Lanarkshire Philatelic Society
"Society Visit"
Dundee Philatelic Society
The Lanarkshire Philatelic Society gave a warm welcome to some "visitors from the East" on Friday, 30th October when 4 members of the Dundee Philatelic Society gave very interesting displays to the meeting.
Charles Lloyd began with a cover which had two date stamps on it – the 17th April, 1980 marking the end of the British Colony of Rhodesia and 18th April, 1980 marking the beginning of the independent Republic of Zimbabwe. There was a wonderful display of colourful stamps – many issues on various subjects: animals, birds, flowers, scouts, landscapes – to name a few. Throughout all this members were made aware of the constantly rising rate of inflation – the highest value in the first set of stamps (1980-85) was $2, but in 2009 the highest value was $1,000,000! Note; Z$100,000,000 = $1 USA! In 2009 the country allowed foreign currencies to be used so stamps of a more reasonable amount – in US $ - now appeared.
Sandy Sloss displayed a history of Crete through its stamps. This island has had a turbulent history; it was part of the Ottoman Empire but in 1898 – after a Cretan insurrection– it was given a provisional government with Prince George of Greece as High Commissioner. British, French, Italian and Greek Post Offices now all issued stamps. In 1908 the local parliament made an attempt to declare union with Greece and Cretan stamps were overprinted with HELLAS. In 1912 Greece supplied Crete with stamps and in 1913 the island was united with Greece by the Treaty of London.
Peter Dix gave an interesting display of stamps of South West Africa – situated between Angola and South Africa. This country also has had a turbulent history. Between 1900 and 1913 the country was under German control and stamps of German South West Africa were shown. It came under British control in 1914 and South African stamps – depicting King George V – were used until 1923 after which the stamps were overprinted with SWA. In 1931 the country was able to issue its own stamps and it issued interesting commemoratives – in 1935, the Silver Jubilee of King George V; 1938, the Voortrekker Centenary Memorial; in 1936 the Coronation of King George VI. In 1961 the country was given its first State President and stamps celebrated this. Other lovely issues of birds, whales, musical instruments, shipwrecks were also displayed.
Colin Campbell gave a fascinating display of covers, postcards, stamps, labels, postmarks – on the subject of Oil. "Oil is Black Gold". This commodity as it is used in war – tanks etc; in ships; in motor cars; ration books for motor cars issued in 1950 and in 1974 when war made oil scarce. Bank notes issued by Iraq, bearing a picture of Saddam Hussein, when he invaded Kuwait in the hope of getting at its oil. Air letters printed in 1991 during "Operation Desert Storm" (against Iraq) were also displayed.
Mrs Sheila Sinclair gave the Vote of Thanks in which she remarked that this had been a most interesting and varied series of displays.
Our next meeting in St Andrews Parish Church Hall is on Friday, 13th November, 2009 at 7:30pm when Peter Westwood will display ‘Burns, Slania and Aspects of Russia’.
Anyone with an interest in stamps, postal history, postcards etc is very welcome to attend.