(dfournafof Q$P SPORTS >V ' PHILATELISTS INTERNATIONAL Volume 26 July - August 1988 Number 6 XV OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES by Mark C. Maestrone Ano ther Win ter 0 lympi cs has now come and gone, and while most of us i n th e Oly mpic Philat elic Community are taking a shor t br eath er b ef ore the onslau ght of the XXlVth Summer Olym pics , it is time to ta ke a 1 ook at the philatelic output from Cal gary . whil e this task i s not as complex as it was for LOS Ange les or wi 11 be for S eoul, information is still bein g re ceiv ed a nd an alyze d. Thi s fi rst artic le wi 11 dis cuss the var 10US phil atelic venu es ( here afte r ref erred to as 1 venu e post offi ces ' ) , as well as pres ent initi al in format ion on c ance I var iet i es, and thei r re lati ve v alue on co ver. A po stal rat e cha rt i n matrix form has als o be en in elude d so t hat the read er ma y de termine the clas s of his mail ed co vers. A f utur ear tide wil 1 pre- sent. a d ay-b y-da y . ev en t-b y-even t ch art that will ill ustrate the var iou s vari eties of c ancels ava ilab le d ur ing the Games. Whi le t here were eigh t venu e po st o ffic es (6 in Calgary, 1 eac h i n Ca nmor e and at t he Kan anas k is Vill age R esor t), this auth or h as f irst hand know ledge of o nly 3: OLYMP EX a nd Stat ion •M' in c algar y, an d Kana nask is P ost Of fic e. Any read er w ho c an p rovid e new or di f fer ing info rmati on o n these or t he o ther vtn ue po st of f ices is e ncou rage d to writ e me at 2824 Cur ie P lace San Oieg o, CA 9212 2. CANADA POST MAIL IMG RATES AT THE TIME OF THE GAMES [All rates reflect the first weight increment. Post cards are treated as first increment letters, i.e. no special post card rates are in effect in Canada.] Canada (domestic rate): 37U United States: 43s> ' International: 7ht Registration: $2.70 plus above postage Special Delivery (Alberta only) SI.83 plus aoove postage Special Delivery (all others) $2.63 plus above postage 201 COMMEMORATIVE OLYMPIC CANCELS Advance information from Canada Post did not make clear the f act that OLYMPEX would be using all cancels available each day according to the schedule of events. However, the other venue post offices were only authorized to use the ca,n- eels for their own venue city. CPC also removed one special., cance 1 from their list before the start of the Games: the Disab led Skiing at Canmore. This left 19 special cancels in all. Initially, there was also some confusion as to when to apply cancels for postponed events. When the Men's Downhill Skiin g event at Nakiska on February 14th was postponed be- cause of bad weather, the Kananaskis Post Office removed the Alpin e Skiing cancel from use. OLYMPEX, however, continued to us e theirs. Whether any cancels did indef-d get applied at Ka nanaskis on that day is, as yet, unknown. Another post- p o n e m ent occurred on February 20th when the Disabled Skiing Slalo m event at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary was delayed until the 21st (figure 1). In this case, OLYMPEX and Station 'M' w ere warned in advance, and this cancel was never put in- to us e on the 20th. MOty^LuWi.jtiQ'-'ti. Anne Thompkins 7909 Wellington RD Alexandria, VA 22308 01YMITX ' U.S.A. 13 7MI2I3I /V iniiiiiiiiiiiii !l,i,l„!„l,l,l B The cane ell ing dev ice s us ed at all v enue post o ffices were iden t ica1 . Si mi lar to th e mech anica 1 pr icing devices used by s uper market c ler ks, th e meta 1 nan dean eel co n s i s t e d r •' a mcv i ng i nk pla te wh ich ro tated out o f th e way «nen the :'ldl e wa s pr essed down, causi ng the inke d di e to n.ak e con- tact with the surf a ce to be pr inted. The f act that the die was h idde n by the i nk ing plate while in t he ' p a s s i ve ' posi- t ion , mad e Ji ning u p the cance 1 very diff icul t . Sn udged iirr- press ions wer e also qui t e comm on due to t he u nwield 1y nature of th e ca ncel ling d evice line ven in kinq was also a n)d jor probl em , espe cially on t he Cpe ninq C eremo nies cance is at OLYMP EX; in m any ca ses, the da te was so f aint as to be vir- tuall y un read able. This probl em was late r co rrecte d. 202 An initial examination of the special cancels from the various venue post offices reveals no discernible diffe rence in image, size of die, or lettering style/position. Ho weyer, there are major differences in the order of the 'month-day- year ' designation in the moveable date portion of ^the die : 4 i TYPE 1 Year.Month.Day (ex. 88.11.20) TYPE 2 Day.Month.Year (ex. 20.11.88) TYPE. 3 Year Month Day (ex. 88 II 20) no periods TYPE 4 Year Month Day (ex. 88 2 20) no periods, Arabic nume ral month. [A member of our sister organization, The Society of Olympic Collector s, discovered two other types which were hu- man errors. Only a couple of cancels were applied before the moveable date was corrected by the postal employee. I assume that the-:e types will be discussed in a future issue of The Torchbearer. ] There are re ports of cancels in which only one period is present, howev er it has not been determined whether this is due to poor in king of the die or not. While these vari- eties in style of dating may seem trivial, they are, I be- lieve, the only w ay to discern one venue post office from another (when met er tapes, registration, etc. have not been used). This will be critical in determining the rarity of a particular cover. Cancel types 1, 2, and 3 exist on various days for specific event cancels. An exact enumeration of these varieties w ill be presented in a future article. VENUE POST OFFICES The following chart should help in identifying the four primary post offices open to the public: OLYMPEX Station 'M' Kananaskis Canmore Location Calgary Alberta Kananaskis Canmore, Convent ion Provincial Resort TOL 2M0 Ctr., 120 Gov. Bldg. village, 9th Ave.SE 220-4th 3kms. south T2T 0P3 Ave.SE of Nakiska T2G4Y2 venue TOL 2M0 P.O. » None * 571458 AB 589020 AB 571962 AB Meter its None PB 500165 H 2003128 PB 152418 PB 500245 Regi st. None 'R' Block 'R* Block 'R' Block handstamp, handstamp, handstamp, numbering numDering number!ng handstamp by hand by hand 203 SPORTS PHILATELISTS INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT: John Osborne, 236 Bexley Lane, Sidcup, Kent, DA14 4JH, England VICE-PRESIDENT: Edward B. Epstein, Bd. of Education, 33 Church St., Paterson, NJ 07503 SEC-TREASURER: C. A. Reiss, 15415 Lake Ave., Lakewood, OH 44107 DIRECTORS: Glen A. Estes, Box 431, Westport, NY 12993 Francis Daziniere, 5 Rue de la Republique, 24260 Le Bugue, France Joseph M. Lacko, 1031 W. Chestnut St., Union, NJ 07083 Ward H. Nichols, P.O. Box 8314, Ann Arbor, Ml 48107 Sherwin D. Podolsky, 16035 Tupper St., Sepulveda, CA 91343 Robert E. Wilcock, 24 Hamilton Cresent, Brentwood, CM 14 5ES England Lester M. Yerkes, P.O. Box 40771, St. Petersberg, FL 33743 AUCTIONS: MEMBERSHIP: Margaret A. Jones, 3715 Ashford-Dunwoody Road, N.E., Atlanta, GA 30319 SALES DEPT: Jack W. Ryan. 140 W. Lafayette Road, Apt. 3, Medina, OH 44236 Sports Philatelists International is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to the study and collecting of postage stamps and related collateral material dealing with sports (including Olympics) and recreation and to the promotion of international understanding and goodwill through mutual interest in philately and sports. Its activities are planned and carried on entirely by the unpaid, volunteer services of its members. All members in good standing receive the bi-monthly issue of Journal of Sports Philately. The dues for regular U.S. membership are $6.00, foreign $8.00 (airmail is additional) per year plus a one time admission fee of 31.00. Membership applications may be obtained from Margaret A. Jones, 3715 Ashford-Dunwoody Rd., N.E., Atlanta, GA 30319 USA. •Bl EDITOR: John La Porta, P.O. Box 2286, La Grange, IL 60525-8386 ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Edward B. Epstein, Bd Of Education, 33 Church St., Paterson, NJ 07503 Glenn A. Estus, Box 451. Westport, NY 12993 Margaret A. Jones, 3715 Ashford-Dunwoody Road N.E., Atlanta, GA 30319 Joseph M.