Lanarkshire Philatelic Society

CEYLON

Mr. Eric Mason

Eric started his display by showing modern stamps and First Day Covers. He commented that Sri Lanka Post, in common with a lot of postal administrations nowadays, seemed to be following a "money making" policy, by issuing an ever growing number of stamps.

Ceylon's first stamps were issued in 1857, with imperforate  and in due course perforated stamps, in "British" currency. In 1872, Pounds, shillings & pence were replaced with Cents and Rupees which remain to this day. The country became a self-governing Dominion in 1948, with full independence, within the British Commonwealth, following in 1972, when the name changed to Sri Lanka.

Eric then went on to show stamps commemorating the Railways Centenary (1964), these stamps being in bi-lingual pairs (Sinhalese & Tamil and Sinhalese & English). He also showed Ship Marks and Paquebot Covers. Meter marked covers, principally to show the ever increasing cost of postage featured along with Censor Mail from World War 2."Lipton" postcards showing Ceylonese tea plantations and workers, "Personalised" stamps (Stamps overprinted by companies to prevent theft by employees) and Slave Island material also featured; Slave Island being a small islet just off Colombo where Indian slaves were housed, with the waters around the island inhabited by crocodiles to ensure no-one escaped!

Also featured were early Queen Victoria and King Edward VII issues as well as a range of postal stationery. Eric completed his display with showing examples of early cancellation marks; the larger towns having Alphabetic cancellers (A to I), the smaller towns and villages having numbered cancellers (1 to 118).

In his vote of thanks, Alex Grimson commented that we had been given a display which had something for everyone; stamps, cancellations, postal history, post cards, postal stationery to name but a few.

Next meeting, on Friday 1st October at 7.30pm, has Harvey Duncan displaying "Spacecraft".