POSTALHIMAL QUARTERLY OF THE NEPAL AND TIBET PHILATELIC STUDY CiRClE NEW TIBET FORGERY, 1912 issue, 1/3trangka, block of four (enlarged), with one cliche tete beche. See article on pages 45-48. No. 60 4 th Quarter 1989 POSTAL HlMAL is a quarterly publication of the Nepal • Tibet Philatelic Study Circle. Membership subscrip­ tions run from January through December of each year. Dues should be paid to the society representative in your area. Infonmation on advertising rates may be obtained from the editor. MEI-'B ERSH I P DUES USA India Nepa 1 Rest of World One Year $ 7.50 Rs 140 Rs 273 t. 6.00 Three Years $ 21.00 Rs 390 Rs 774 .1. 17.00 AND TIBET L1 fe Member $150.00 Rs 2760 Rs 5460 t. 120.00 American Philatelic Society Affiliate 1122 POSTAL HIMAL No. 60 British Philatelic Federation Affiliate 1435 4th Quarter 1989 OFFICERS AND REPRESENTATIVES Officers PRESIDENT: Dr. Pierre Couvreur PATRON: Mac Linscott Ricketts SECRETARY: Colin Hepper 12 Charnwood Close. Peterborough. Cambs .• PE2 9BZ. ENGLAND EDITOR: lester Michel 309 Yucca Circle. Colorado Springs. CO 80906-2150. USA PUBLICITY: F. Westbrook 2886 Carambola Circle South. Coconut Creek. FL 33066. USA Re~resenta t i yes EU PE COlin Hepper. 12 Charnwood Close. Peterborough. Cambs .• PE29 BZ. ENGLAND INDIA Sohan Lat Dhawan &Sons. National Agencies. Sheranwala Gate. Patiala.147 001. INDIA NEPAL Surendra Lal Shrestha. K'du. Dist. P.O.Box 72. 5/148 Ombahal. Kathmandu. NEPAl USA Roger D. Skinner. 1020 Covington Road. Los Altos. CA 94022. USA LIFE MEPeERS: S. L:Shrestha. · D. vanderWateren. W. C. Hellrigl. P. Gupta. R. Hurray. vn P • I~~ 1'iiA "'I·"' i"~lIt .... "" R~,'-11. al.a""d U"n..'" f,-,lh.· ,.~ott t 11>0__ U"rtn-~ ""-'. ~A . .. t:...... 7111_ _ . lI~t..- __ _a. s;_ Jr'*;. NEW MEMBERS: CHANGE OF ADDRESS: George Bourke , P. O. Box 564 , Be11evi11e, Mich. , 48111, USA TABLE OF CONTENTS page Editor1s Letter ...... Miche1. 41 A Report on PHILEXFRANCE 189. Co 1in Hepper " 42 A Visit to the Past President. .. ... Col in Hepper .. 42 A Book Leaves the International Scene ... Wolf gilng Hellrig1 & Frank Vignola. 43 An Interesting Historical Letter from Tibet - A Translation D. Dawson. '. 44 A New Set of Tibetan Forgeries . .. .. George Bourke.. 45 A Review of the latest issue of PHILATELY Lester ~1iche1. .. 47 A Fake Rarity of Classic Nepal ... '. .. Wo1fgang He11rigl. 49 Frank & Mae Vigno1a Survive Earthquake! Frank Vigno1a. " 50 Proposed Statutes for the N&TPSC .... .51 Study Circle Auction List No. 50 .... ...... after 52 No. 60 Fourth Quarter 1989 time! He called to 'tease' me about my forgetfulness, but did not complain! Dear Friends, No one else has objected either! Our President, Dr. Pierre Couvreur, Lester A. Michel has submitted his resignation from that CLASSIFIED ADVERTISINC office. As your editor, for more than FOR MDiBERS USE ONLY ten vears, I can only say that I have been- the beneficiary of our president's One insertion, per line $1.00 knowledge and wise counsel -- and his Four insertion., per Hne 3.50 constant encouragement. I am happy to To calculate the number of linea your report that Dr. Wolfgang C. Hellrigl is advertisement will require, count 39 expected to be confirmed as the next charactera per line, including all let­ president -- at the meeting of our Study ter., numerala, punctuation marks and Circle in London next May. For the blank spacu between \,lOrds. Ads rill benefit of our newer members I wish to be placed under appropriate heading. note that Dr. Hellrigl was one of the without charge for the headings. See 'founding father's' of the Study Circle the Classified Ad section in the final and is, without doubt, the best known pages of any issue of The AMERICAN philatelist concentrating on the phila­ PHILATELIST for typical ad headings -­ tely of the Himalayan Region. His con­ or simply send your own ad, asking the tributions to the pages of POSTAL HIMAL editor to place it under an appropriate have been most welcome on these pages, heading (at no extra cost). and we have two important contributions DEADLINE: Ad and payment in USA dol­ to this issue. lars (or in mint USA postage stamps) It is also appropriate to report that must reach the editor by the first day this editor will 'step down' from his of one of the following months -- Feb­ very rewarding position and is happy to ruary, May, August, November -- in order be replaced by a very capable and en­ for ad to appear in issues mailed about thusiastic collector and exhibitor -­ one month later. Any change of copy Mr. Leo Martyn. We hope to make the after the first insertion will be coun­ transitio n Q3 smooth as possible during ted as a new advertisement. 1990. Colin Hepper, as Secretary, will con­ tinue to wear his many hats! He, and FOR SALE other 'old-timers' in our Study Circle, have decided that our organization is mature enough to require some 'Statutes' TIBETAN FORGERIES. I have a large stock (or By-Laws). A third (or, possibly, of the older 1912 and 1933 forgeries, fourth) revision of these 'rules'is in­ as well as examples of the new 1912 for­ cluded with this issue. Final changes geries. Want lists are welcome. If you will be discussed during our meeting(s) have fo~geries for sale, I am an active in London next May. Please read these buyer. Write first before sending ma­ proposed 'Statutes' and send your sug­ terial. Trades are also welcome. If you gestions and questions to Colin by the have an interest in forgeries and would first of May, 1990, so that the discus­ like to share that interest or are look­ sions at the meeting mentioned above ing for information about Tibetan for­ may bring a consensus among 'our member ­ geries, write to me. George Bourke, ship. P.O.Box 564, Belleville, MI 48111, USA. Note that pages 39 & 40, omitted from the Third Quarter issue of POSTAL HIMAL, because of my error in counting (~), WANTED are included with this issue. That sheet, as well as the listings for Mail -Bhutan. Anything: covers, FOGs, stamps, Auction No. 50, are folded separately. proofs, essays, etc. Also loose stamps Thus, pages 39 & 40 can easily be in­ & broken sets to use for postage. Write serted in the proper place in PH No. 59. first. Nildo Harper, 510 Main St. 1910 Another mistake was made by me in Roosevelt Island, New York 10044 printing Prof. Dr. Armand Singer's one­ column article on page 30 for a second 41 A REPORT ON PHILEXFRANCE ' 89 --Colin Hepper On the weekend of 8/9th July Eleanor and I t ook a holiday break in Paris, to co-incide with the PHILEXFRANCE '89 In­ ternational stamp exhibition being held in the quite magnificent surroundings in the Pare des Expositions. On Sunday morning we visited the ex­ hibition and met up with those two most enthusuastic of our members: Dick van der Wateren and Peter Planken from Hol- i land, and, also, Jos Gobert from Belgium.! Dick and Peter had already spent most ' of the previous day at the exhibition and had already viewed the Nepal exhi­ bits of members Colin Hepper and Mr. A. Bose from India. A very pleasant couple of hours were spent over some refreshments discussing their various purchases and the items on display. Members awards at the exhibition were : "The Classic Stamps of Ne pal" received another well deserved LARGE GOLD for Wolfgang Hellrigl & Frank Vignola, with From left to right: Jos Gobert Peter Planken, Colin Hepper gaining a LARGE SILVER for Dick van der Wateren and Coli~ Hepper his Postal History exhibit. A SILVER went to Mr. Bose for his Nepal. r----.-------- A VI SIT TO THE PAST PRESIDENT --Colin Hepper I In the last weekend of July I had the pleasure of visiting Dr. Pierre Couvreur and his famil y at his home in Seillans. The weekend could have been spoiled by the fact that when we arrived in Nice, we discovered that the airline had sent our luggage to Lisbon, but Pierre and Monique came to the rescue with clothes from their wardrobe. Pierre was in excellent spirits and looked remarkably well for his 76 years. Even though he has now handed over the reins to Wolfgang, he is still very en­ thusiastic about the Circle and it~ pro­ jects. We spent some hours discussing collecting in general over a few drinks in the shade of the large trees in his garden which was most welcome with the temperatures being around 34 degrees Celcius. A very enjoyable weekend ~- and I look forward to Pierre continuing to give us his advice and guidance for many more years. relax President's home, "La Rouviere" 42 A BOOK LEAVES THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE tory of the Indian sub-continent. --Wolf gang Hellrigl & Frank Vignola However, the real success of a book With the last world philatelic exhibi­ cannot be measured just by the favour­ tion, PHILEXFRANCE '89, the final cur­ able reviews and the number of medals tain fell for a book which had been much received. There is a far more important in the limelight for the past few years. test and that is the opinion of the rea­ Published in April, 1984, "The. Clcu.6.i..c. ders .. We are happy to say that "The. Stamp.6 06 Ne.pM" was regularly exhibited ClaM-<.c. S.tamp.6 06 Ne.pM" was extremely in the literature class of the main well accepted by the growing community philatelic events until the five-year of Nepal collectors, so much so that, limit, imposed by FIP-regulations and even today, we receive occasional let­ calculated from the date of publication, ters from philatelists expressing their had expired.