EUROPE by Albert Boerma  

Zumstein centenary

MAX Hertsch's reputation is worldwide. He heads the Swiss publishing firm Zumstein & Cie and is chief editor of its monthly journal Berner Briefmarken Zeitung (BBZ). Yet he remains a very modest man, despite being a signatory of the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists, president of ASCAT, and a member of both the AIEP and AIJP. He sums up the centenary of his firm in just three pages of the November 2005 BBZ, itself in its 97th year. ...

Read the entire column in the January 2006 Philatelic Exporter.

IN MY VIEW by Otto Hornung  

Even captains are human

OUR trip to Vienna got off to a disastrous start. I didn't check which terminal we had to go to as I was absolutely convinced that British Airways were flying from Terminal 1 at Heathrow. We got there well in time, an hour before departure, but the lady at the check-in threw up her arms in horror and sent us to Terminal 4. Consequently we missed our 10.55 flight but British Airways staff were marvellous. They'd tried their best to get us on the flight, but when they didn't succeed they put us on the 14.55 flight and we did not have to pay a penalty! ...

Read the entire column in the January 2006 Philatelic Exporter.

POSTCARD WORLD by Liz McKernan

Hot and bothered in France

I had hoped to be able to report on this year's 'Megafair' held annually in Givors some 20km south of Lyon. However cir cumstances prevented me from enjoying what should have been two whole days browsing among 200 dealers.

Embarking on the trip with some trepidation I was determined that events would not stop my visit. France had already experienced two weeks of violence in the Parisian suburbs and beyond. Cars and buses had been burnt out night after night and the magazines on the bookstalls carried lurid photo­ graphs of 'France on fire'.

I spent the night in Paris and emerged unscathed ready to take the train down to Lyon - so far so good! ...

Read the entire column in the January 2006 Philatelic Exporter.

NEW BOOKS by David Rennie and Peter Rickenback  

All reviewed in the January 2006 Philatelic Exporter.

GREAT BRITAIN by James Skinner

A Year of Living Dangerously

2006 promises to be a momentous year in Royal Mail’s history. By the time you read this, Royal Mail’s exclusive rights to be the sole deliverer of letters will have been swept away – opening up the market to full competition for the first time since the introduction of the Penny Post. Since January 1, the market has been open to all comers – well any who apply for a postal licence and are prepared to jump through the hoops set up by Postcomm which regulates all postal services in the UK ...

Maritime mix up

BROWSING the stock of a dealer at a New York stamp show is hardly the most likely place to come across one of those lifetime finds, but this is exactly what happened at the recent Fall Postage Stamp Mega-Event ... unnoticed and ignored, were six copies of the 2004 Ocean Liners miniature sheet ... However, the sharp-eyed British dealer who spotted them tucked away in this corner of a foreign field, noticed something that had eluded all others – that each sheet included one stamp bearing the wrong face value!

The lower-left stamp in the sheet, which appropriately depicts the SS City of New York, was valued 53p, when the correctly issued stamp is denominated 57p ...

Read the entire column in the January 2006 Philatelic Exporter.

USA by Les Winick

Delighted at UPU response

I am delighted to learn that a portion of the income the UPU derives from the WNS website will be "allocated for promotional and education activities in 2005 and will be for 2006." (December 2005 PE, page 8)

Now that 2005 is finished, please let the world know what promotional and education activities were achieved for that year. I would love to see a programme aimed at the schoolchildren of the world and sponsored by the WNS and the postal administrations ...

Read the entire column in the January 2006 Philatelic Exporter.

THE VIEW FROM DOWN UNDER by Glen Stephens

Stamp swap of the century

I have been writing stamp columns for 25 years, and this is the very strangest stamp story I have ever heard.

As reported by me and fellow columnist Les Winick last month, this plate block of four 1918 24c USA 'Inverted Jenny' airmail stamps was hammered down October 19 in New York for $2.97 million ...

The plot then thickens. Soon afterwards the buyer of this block, Bill Gross, swapped it with a New York dealer for a single USA stamp he wanted! ... Only in the USA could stamps worth $6 million be swapped like trading cards ... Shortly before the October 19 auction by Siegel's, dealer Charles Shreve floated the idea to Donald Sundman that if Bill Gross bought the block, Gross would swap it with Sundman for the 'Z Grill'.

Sundman at first declined the offer, as he was in two minds as to whether he might also bid on the Inverted Jenny plate block for stock or investment ... Sundman later agreed to the trade realising "It was a good deal for both parties" ...

Donald Sundman (left) and Charles Shreve swap US stamps worth $6 million in the full glare of the media.

Read the entire column in the January 2006 Philatelic Exporter .

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