Lanarkshire Philatelic Society

"SOCIETY VISIT"

Borders Philatelic Society

Three members of Borders Society visited our latest meeting to entertain members with their varied displays.

John Brown, their President, started things off with his display of material related to the town of Peebles. Starting with a 1790 letter to Edinburgh John showed how the postal history had developed; how charges for the same "journey" had increased, to mileage marks (where mail is charged, per mile, for the number of miles travelled; the uniform Penny Post, and even a "Missent" cover, which had travelled from Peebles, to Peebles, via Edinburgh, which, of course, it shouldn't have!, and a cover sent to San Francisco in 1907, and returned "undelivered". He suspected the address had "disappeared" in the earthquake of that year. John also included Railway marks from both the LMS and LNER, hard to believe Peebles was once an important railway town! He then went on to the famous Hydro with a montage of postcards showing its history and postal cancellations over the years. Post Offices served by Peebles came next with material from Eddleston, Manor, Stobo, Traquair, The Glen (which was owned by the Tennant family), Innerleithen and Walkerburn. John completed his display with a board on New Zealand sheep, something he knows a lot about, being a retired farmer!

Peter Pavey started the second round with the stamps of the German Democratic Republic, East Germany to you and me, from it's inception in October 1945 to 1953. He showed stamps, and covers, and explained how many stamps which are "cancelled to order" were, in the early days hand stamped, but as time went on, and the philatelic market grew, the stamps were actually printed with the cancellation neatly centred. His display included material honouring the "70th anniversary of the Death of Karl Marx", the "Day of the Stamp", and definitives from the Russian zone whose only difference from the East German ones was the watermark.

Peter's wife, Mavis, or "The Boss" (Peter's words, not mine) completed the evening's displays with a montage of material related to Mont St Michel in Normandy, an islet close to the shore which has an abbey built on it. She showed how, at low tide, you can walk/drive out to visit whilst when the tide comes in you must travel by "DUKW", which looks a bit like a military landing craft. Cancellation marks and cachets (many different, all short lived) and even a menu card for the abbey restaurant made up the display.

George Graham accorded the society's Vote of Thanks for three most interesting displays.