. stamp is included; and a rotogravure iti picture is attached showing a portrait •" of the aUthbr'who drew’the'Blue Eagle : ' -—he‘ is pictured at his drawing board with his sketch ; a most unusual inclusion on the ‘(page. I believe. _ Byrd, General Balbo, and even the Third Leopold and his late father. Albert, are further subjects of the album. One will have noticed that mention is made of the rotogravure pictures included in this album; these are preferred to the ■ usual newspaper photos, and scenic views, for the reason that the rotogravure do not “ yellow ” and “ decay ” as do the usual news pictures! The present album does not attempt to do the impossible, and include all the “ current events stamps ”; it narrows down to not even the whole twentieth century—as yet. It includes events from 1919 to date, or the period following the conclusion of the Great • World War. It is carried along to the ' present year. Two interesting pages open the album; this opening, as ’t were, is carried through two pages, each with a large coloured map. The maps are of Soviet Russia, as reproduced in the Soviet Year Book.’ The maps show the political divisions of the Soviet Union, which are based upon racial boundaries. The maps cover almost the full two pages, and upon these maps, in their appropriate places, are the “ethnographic issue of stamps ” of the Soviets. Thus we are able to locate the areas where the people of the stamps exist. The Hussain governmental change may he said to open the period of this stamp album, , hence these man-pages and their stamns introduce the book. Then follows the stampic current events story for a decade and a-hnlf, and this will annually he carried forward, too.

A recent number of the ‘ Philatelic Magazine ’ describes the first experiment in Great Britain with the rocket post. The trial was made on the Sussex downs by Herr Gerhard Zucker, the German rocket inventor, and a successful flight of about half a mile was made. A quantity of mail matter had been specially prepared for the occasion, the number of covers carried being 2,864. To each cover was affixed an Apex Exhibition label overprinted “ Rocket Post—First. British Flight.” The covers were obliterated with a special frank and cachet. The former in the shape of a small map of England, was composed of the words “ Zucker rocket post. Rocket fee, 2s fid paid.” The cachet bore the words: “ Trial firing—fi.vi.34—Sussex downs.” Ordinary postage stamps were also affixed, and the covers subsequently carried to the addresses by the usual Post Office delivery. The Australian and New Zealand Air Mail Collectors’ Central Executive has issued the following particulars of mail matter carried on recent trans-Tasman flights, the information having been ■ supplied by the New Zealand Postal Department: Auckland - Sydney, 17-2-1934. per Faith in Australia, 37,578 ordinary letters and 1,677 registered letters. Kaitaia-Svdney, 29-3-1934, per Southern Cross, 20.979 ordinary letters and 887 registered letters. KaitaiaSydney. 14-4-1934, per Faith in Australia, 20.935 ordinary letters and 1,257 registered letters. The number of special 7d air mail stamps issued to commemorate the first trans-Tasman air mail was 180.000. The number sold was 83,078; 2,880 stamps were damaged in printing, the remainder were destroyed. The Greek Journal * Philoteleia has published the results of a detailed examination into the historv of some small 40 lepta labels, of which a nart-sheet was recently discovered in' the Island of Poros, and which have . been presumed to have some postal significance, although dating back to 1831, nine ■ -vears '''’fore the infr-duction of the postage stamp, as we know it. The

Greek historian who contributes a learned treatise on the subject, appears to show that these labels were receipts or token given for the payment of contributions levied on Greek citizens for the maintenance of refugees from Crete in the early months of 1831. If this be established, the existence of known examples of these labels on letters of somewhat later date, indeed as late as 1848, would suggest that some highly ingenious faker placed them on the old letters in comparatively modern times..