Lanarkshire Philatelic Society

SOCIETY VISIT

Edinburgh Philatelic Society

Visitors from Edinburgh Philatelic Society gave us varied displays on their recent visit.

First of all we saw "Post Offices of the World" from Stanley Brown. Photos, and postcards, of Scottish offices included those of original Edinburgh & Glasgow, as well as those of Inverness, Sanquhar (the oldest Post Office in Scotland), Portree on Skye (with name plate in both English & Gaelic) and Haroldswick in Shetland (at one time the most northerly Post Office in the UK, it's now Baltasound). UK, European & World offices included London, Blackpool (a travelling tram); Vienna, Berlin, Iceland, Switzerland & Malta as well as the main Post Office in New York.

Next, Victor Denovan showed "Confederate States of the US". The confederacy started in December 1860, lasted until May 1865, with its own stamps appearing in October 1861. Initially mails from the confederate states bore no stamps, instead using rubber "PAID" stamps dating from pre-1857. Victor's display included POW covers, "Soldiers due" & "austerity" covers. Soldiers due covers were so stamped, the postage being paid by the recipient. Austerity covers included mails written on wallpaper, on the reverse of the incoming envelope (a "turned" cover),  & old forms. These all came about as a result of a shortage of paper.

Bob Catto got the second round going with a display of "UK" miniature sheets. He explained that due to a shortage of UK sheets he'd included three US sheets. The first UK miniature sheet appeared in 1980, and thereafter came at regular intervals. He also noted that Royal Mail had intimated 6 miniature sheets for issue in 2005, so he'd had to start saving early! Topics which Bob covered in his display included Trains, Buses, Christmas, Kew Gardens, Royalty, the Weather and World Cup Football.  He also included a few "Smilers" within the display.

Finally, "chief guest", Alex Shepherd gave his display of Laos & Cambodia. Both countries were part of French Indo-China and the French influence was obvious in the line engraved stamps. Laos, a kingdom until 1975, is now a Communist republic, whilst Cambodia remains a kingdom. Alex showed stamps of Kings Luang Prabang, Sasvang Vong and Savang Vatthana from Laos and those of Kings Sihanouk, Suramam and Sihanouk (again) from Cambodia as well as postcards showing the richly decorated palaces in which they lived.

Phillip Longbottom accorded the Vote of Thanks to a very interesting evening.