IN MY VIEW - Otto Hornung

CASB trims customer list

A LARGE number of customers who regularly buy stamps of the British Commonwealth , and some other countries, from the Crown Agents Stamp Bureau, will have been very surprised by the circular letter they received in early August.

The CASB has decided to change the system of how it operates. The low value purchases by some customers are very labour-intensive so, to make the operation more efficient and focused, the CASB has decided to stop supplying indi­ vidual philatelists (through its retail arm, Sovereign Stamps) and smaller dealers directly. It has handed over the details of all those customers affected to the official distributor of the CASB, Harry Allen, who will become the new supplier of CASB stamps to its former customers, with effect from September 1 2005 ...

(Read the entire column in the September 2005 Philatelic Exporter.)

GREAT BRITAIN by O J Hill

Forewarned is forearmed - how to spot the fakes and forgeries

WITH catalogue valuations on the scarcer stamps now beginning to look like telephone numbers, and prices tending to rise in the general stamp market, this seems to be an opportune moment to remind you of the spate of repaired or forged stamps which is causing concern amongst inexperienced dealers ... Lactic filler ... Red alert ... Unofficial overprints ... Line enhancing ...

(Read the entire column in the September 2005 Philatelic Exporter.)

POSTCARD WORLD by Liz McKernan

JOHN H D SMITH (1937-2005)

John Smith in 1992

ALL of us in the postcard world in Britain are slowly coming to terms with the loss of our 'King' - John H D Smith - who died of cancer on July 21 2005.

At his funeral in Bodmin, Cornwall , where many of us gathered to celebrate John's life, there was much sadness but there was also laughter as he had prescribed in his wishes. He had also asked for everyone to wear bright colours and the youngsters in his exten­ ded family excelled in this request ...

(Read the entire column in the September 2005 Philatelic Exporter.)

NEW BOOKS by David Rennie

All reviewed in the September 2005 Philatelic Exporter.

EUROPE by Albert Boerma

China blocks UN and Austria issues

UNPA

... news about the Chinese intervention preventing the issue of a stamp by the United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) because of the nationality of the artist, a 13-year old boy from the Republic of China (Taiwan), which was printed beneath the design ... The incriminating stamp was one in a series of six 'Mon R ê ve de Paix' ... but a stamp with the original design w ill be issued on the announced day of issue, September 21 2005, not by UNPA, but by Taiwan.

Austria

(Read the entire column in the September 2005 Philatelic Exporter.)

Australasia by Glen Stephens

Ducking for cover

SOMETIMES you have to laugh at the things you see in this business. The picture nearby shows the facing New Zealand pages of a clearly dilapidated album, one obviously formed by a youngster.

I see dozens, sometime hundreds of kids' albums a year that look very similar - I am sure most PE readers see a constant stream as well. In general they are worth a few dollars/pounds each. I bet many of the readers of this magazine started their interest in collecting with such an album!

As reported last month, this particular album has just sold for nearly £30,000. It is dirty, dog-eared, creased, and stained, and contains only a few hundred near worthless stamps, untidily arranged in no chronological order whatever ...

Quack, quack!

'Duck' stamps in the USA are big business as we all know. They are revenue stamps, not postage, stamps, although I have seen a 1934 issue used on a Zeppelin cover to Germany , untaxed and paying the USA postage - a great item!...

(Read the entire column in the September 2005 Philatelic Exporter.)

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