History of the Society
This is adapted from an article written by the
late Dave Philcox which was published in the Society’s journal “Precancels” (Volume
40 No. 1 - 10, January - October 1996)
THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS
PART ONE (1947 to 1956)
As you will already have learned, this year, 1996 we are celebrating
our Fiftieth Anniversary. As an introduction to this year, I felt
it would not be inappropriate to have a look over those years and
see how things have changed. To this end, I hope, over the next 6
issues of Precancels, to have a look at such things as the growth
of the Society, the hopes and aspirations of the members, success
and or failures of their collections and anything pertaining to the
members and the various aspects of the hobby. All of this as seen
through the pages of the Society's various publications spanning
the years.
Interest in a society devoted to the collection and study of precancels
started in 1946, when several English people, already members of
the American Stamp Society, the Precancel Stamp Society Inc and others,
replied favourably to a letter sent out by a certain lady enthusiast
who suggested the formation of such a body. This information is given
in the very first publication of the Society, entitled the Precancelist
which was published as Vol 1. No 1 in February 1947. This was a small
4 page publication and contained a message from the President elect,
a report from the Honorary Secretary and a welcoming message from
the Honorary Treasurer, these in addition to several letters from
members. To give you a better idea of the start of the Society, I
shall quote extracts from these various reports and messages verbatim.
Firstly we will look at the Secretarys report, the Secretary being
the lady who initiated the whole thing, one Kathleen Hoult.
"In answer to my letters suggesting the formation of a Precancel Stamp
Society in Britain, I received most encouraging replies......
It was proposed that Mr Stones should be asked to be the first President,
but he felt that we should have a more active Precancel collector
and our second in seniority fulfilled that requirement to perfection......
Mr Croker answered the SOS for the post of Treasurer. Feeling
that I have the most time to spare, I offered myself as Secretary. Having
a good friend, a printer, I was able to get stationery and so
on printed quickly. "she wrote round to many other societies advertising
the PSS with considerable success. " We are pleased to know
that there are many collectors in this country who regard themselves
as "lone wolves", it is our job to bring them into
the pack and I shall be so grateful for any ideas how to reach
them and
make them welcome".
Miss Hoult stated her hopes that the Precancelist would survive
and that the membership would grow enough to justify carrying
on. She
made an appeal for approval books for the start of an Exchange
Packet and appealed for members not to delay in passing the packet
on. She
initiated a 'Wants' column with a charge of one shilling (5p)
for precancel ads and two shillings (10p) for others. She closed
with
a plea for members to introduce others to the Society.
This report
was preceded by a message from the President, Mr Kenneth Rymer-Young
of which the last paragraph is very worthy
of note:
“It may never be my good fortune as President
to present the Society's millionth member with a l1/2 cent bureau
coil from Liberty Mo,
but surely it ought not to be too long before we can celebrate the advent
of the hundredth member. Do not let us forget that the greater
the membership the greater the benefit to the members. For this brave
new Society "may good digestion wait on appetite and health
or both."
Seven months later saw the second copy of the Precancelist
and from hereon it was clear the Society was going to go places.
It opened
with a resume of the then current Belgian Types from 1938 to
1947 and also welcomed onto the precancel scene the newly formed
Belgian
Precancel Society. It is interesting to note that a member was
discussing his views on mounting stamp collections, which brings
home the fact
that at that time collecting loosely in stockbooks was virtually
unknown. Here, for the first time, was a question posed by the
Secretary and I quote: WHAT IS TO BE THE ACCEPTED VALUE IN CASH
OF A PRECANCELLED
STAMP IN THIS COUNTRY? How many times has this question been
repeated over the past 50 years?
January 1948 was the date of
the third Precancelist, and there it is recorded that within the
first year of its life, the Society
could
boast 43 members. It also gave the first mention to any large
degree, of Canadian precancels with a potted clarification of
the various
main types. A mention was made of a collector who was an inspiration
to early precancel collectors but who died before the formation
of the Society. He was a certain Keith Macdonald, a stamp dealer
who
was known nationally for yet another reason, being one of the
BBC 'Uncles' to the listeners to Childrens Hour on the radio.
It
was decided in the 4th copy of the Precancelist to try and issue
4 copies per year, and in this copy was included a balance
sheet
of the Society's finances for the previous year. It was interesting
to see that over the previous 3 months the membership had risen
to 57 of which 26 were foreign members. Unannounced other than
a new
member, was a certain R.D.Lee, a name which, after that date
of April 1948, was to figure largely and importantly in the future
of the
Society.
One-upmanship, the likes of which I guess can never be
traced in the annals of any other precancel society, was contained
in
the
next copy of the publication. Firstly it welcomed 2 new members
from overseas
into the Society and then, believe it or not greeted the overall
membership of the Society in English, French, German, Dutch and
Czechoslovak. (if Polish had been included, I may have thought
that His Holiness
the Pope was a founder member!) Another member who was to become
well known in our circles contributed another letter. This was
H.G.Walburn of Canadian Catalogue fame and currently a correspondent
with, and
friend of, a number of us. In this copy it is also recorded the
first article of any importance on French cancels. It is very
important to note in this issue, in addition to the Editorial
and the multilingual
greeting which covered two of the 12 pages, there were contributions
from 19, repeat 19, other members plus the Secretary's report.
On
September 3rd 1948 the first official meeting of any sort of the
Society was held in Bridlington at the invitation of the
local
society.
Even in those days it was recorded that only 1 non-committee
member attended and where the decision was made to hold the next
meeting
in London the following year. The formation of the German Precancel
Society was also recorded.
The front cover of the February 1949
issue caused me some amusement as it reads "this is the last
issue of the Precancelist unless....". Fortunately
this was an enrolment gimmick which ended at the foot of the page "Precancels
and the Precancelist are here to stay".
The first article on Luxembourg cancels appeared as a continuation
of a series entitled European Precancels by W. Engelhardt. In
the September 1949 issue, Reg Lee initiated his Bureau new issue
service,
a line which he continued without ceasing until the winding down
of regular Bureau issues following the last of the 8.4 cent stamps
on the Americana issue. At last! March 1950 saw the 100th member
in the Society or rather number 100 as there was then no number
13 due to the Secretary's superstitions. The 100th member in fact
was
our late friend Ted Coles. Also interesting is the fact that
the cash balance of the Society rose from ten shillings and fourpence
(about 52p) in 1947/48 to almost £l5 in 1949/50. By then
the Library and the Exchange Packet had been established. By
May 1950
Reg Lee was appointed to his first of many offices within the
Society, that of Promotional Secretary: also agreement was made
that we
should consider becoming affiliated to the American PSS Inc.
During
the 1951 AGM, Reg Lee was appointed as Secretary to succeed Kathleen
Hoult. He soon made an impression by publishing a column
entitled Lees Summit, which was soon to cover many points of
value and interest to the members. Not least of all, he called
for someone
to organise a Burochart, to list all the members and the various
levels of their Bureau collections. As of July 1951, no volunteer
had come forward for the Burochart. On a lighter note, following
his appointment as Secretary, Reg Lee defied his predecessors
superstitions and reallocated membership number 13 to himself,
a move which,
over the years has not been seen to have caused him any problems!
By August,
the Secretary had taken on the task of collating the Burochart
entries himself and listed 4 members data. At the time 5863 Buros
were listed
in the official catalogue, and within our Society, the President
topped the list with 5033 different.
The Precancelist continued
in its original state, but sadly lacking were the numerous articles
and letters from the enthusiastic
early membership. The fort however was ably manned by the redoubtable
Secretary, Reg Lee, who carried on producing his Lees Summit
column
in addition
to popular chit-chat. Several major articles did appear on such
topics as precancels of Canada, Tunisia, Argentina, Netherlands
and Belgium.
It was therefore very surprising when the Precancelist suddenly
failed to appear after No 32 in Jan/Feb 1954. However, within
2 months,
Lee had come along again to save the day and retain continuity
of some sort of publication, with the first copy of a news sheet
entitled
not surprisingly "Lees Summit". This carried much of
the Society's news as before, plus one or two interesting papers
including
an exceptional one on Canal Zone cancels, along with others of
Canadian (including printing methods) and Belgium, the latter
in the last
of its 6 copies in September 1954.
October 1954 saw Precancels
arrive on the philatelic scene, in the shape of a foolscap
size, duplicated 6 page publication.
In content
it followed very closely to its forerunners and was edited
by, as one may expect, the Secretary, Reg Lee. In this and subseguent
copies,
Reg provided a column called The Magpies Nest which contained
a wealth of information on all aspects of the hobby, about
stamps,
catalogues,
people related to precancels, new issues, etc. By the second
issue
yet another countries precancels had been surveyed, this time
Hungary. By now the Burochart was in full swing with 14 members
participating
and he with the highest number was only 24 short of the then
total of 6378, which must have included the rare 1 1/2 cent
Liberty MO
and all of the experimentals.
Success followed success, and
as such Precancels went from strength to strength. Articles still
continued to appear adding
much to
the information already imparted, but even better was the
continuing addition of information about cancels of countries such
as
Danzig and Turkey. Illustrated articles appeared covering
the whole
Dutch precancel issues which included virtually a copy of
the current
Dutch
Precancel Catalogue. Even Great Britain and the Philippine
Island cancels were the subject of articles over this period.
By
the end of the 10 year period under consideration, we were to
see Reg Lee begging for 2 other members to relieve
him of
his posts
as Secretary and Editor. In the end his hand was forced
and he resigned both offices late in the year. Our next period
of review
will see
the Society under 2 new Committee members in these posts.
So
to recap, over the 10 year period just covered, great things
happened to the Society as it entered the second
period with
a participating
membership of some 113 persons. These members were lucky
insofar as they were with the Society at the time of
the issue of the
Presidential series and at the start of the Liberty issue.
The growth of US
Bureaus alone over the 10 years was from a total of 5863
in 1946 to 6500
in 1956.
PART TWO (1957 TO 1966)
This second ten-year period in the life
of the Society, as mentioned at the end of the last part of the
article, started with more than
a little upheaval within the Committee itself. Reg Lee had done
a great job in holding the Society together, resurrected a Society
publication, albeit at his own expense and then organised the running
of the new newsletter Precancels. Much was clearly needed for the
two new Committee members, to continue in Reg's strong and progressive
manner and to have the Society running smoothly again. As the new
Secretary put it only a month after her succession to office, usually
when changes take place within most societies, some repercussions
at least are noticed. To her surprise, there were none such with
the changes of Editorship and Secretaryship, and her concern was
that the apathy which was one of the bases of disquiet within the
Society would continue and the Society would be unable to rise
above it. From what we read in subsequent copies of Precancels,
these fears came to nothing and the Society continued to thrive.
As.
noted previously, right from the start of the Society the membership
more than did their bit regularly subscribing information of various
sorts for inclusion in Precancels. This information covered all aspects
of Precancels and their collecting. In addition to the very regular
issues, varieties and errors, new issues of all the countries then
currently using Precancels were listed as they appeared, catalogue
alteration were noted and novelties recorded for future inclusion.
More importantly than all these in my estimation, were the frequent
and short notes by the general membership which showed that they
had the overall interest of the Society at heart. Of especial interest
in the February 1957 copy was part of the new Secretary's report
where she states that this copy was published exactly ten years after
Vol.1 No.1 and that she could report the one hundred and 96th member
had joined. That number in ten years was very good, but she regretted
that of that number, many had left but there were still seventy-five
of the original 196 left on the List of Members. (of this total two
are still members in 1996 - Reg Lee and Geoff Walburn).
Currently,
and for some time, Precancels was being issued monthly. At least
at the start of this period, great accent was placed on
precancelled stamps of Europe with several very lengthy papers written
on the early French issues and the Postes Paris 1921-22 issues. One
very interesting one was on the identification of the various styles
of forgeries of the last cancels applied to the Sower issues, an
article which could easily be reprinted here at a later date. One
member from Germany, Dr Englhardt, provided numerous articles on
precancels of the German States such as Hamburg, Brunswick, Thurn & Taxis,
Oldenburg and so on. Soon it became clear that due to the rising
cost of printing, publication would have to be restricted to bimonthly,
with the hope that it would soon revert to 12 copies per year. September
1957 saw the enrolment of the 200th member and by the AGM that month,
Reg Lee was once again elected into office, this time as Superintendent
to try and rescue a somewhat flagging Exchange Packet.
It was around
this time that short notes and articles began to filter into Precancels
on two subjects which eventually were to become accepted
off shoots of precancels per se, these being what we now know as
Commercial Overprints and Perfins. Also by the end of 1958, in
addition to these countries already mentioned, articles had been
published
on precancels from Finland, Danzig, Venezuela, Romania, Vatican,
Austria and Great Britain. Liberty issue Bureau cancels by now
were well into their stride and were also being given much coverage.
The
end of 1958 saw a change in the format of Precancels, this time
to a size similar to that of today, typewritten and bound
in a soft
cover, this being Volume 5 No 1. It was with the following issue
that illustrations appeared for the first time and it was the Editors
intention to include at least one page in every issue. The 13th
AGM was reported on, and it is of interest to see the balance of
cash
in hand at that time was the grand sum of about £26.00. At
this meeting it was suggested by the Secretary that the annual
subscription be increased to one guinea (£l.05 in todays
money), but the meeting disagreed and settled for an increase to
seven shillings
and sixpence (37 1/2 pence). It was also a momentous occasion (in
retrospect) as member 208 was enrolled - none other than a certain
Rev. D S T Izzett.
In August 1958, the first European Precancel
Congress was held with Brussels being the host city. Three of our
members displayed
there,
a Rev West with a display of Austrian Newspaper Wrappers, Mr Higby
showed French Precancels and Dr Englhardt with rare precancels
of German, Roman State and Finland. Strangely enough though, only
12
members were present but despite this a wide range of displays
were exhibited. The first set of illustrations in Precancels were
to support
a paper by member Ted Coles on the Stamford Mercury precancels
of Great Britain. This article was specially notable as it marked
a
very long run of informative papers by the then Editor.
Over most
of this period under review, each copy of Precancels kept members
up to date with new Bureau issues as they appeared
and of
course, this was the time of the Liberty issue. The wide range
of topics continued to be presented and by the Spring of 1958,
such
subjects as Canadian Precancel perfins, French Postage Dues and
the United Nations 1 1/2 cent Bureau forgery. A mouthwatering collection
of some 376 Dutch precancels were offered for sale! Further into
the year Ted Coles presented a fine article on the London Newswrapper
Precancels which, with its ten pages almost filled one copy of
Precancels.
Of the 81 members listed at the 14th AGM, 37 were from overseas,
mostly US and Canada.
An excellent article on US Bureau Errors was
reprinted from the Forum, and covered several issues. This explained
the reasons for
such errors
as the Milwaukee Wis, Springfield Ill and the Ventura Cal reversed
town and state. About this time too, David Izzett published his
first notes on finding new and unlisted types and varieties of
Canadian
precancels, a subject the Society was to see and hear much of from
David over the years. New towns by the dozen continued to appear
from the US, and in late 1960, Precancels carried an appendix showing
some additional 500 or more added to Nobles 3rd Edition of his
Town List.
Volume 8 No 1 saw yet another change in the appearance
of Precancels, this time to a printed, not a typed format, and
printed in blue
ink on cream paper. Nothing else changed, and still there never
seemed
to be a shortage of articles and topics of discussion. The knowledge
and the keenness of members, and subscribers never ceases to amaze.
The range of subjects seemed to be endless and such fringe topics
as the GPO Training stamps, the Cave and Cargills overprints of
Ceylon, Argentine Precancels, British Revenue overprints and the
like, nothing
slipped through the net and got away. Geoff Walburn contributed
a very good series of articles on the identification of difficult
Canadian
types.
At the 17th AGM, following his earlier resignation from
his post as Packet Superintendent, Reg Lee was elected President
of the
Society, succeeding Kenneth Rymer-Young who had held the office
since its inception, a total of about 15 years. At the same time
Kathleen
Hoult resigned as Secretary and was succeeded by Claude Seggins.
It is interesting to see that at this time, only one other Society
meeting was held each year other than the AGM, and even these were
not well attended. The year 1962 was thought to be something of
a milestone in the Society’s history as this year the actual
membership exceeded 100 for the first time, or so it was thought.
The next issue of Precancels corrected this, reminding members
that this total was originally reached way back in 1955! Many articles
continued to be produced on precancels especially from the 4 major
countries viz US, Canada, France and Belgium. This of course was
not too difficult as these countries were regularly issuing new
cancels
and these often made with new and hitherto unknown devices, all
of which was to the delight of the members.
The first issue in 1964
opened with an In Memoriam notice on the death of the then American
President, John F Kennedy. Each copy
of the publication still carried a page of illustrations as had
been
promised at the beginning of the smaller format copies. Many subjects
such as Austrian and French Newspaper Tax Stamps, Dutch Roller
and earlier Cancels, the US style chart and so on. All very noteworthy.
In one copy, a note appeared advertising the sale by a member of
his precancel collection due to his poor health. It comprised 2
albums
housing 5534 different, from 1890 to 1938, plus a Hoover Catalogue
and the complete run of the Society publications to 1962, Price £20.00.
(Nuff said).
The opening article of 1965 started with a short article
on the worlds first precancel - the famous 5 cent blue Hale & Co
local. This was illustrated by a photo of a cover from the collection
of Robson
Lowe, bearing the stamp dated 1844 and sent from Boston to New
York. In those days the Society seemed to be very much in favour
of In
Memoriam notices on the deaths of famous people, this being borne
out by the issue opening one in honour of Winston Churchill. Once
again Precancels reverted to a typewritten format, this time due
to Kathleen Hoult who had been printing it for so long, moving
home and being unable to carry on. Nevertheless, both the Society
and
Precancels continued through the rest of the decade, thriving as
they went, as did Reg Lee and Claude Seggins still in their respective
offices.
The year 1966 went out with the institution of one new
idea, that of the publication of the first PSS-GB Newsletter
with the intention
of using it in conjunction with Precancels and solely to give
news of members, meetings and other information of an ephemeral
nature.
Now we must wait to see how far it carried on into the next decade.
PART THREE (1967 to 1976)
As a forerunner to the third decade in
the history of the Society, the 21st Annual General Meeting opened
with news from the Secretary
that, despite a general "lull in the recruiting of new members",
the membership stood at a very good total of 140. The euphoria
from that news was soon shattered by the Treasurer when he reported
that, of that total, 40 had still to pay their current subscriptions.
Sales from the Packet amounted to only 25-30% of the total, and
pleas were issued for more material. Most astounding of all though
was the news that, due to no interest being shown in the Library
for some years, if there was no change shown in the following six
months, it was decided to sell it to the highest bidder. The same
issue of Precancels included three illustrations of Japanese Precancelled
New Year Postcards, along with a short note by Ted Coles on Argentine
precancels.
The next copy contained a very long and comprehensive
article on Canal Zone Precancels totalling some 6 pages. Shortly
after this,
British Overprinted Receipt stamps again found their way into Precancels
with an article by the Ex President, Kenneth Rymer-Young and this
was followed by Ted Coles notes on British Fiscal Precancels. There
followed early news of a new publication which was to eventually
prove to be the most valuable possession of many precancel collectors.
About to go into preparation was the first edition of a catalogue
covering US Towns and Types, this news came with the announcement
of the publication of the 49th edition of the Nobel Bureau Precancel
Catalogue. The next Precancels saw the publication of an interesting
illustrated article on Postage Due Precancels of the USA by member
Adolph Gunesch. Also illustrated were the six different Canal Zone
types mentioned in the earlier article.
Hitherto, very few, if any,
articles which had previously appeared in Precancels had been reprinted.
Apparently the first such appeared
when a write-up on Hungarian precancels appeared for a second time,
the first having been in the second part of the first volume. This
time however, some of the types mentioned there were illustrated.
Six months after the first announcement of the proposed Town and
Type Catalogue, Precancels gave the news that the Governors of the
PSS of America had considered the proposition and found that 1) the
cost would be to high, 2) the list would have little use, 3) the
pricing of items would be an impossible task, etc.
Precancels, as
it had right from the beginning, continued to carry articles on
all possible aspects of precancels and other fringe interests.
We were soon to see some excellent notes by Gunesch on such topics
as US Parcel Post Precancels, US City Type Precancel Errors and then
one on Playing Card Bureaus.
1969 saw a further change in the format
of Precancels, this time reverting to the earlier blue type for
the start of Volume 13 BUT…..
this is where Precancels stopped for six months. Due to lack of support
and help in producing the publication, nothing further appeared until
December 1969 when an issue of two sides of foolscap paper came off
the press and contained only mention of the AGM, the Sales Packet
and notes of individual members. Also attached was the current Membership
List showing only 67 paid up members. Clearly the Society was going
through a very bad period, apparently the worst since its foundation.
From
the beginning of 1970, Precancels continued really only as a monthly
newsletter. Gone was the wealth of interesting articles and
scant bitsy news of incidentals and instead were included brief notes
on members, frequently of a semi-personal nature, for example regarding
their health, subsequent hospitalisation and at times recording their
demise. Others had their holidays mentioned and also their removal
to a new address accompanied, at times, by graphic descriptions of
their new abode. One can only suppose that these were just space
fillers and marking time till the more interesting articles started
rolling in again. True to form, they gradually did. Before the end
of the year, once again we were to read notes on such topics as Christmas
Precancels, Commemorative Precancels, Ghost Towns and a letter from
George Klein on "Why I collect Precancels”. At this time
it was the 25th Anniversary of the Society so we are half way there.
Of particular interest, at this time David Izzett’s Canadian
Precancel collection totalled some 1788 stamps.
As a light hearted
side to precancel collecting, George Hawse disclosed his several
specialised collections. These were firstly of towns
with a number in their name, such as Three Rivers CA, Twentynine
Palms CA, and Ninetysix SC. Secondly a collection of towns with
names of three letters such as Ajo AZ, Lee IL and Ida MI, while
the third
comprised a much larger list of some 174 different towns with three
or more words in their names, such as National Stock Yards IL,
Hot Springs National Park AR, Truth or Consequence NM. More seriously,
nothing appears to have been done about the earlier threat to sell
off the Library and eventually we were to read of a Librarian giving
a report at the 1970 AGM. In his report however, notice was given
of the very poor use still made of this facility. New topics at
this
time were very few and far between, so it was good to see a further
small article on the Manila and Heacocks cancels of the Philippines.
At
last - the first Library List was issued and consisted of 42 items,
all in the care of the Secretary, Claude Seggins. On the
subject
of books, at last it happened in a small way, and the first part
of a Town and Type List, which proved to be the forerunner of the
now well known Catalogue, saw the light of day. In this form it
covered all states from Alabama to Florida and comprised some 72
pages. It
is of interest to note here that at the end of Volume 15, the Editor
remarked that over the whole year (1971) the general standard of
Precancels had dropped and laid the blame for this at the door
of the members who by now, were failing to keep up the original
flow
of articles.
The following issues did not really show very much
difference in content. However, small but interesting notes were
included on
such as the precancels of Luxembourg along with one of exceptional
interest
on the late 'misuse' of early Belgian handrollers. These had been
illegally applied to the 1929-1932 Lions issue. Admittedly these
made a very attractive addition to ones collection, but the shame
was that the rollers used were mainly of the more difficult towns,
devices which should have been scrapped years before. Shangai featured
in another short note on the precancel look-alikes from that 'country',
while Carl Bibo from New Mexico added yet another of his interesting
articles, this time on Austrian cancels. The British Stamford Mercury
precancel was also covered as was a quite lengthy note on US Precancelled
Envelopes.
Despite the apparent lack of lengthy material, there
seemed to be no lessening in the range of topics which seemed to
be as diverse
as they ever were. Notes appeared regularly on the new additions
to the lists of new issues, which of course were still being regularly
issued from all the major countries including Canada. Members were
then, as now, kept well abreast of the news of that country's precancels
by those stalwarts Geoff Walburn and his young sidekick, Dave Izzett.
The collection of the latter, it is noted, had risen to 2050 by
early
1972! One hears excuses for many things, but how about blaming
the strike of coal miners causing power cuts which in turn led
to the
many errors in one of the copies of Precancels.
Members were still
coming and joining the Society and by mid 1972, member no 350 was
enrolled. (no 349 was an interesting addition!). Fifty-two countries
appeared in a list published of those issuing or having issued
precancels. Wonder what the current feeling on that list would
be now?! The 25th
AGM showed that the membership had risen slightly to 79, an increase
of eight over the year, more people attending the AGM and with
35 members taking the Exchange Packet, sales had risen to 75% of
the
total offered. The death of Adolph Gunesch, an old member of the
society was recorded at the meeting and a Memoriam notice was included
in Precancels. (It is currently good to see that Steve, his son
who survived him, is still carrying on the family business). December
1972 saw a note from David Izzett reporting a new find among his
Canadian precancels, and this apparently started a sudden run of
articles on Canada. This to the extent that in the next 16 pages
of Precancels, 7 were devoted to that country.
The new Town and
Type Catalogue appeared at last to a veritable fanfare of applause
(how’s that for a mixed metaphor?) and from then
on all members knew what they were about! Or did they? Reg Lee
revived the Magpies Nest and things were really taking off again.
Of interest
is the fact that during this decade, members had ventured away
from the annual AGM as the only meeting and had braved one or two
more
during the year, these still being held in rooms in London. Several
parts of Precancels were devoted to corrections, alterations and
criticism of the new Town and Type Catalogue. This decade also
saw the start of the long spell of decimal issues with the advent
of
the 6.3 cent Bureau with Washington DC being the leader with the
first issue.
At this stage one gets the impression that the mainstay
of Precancels was the advent of three things, the new Catalogue,
Magpies Nest
and new US devices. Three cheers from the Magpies Nest which
was the
saving grace as the other two topics must have bored the pants
off non-US collectors. Reg certainly kept things moving with
this column.
And so it continued to the end of the decade, still
moving ahead, still thriving and by the amount of advertising
by members in
Precancels, members interests had broadened beyond measure.
At the end of Volume
20 we come to the conclusion of the third decade - who knew
what the future would hold.
PART FOUR (1977 TO 1986)
The fourth decade commenced with the publication
of Volume 21 of Precancels, still holding to the same format of
foolscap size,
double sided typescript as for several years previously, and still
finding enough enthusiasm and copy to produce one part per month.
A particularly good article graced this part, an article on the
local issues from Seattle, Washington which was originally published
in a 1942 copy of The Precancel Optimist. Regrettably, this was
the last really major article to be seen for some time.
Reg Lee's
Magpies Nest was clearly well feathered and Reg kept this going
with the same keen knowledge and enthusiasm which had been evident
since its inception. By this time, most of the 6.3c Bureau issue
had been made and Reg had kept his New Issue Service of these going,
but now was the time to start with the new 7.9c. (Oh that there
were new Bureaus issued with such regularity nowadays).
The 29th
AGM was held that October and a total membership of 92 persons
was recorded which was a drop of 10 from the previous year.
As has
always been apparent, complaints continued to be made on the apathy
of the majority of members who were so keen to accept everything
that the few stalwarts on the Committee did for them, but were not
prepared to do much themselves for the Society. (How often has that
been heard over the 50 years?) By now, the Society met three times
each year in addition to the AGM, but all these were in hired halls,
mostly in the London area.
One member reported on a Robson Lowe auction
sale which included several lots of precancels. The member who
did bid (remember this was 1976) on a collection of reportedly
about
21,000 with a valuation of £55, the sum of £77.50 was
horrified when the lot went for £160. Oh well how times change.
Well, things changed very little within the Society, but Precancels
altered tremendously. Gone now were the pages of unrivalled information,
and the space once occupied by such knowledgeable articles was
filled by page after page of new Town and Type Issues, descriptions
of new
typefaces being used in the printing of Bureaus and never-ending
Members' Ads.
The Society certainly seemed to be going through
a difficult period during which the packet Superintendent was "commuting
between England and Israel" while the secretary appeared to
be enjoying the highlife in Brazil and South Africa. (Good on ya'
David and Claude). (Times don't really change do they? Seems we
hear a lot about Sri Lanka and America these days!) As was to be
expected
by now, who held the fort in those days? Yes, thats right, Reg
Lee.
At last, into the second year of the decade came the first
seriously important article, this time by member Bob Cheshire,
a renowned
Canadian collector at that time. This article related to the
identification of different types within the Admiral issues of
Canadian cancels
along with notes on wet and dry printings. Carl Bibo, a member
from
New Mexico and a mailman by profession provided a further article
on the UN 11/4 c Bureau issue and the subsequent forgeries. The
New Issue Service still going strong with the 7.9c mostly complete,
well
into the 7.7c and the start of the 8.4c Bureaus.
Continuing the
interest in European precancels, a further article was published,
this time
on the French Coin issue. Also about that time and unbeknown
by the Society, the then latest issue of a new Canadian cancel
came
to the
notice of Reg Lee and he reported a 12c flower so cancelled
which, as it turned out, was to be one of the last before precancellation
stopped in Canada. The 31st AGM was, to some, of certain importance.
It was at this meeting that we saw a considerable change in
the
composition of the Committee, having a new President, Secretary,
and Librarian
elected. It also saw for the first time, a general trend towards
holding meetings, except for the AGM, away from rented venues
and held instead in members homes - a trend Dave Philcox picked
up
in the States.
Another first was the offer by a member to hold
the first
Society postal auction, a proposal keenly accepted. About
this time also, was the publication of the DLE catalogue, the first
for 23
years. One of the earliest meetings to be held away from
London
was held at the office of Urch Harris in Bristol, which gave
those who
braved the journey the chance to see at least part of Bob
Cheshire's Canadian Admiral precancels. In Precancels we were further
regaled with information on French, and were introduced, albeit
very
briefly, to Austrian newspaper wrappers. For a short period
of
time, many
articles were flowing in again on various new topics (to
Precancels that is) and one which stood out at the time was an
excellent
one covering OS Precancelled Stationery. This consisted of
some five
pages, well illustrated with very concise lists of various
types. Another promise was fulfilled when Reg Lee produced in
several copies of Precancels, the shortly awaited notes on Austrian
wrappers,
clearly
supplementing his earlier introduction to the subject; a
most
valuable addition to our knowledge. Another illustrated item
was submitted
by Doug Barfoot, our then President, showing modern Canadian
Printed Postal Stationery.
The end of 1979 saw the virtual finish
of the Bureau decimal issues, that is those with town, state
abbreviation and two
lines. In all
the 6.3, 7.7, 7.9 and 8.4c issues totalled 541 stamps,
some of which are now extremely rare and costly, while one other,
the
Richmond Va 7.7 Linotype, was issued later. To facilitate
ease of collection,
a complete list of these was compiled by Dilmond Postlewaite
and published in Vol 24/1. Officially, the Bureau use of
precancels bearing
town and state names ceased at the end of 1978, and soon
we were to see the 8.4c Americana issued with lines only,
the
forerunner
of several similar issues and values so cancelled. These
snippets of information on Americana Buros was soon followed
by printed
proof to those members who thought that all american precancels
could be
had for pennies. Lots from a recent Stateside auction were
illustrated,
coil pairs and strips of up to 4 stamps, all imperforate
with prices
which realised up to $650. The first Society auction came
and went and the auctioneer gladly reported a small profit
for
the Society
but regretted that there were only 5 vendors.
Replacing
the lines only issues on the Americana Buros, came the first
of the designated commercial uses as overprinted
on the stamps,
this being 'FIRST CLASS PRESORT' on the 9 and 13c values.
Many more were to follow and be listed in Precancels
as they
were
issued. A
new series of Monaco cancels was illustrated, those of
seasonal trees with the horse chestnut being the subject.
Some 22
Japanese New Year
cards were illustrated by Ted Coles, while Dave Philcox
produced a tabulated summary of how prices of the top
27 Buros had
risen in the 50 years from l926.
A newcomer to the illustrated
articles
was
a reproduction of one from the American Philatelist
by a certain G.William Schall on Special US Postal Markings
which
showed
and discussed the wide range of early lines, bars and
more graphically
designed
types. In Vol 23/3 was published the (I think) first
Library List showing some 86 Precancel items from catalogues,
magazines, articles
and the like, a valuable source of information readily
available to all members. Colin Philip produced a listing
of all the
precancels of Monaco with illustrations, following
this in the next issue
by a complete illustrated listing of all known cancels
from Algeria (23) and Tunisia (8).
Once again problems
presented themselves over the editorship of Precancels. Poor
Reg Lee, after years of holding
the Society together,
had pleaded
to be given a break as his other commitments were
suffering. As is usual in such cases, no other member was interested
in obliging.
Luckily it took a new member to volunteer his services
and so a new
era started. The general format of the publication
was similar, but the front page displayed at the
top,
an
irregular selection
of various
precancelled stamps. Unfortunately though, it was
at this time the Society appeared to be passing through
another
period of
apathy, and such very little copy was being provided
to the new editor.
A
similar problem had been encountered in the past
and had been overcome, so there was still hope in store.
Luckily
we still
had members
interested in seeing their names in the advertisement
column, with excellent
results it must be added, and we still had Mr PSS-GB
himself. To this end, Magpies Nest was still running
well, and now
a new column
appeared - Katalog Korner - in which Reg reviewed
existing and projected catalogues.
Throughout this decade, the annual
auction appeared to be doing very well with the Society benefiting
from the
sales
every
time. After
many years of silence it was again decided to restart
the various country and type counts, and Bob Eveleigh,
offered
his services
in this matter. Also it was very sad news for collectors
of Canadian precancels when use of them was stopped
on 1/1/1982. An excellent
article broke the monotony in mid 1983, when a
Belgian member presented an article on the 1915 Albert Issue.
With
the reintroduction of
the
counts, it was felt opportune to have an understanding
of the
various types covered by the title Double Line
Electros, and to this end
an illustrated article was included showing the
differences. As forecast earlier, the Society appeared to recover
from the period
of quiescence,
and once again a wide range of articles began
appearing.
At the recent AGM it was agreed that a series of
articles on the
development
of
precancels originally presented in 'Foreign
Stamps' would reappear in Precancels for the benefit
of newer
members.
At the same
time a continuation of the series on Austrian
wrappers appeared and
also the first by Gordon Rowe on Early US Bar
Precancels. A further article
followed a month later, again on Austria but
this time on stamps and not on wrappers. Hungarian Precancels
were the
subject
of an article by Fred Cutler. A subsequent
issue saw
Precancelled Battleships
by Colin Blakebrough, British Precancelled
Stamps (Training School
Issues) by Geoff Longbottom and the first really
technical one by Peter Attrill entitled 'Repair
of Precancelling
Printing Plates
for
USA Bureaus'.
And so into the last year of the
decade with no apparent easing up on the reawakened flow
of articles,
we
were to see such
as Luxembourg Doubles by P.K.Stone, Canal
Zone Precancels by Roy
Osborne, Danzig
by Colin Blakebrough, Current (then) US Postage
Rates by Jim Callis, Listing of Belgian Towns
by Dave Philcox
and
also Black
Hardings
by the same author. So it went on to the
end of the decade, proof itself that the Society
was still
thriving
and
with a membership
of enthusiasts.
PART FIVE (1987 to 1996)
Having survived, nay thrived, during the previous forty years,
there was every good reason to suppose that the next 10 years would
follow
a similar pattern and the Society would reach its Fiftieth Anniversary
with its head still held high and a big smile on its face.
The penultimate decade closed with the 39th Annual General Meeting,
at which news was given that the membership totalled 100, the finances
were in the black with a healthy surplus for the year of £l70
and the Exchange Packet had produced over £200 for the Society's
coffers from sales commission. Good reason for the big smile!
The
final decade was entered with the publication of Volume 31, No
1 of Precancels, this still in the A4 size paper and issued bi-monthly
with the front page headed with its title surrounded by a random
selection of precancel photographs. The contents of this were unusual
to say the least, insofar as they were almost completely devoted
to the AGM report, Pennsylvania Catalogue price changes and Belgium
and Luxembourg counts accompanied by a summary chart of how the
members
had responded to the various counts over the previous 2 years.
The
next copy gave us a wide range of articles starting with the
further note by P.K.Stone on more New Zealand precancels, one by
Roy Osborn
on Stamford Mercury wrappers of Great Britain and two by Colin
Blakebrough on Dutch and American wrappers; these were followed
by the first
of a series of articles by Colin Phillip charting the movement
of Canadian precancel catalogue prices over the previous 40 years.
This
copy along with the Auction List of some 170 lots, was proof
alone that the Society was not standing still and was boldly striding
into the future.
In one of the following issues was an article
by Jim Hirstein, the present Secretary of PSS Inc, on the familiar
dated cancels
used
by Sears, Roebuck and Company (SRC-), while another came along
with the little known topic of Precancels on Foreign Bill stamps.
Probably
most striking was an illustrated 3 page presentation of the
development of the US Bureau from the early post Experimental issue
to the
Authorised Non-profit Organisation issue on the Transportation
Coils.
About
this time, Bob Eveleigh presented the first count starting
the fifth year of such findings, and it is good to see that 2
of our American
members had not only participated, but filled 2 of the top
3
places with their figures for US Bureaus.
By the middle of
1988, we saw the issue of precancels from an unexpected area,
that of the Federated States of Micronesia
with
cancels from
such unusual island place names as Yap, Truk, Kosrei and
Pohnpei. At the same time, British Commercial overprints
were rapidly
becoming the trendiest stamps to be seen to collect, at
least by many members
of the British Society, and to this end a large introductory
paper of some 4 pages was presented by David Lane, in this
copy of Precancels.
This was followed by a further 3 pages in the next issue
and then 4 in the next.
Following the Secretary's visit
to the
Fall Roundup
of the Eastern Pennsylvania PS, a report was given in
this last copy of Precancels with an explanation of the then
current prices
charged
for material in the States and the new prices to be expected
in the catalogues of the future. A list of such price
increases was
included
which tended to make frightening reading. At that meeting
he managed to enrol 8 new Stateside members and it was
pleasing to see included
in that copy, two articles by one of our US members,
Jim Callis.
Volume 33 (34 in error), No 3 saw a change of format
of Precancels with the soft, computer dot-matrix printout
cast aside for
a much finer version produced by Colin Phillip. This
contained
a long
review by David Izzett, of the Canada Precancel Handbook
by Geoff
Walburn
and others as well as an article on Manila Precancels
by Gordon Rowe. Attached to this copy of Precancels
was the
first publication
from
the newly formed British Commercial Overprint Study
Circle, as part of our Society.
The next copy of Precancels continued
to
show the
progress of our Society as it contained, in addition
to the usual notices and reports, a complete catalogue
by
Tom Wardlow
of the
precancels of Pennsylvania (4 pages), the latest
style descriptions for Group
5 of US Bureaus (3 pages with illustrations) and
a further
article on GB Precancels (2 pages illustrated).
Volume 34 saw the
first of a completely new style of Precancels, this time a several
paged edition
of A5
size with the text
in a very clear but reduced font. It now remained
to be seen how
the
membership
would accept this change and how articles would
be illustrated when this was necessary. This first copy
however carried
all the usual
items plus articles covering precancels from
Turkey, Denmark as well as Great Britain, each with very
clear illustrations.
The
following
issue reported that the new format was acclaimed
by members and as if to prove the value of clear
illustrations,
David Izzett
presented a fully illustrated article entitled
'Belgium - Not a Precancel'.
Other topics such as prices of France and Monaco
cancels plus a lengthy
article by Dave Philcox on how to use the Town
and Type
Catalogue.
As was usual, the regular publication
of Precancels continued and such information unfolded on different
aspects of
the countries we all collect. Articles on such
as Constant Varieties of the
Canadian
Admiral Issue by David Izzett, the 1969 US
Christmas Precancel
by
Bob Eveleigh and a continued analysis of the
US Bureau Issues by Colin Philip. It was also
about
this time
that the Society
was
able to boast a publication of its own other
than Precancels, the Illustrated
Glossary Of Precancels written by Colin Philip
and Dave Philcox.
Phil Cayford, wittingly one
presumes, started
a most interesting
and at times amusing series of letters and
notes by knocking the use of computers as a useful
tool of philately.
This
literary banter
came at a most opportune time as Precancels
was momentarily
suffering one of its quiescent periods. This
however did not last for long,
as before long, a series of articles on the
precancels of the kingdom of Hanover by Wilhelm Engelhardt
was started. This
covered 3 issues
of Precancels, and to the specialist must
have been most useful, but regrettably it was not
illustrated and many
members,
such
as the author of these notes are still unaware
of
what a Hanover precancel
looks like!
Variety continued to be the spice of life
over the next issues with a wide range
of topics
presented including US precancelled
envelopes,
Japanese New Year Cards, Hungarian Wrappers,
British precancelled Post Office Training
stamps and many
others along with
brief notes on British Meter Cancellations,
Cigarette Tube Stamps
and US Parcel
Post cancels. All the former were in addition
to a very
good series by Carl Bibo on Precancels
of Europe. As one can have
guessed,
a number of articles published in Precancels
had previously been seen
in the Forum, but one small note, again
copied from
that publication, was a light hearted one
on the Produce Seal
Society's foundation
in 1991. (This Society still exists and
thrives to the extent that it even has space at the
PSS Convention
in
America every
year,
and is far from a joke.)
And so it went on into the last few years
of the decade, and to date the latest
copy of
Precancels, alone proves
the Society
is
very much
still alive and kicking. Articles are
still appearing in Precancels, albeit not with
quite the same
volume
and enthusiasm
as pertained
about twenty years ago, but the membership
hovers regularly between eighty and one
hundred, the
Annual General
Meeting is still what
it says - Annual, bimonthly meetings
are still held regularly, Precancels appears
bimonthly,
the various
counts are
still reported, Annual
Auctions are held, the Library grows
and thrives and all that is left now is to
ponder about
the success of the
next fifty
years.
One thing I feel certain about, and that
is that Reg and I will not be around
in 2046, or will
we?
Note: The above article was written in 1996. Since then the
Society has continued to thrive, in no small measure due to the
enthusiasm
and drive of Dave Philcox who served as Secretary for 24 years
until his untimely death in 2003 aged 77. Dave joined the PSSGB
in 1972 and his great interest in precancels made him without doubt
the foremost
authority on the subject in the UK.
The Society's membership still remains around 100, and under
its current management of an active and forward-looking committee,
will no doubt continue to bring
together its devotees for another 50 years!
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