All these news stories, and others, can be read in full in the December 2005 Philatelic Exporter

Children's characters open the 2006 stamp book

TO launch Royal Mail's 2006 Special Stamp programme. Animal Tales celebrates the enduring popularity and universal appeal of illustrated children’s books in a special joint issue with the United States Postal Service (USPS). The eight stamps will be issued in four se-tenant pairs on January 10, with both organisations choosing seven home-grown books to be featured, plus an eighth from ‘across the pond’ ...

Unwanted help with unloading

WHILST unloading stock for a stamp fair at the Milton Keynes Leisure Centre on Sunday November 6, a dealer had a large brown cardboard box full of GB Decimal Booklets with a face value of £2500+ stolen from his vehicle at approximately 08.30 hours ... contact the Thames Valley Police on 08458 50 55 05 quoting Crime Reference DG933 8587-05, or the PTS on 01252 628006.

Spink awarded additional Royal Warrant

SPINK has been awarded an additional Royal Warrant, by Command of Her Majesty The Queen for services in Philately. On September 12 2005 Spink was officially appointed into the place and quality of Medallists and Philatelists to Her Majesty The Queen ...

Design competition for new IRC

THE Universal Postal Union (UPU) is organising a competition to find a design for the new international reply coupons that will become available in 2006. The IRC, a service introduced in 1906 by the UPU, is a postal value exchangeable in any UPU member country for one or more postage stamps representing the minimum postage for an ordinary priority letter-post item or an ordinary airmail letter sent to a foreign country. Worldwide, around 2.2 million reply coupons are sold every year ...

End of line for Express Auctions

AULD Alliance Philatelics Ltd has totally acquired Express Stamp Auctions, the London stamp auction firm, which was founded in the 1960s by Chris and Polly Musitano. In mid-2003 they amalgamated with John and Lesley Auld's Alliance Auctions but continued to run their London auctions which, with this total merger, will bow out on December 14 2005 at the County Hotel, Upper Woburn Place, London WC1, 18.30 ...

Stampex loses national stamp exhibitions

EXECUTIVE chairman of the Association of British Philatelic Societies (ABPS), Phil Kenton, is looking forward to 2006 with some outstanding events in progress. A national exhibition is being organised in Torquay in November, led by Barry Horne.

Also This Month

UPU has streamlined and tightened WNS procedures

IN the PE of September 2005 the journalist Les Winick wrote an article about some activities of the Universal Postal Union and its World Association for the Development of Philately. According to Mr Winick, the article was "... gathered from the Universal Postal Union (UPU) information available to the public via the Internet, previously published articles and interviews with international philatelic personalities not affiliated to the UPU." Regrettably, Mr Winick did not contact the UPU to verify certain information that could have come only from his unnamed sources. Had he done so he would have been able to provide a current and accurate portrayal of the UPU’s philatelic activities, including the operation of the WADP Stamp Numbering System (WNS) and the most recent information about ‘illegal’ stamps ...

The rest of this article can be read in the December 2005 Philatelic Exporter

Scotex packs them in - Chad Neighbor reports on Scotland's national stamp show

DEALERS from as far away as France and the Netherlands benefited from a good turnout and ready buyers at Scotex, the Scottish national stamp event at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow in mid-October. Several reported doing more business on the first day of the show than during the two days last year and one even went so far as to say "it was almost too busy" at one point during the traditional Saturday surge ...

Manning becomes Escala

GREG Manning Auctions Inc has changed its corporate name to Escala Group Inc, effective September 28 2005, and will trade on the Nasdaq National Market under the new ticker symbol ESCL. Escala Group has established its new corporate headquarters in mid-town Manhattan, New York ...

Eight ways to say "Hello"

ON October 8 2005 - 'World Post Day' - South Africa issued eight stamps featuring the national flag and 'Hello' in eight of its 11 official languages ...

King Kong roars for New Zealand

OPEN up the presentation pack of New Zealand's King Kong issue and you'll be terrified by the spine-tingling roar of King Kong. The roar, which is taken from the actual sound effects created for the film, introduces sound to stamp products for the first time in New Zealand ...

Fabergé from Finland

NEXT year will see the 150th anniversary of Finnish stamps. Anticipating the anniversary, Finland Post issued on October 28 2005 a miniature sheet with two stamps containing genuine gold and silver, featuring the Winter Egg, an Easter egg created by the legendary Faberge jewellers of St Petersburg ...

Regulars

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From our contributors

Albert Boerma - Europe:

Otto Hornung - In My View:

Liz McKernan - Postcard World:

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James Skinner - Great Britain:

Glen Stephens - The View from Down Under:

Les Winick - USA: