POSTAL STATIONERY COLLECTOR Volume 17 No 2: Issue No 66 August 2011 THE POSTAL STATIONERY SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA The Postal Stationery Society of Australia has been established to encourage the collecting of postal stationery in Australia and New Zealand and to provide a forum for postal stationery collectors to maintain contact with other stationery collectors and to learn more about their hobby. The Society is not based in any particular city or state and plans to hold meetings at national and state level exhibitions. Subscription rate for 2011 has been set at $35 (Australia) and $50 (Overseas excluding New Zealand which is $40). For further information please contact the Convenor, Secretary or your State Coordinator. Membership enquiries should be addressed to the Secretary. OFFICE BEARERS: CONVENOR: Ian McMahon, PO Box 783, Civic Square ACT 2608 SECRETARY Judy Kennett, PO Box 16, Ulmarra NSW 2462. Email: [email protected] TREASURER John Crowsley, PO Box 2296 Keperra Qld 4054 . Email: [email protected] STATE COORDINATORS QLD Joan Orr, 7 Mizzen St, Manly West Qld 4179 SA Martin Walker, PO Box 247, Torrensville Plaza, SA 5031 WA Ray Todd, PO Box 158, Dunsborough, WA 6281 NSW Bernie Doherty, PO Box 18, Waratah NSW TAS Malcolm Groom, 225 Warwick Street, West Hobart Tas VIC John Sinfield, PO Box 548, Heathmont, Vic 3135. ACT Ian McMahon, PO Box 783, Civic Square ACT 2608 NZ Norman Banfield, 14 Rata Rd, Raumati Beach Wellington New Zealand Web page: http://www.postalstationeryaustralia.com/ Postal Stationery Collector Editor: Ian McMahon Contributions to the Postal Stationery Collector should be sent to Ian McMahon, PO Box 783 Civic Square ACT 2608. Articles on any postal stationery topic are welcomed and, if possible should be submitted electronically. Email the Editor at [email protected] for instructions. Illustrations should be good quality scans. Book reviews, news items, information on new issues and members classifieds are also welcome. Letters to the Editor and comments on articles published are encouraged. COPYRIGHT: The copyright of the contents of the Postal Stationery Collector is held by the Postal Stationery Society of Australia. Items may be reproduced only with the written consent of the Editor. ISSN 1324-2105 CONTENTS From the Editor 34 Australia 1d George V Full-Face Stationery Geoff Kellow 35 An Unusual Type of Error - Inside Out Postal Stationery? David Smitham 38 Is It Postal Stationery? Wayne Menuz 40 The Other Side: Social History through Postal Stationery Pieter Koster 42 Non-Denominational Numbers on Newspaper Wrappers: Control Marks, Weight Messages, Rate Tables, Dates Integral to the Design, & Other John Courtis 50 A Tribute to the Work of Col. Carl Stieg Judy Kennett 56 PSSA Forum 59 Listing of Australian Non-Denominated Postal Stationery Ian McMahon 60 From the Secretary 61 Literature Judy Kennett and Ian McMahon 61 New Issues 63 POSTAL STATIONERY COLLECTOR: SALE OF BACK ISSUES The Postal Stationery Society of Australia has been publishing its journal Postal Stationery Collector since May 1995. It is distributed to financial members four times each year, in February, May, August and November. The Society has always maintained a stock of back issues, which are for sale to both members and non-members. Description Issues 1- 9 were produced as photocopies in A4 format, with corner staples, and are available only in that form. They are for sale at $4.00 each, which includes postage in Australia. Airmail postage to overseas countries is an additional charge. Issues 10 - 45 are available as original copies, in A4 format and saddle stapled, at $5 each. This includes postage in Australia, but airmail postage to overseas destinations is extra. Current issues No 46 onwards, are available as original copies, in A4 format and saddle stapled, at $6 each. This includes postage in Australia, but airmail postage to overseas destinations is extra. Reductions will be available on orders of five (5) copies or more. Payment Payment is to be made to the Postal Stationery Society of Australia. In Australia, payment can be made either by cheque (made payable to the PSSA) or by credit card (Visa or Mastercard accepted). For overseas buyers, payment is by credit card. Where payment is by credit card, the transaction will be processed by the Queensland Philatelic Council. Enquiries Enquiries re price and availability are to be made either by mail to the Secretary at PO Box 16, Ulmarra NSW 2462 AUSTRALIA or enquire by email to [email protected] 33 Postal Stationery Collector FROM THE EDITOR Ray Todd RDF Congratulations to founding PSSA member, Ray Todd, who has been honoured by signing the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists and is now an RDP. Ray has also won the United Postal Stationery Society’s (UPSS) Marcus White Showcase 2010. He is shown above receiving the award from Dan Undersander of the UPSS. The Marcus White Showcase competition includes the best postal stationery exhibits from major US national exhibitions in a given year. Christmas Island Registered Envelope, Romania and USA Illustrated below are a commercially used example of the 30c Christmas Island registered envelope used to Tattersall’s, a greeting card envelope from Romania and an advertisement for personalised stamped envelopes from the US Postal Service. 34 August 2011 AUSTRALIA 1d GEORGE V FULL-FACE STATIONERY Geoff Kellow The following are some comments upon the excellent articles that appeared in the last issue of The Postal Stationery Collector on the first Full-face stationery issued by the Australian Commonwealth. 1911 1d + 1d Reply Postcard Wayne Menuz has dealt with this subject very well, and John Sinfield had also previously written on the same item (Postal Stationery Collector, No. 14, August 1998). However, the figures they give of the numbers printed and issued differ somewhat from those that have been identified when researching for the forthcoming Commonwealth stationery catalogue and it might be worthwhile to lay out all the information that has been uncovered. All the archival references are from Note Printing Branch registers held at the Reserve Bank of Australia, Sydney. NP-M-5 is a ‘Register of Production of Stamps etc.’ which runs from 1904 to 1912, and provides a summary of orders for stamps and stationery, with the date on which production commenced, and the quantity required. In late years this register is not complete, but under date 1 April 1911 for Western Australia appears the following: 1d + 1d Reply Card 816 sheets 16-on 2oz. Anti-carmine The other Full-face stationery is headed for Australia, so this order was apparently specifically for Western Australia. The total printing of 816 sheets 16-on is equivalent to 13,056 cards. (16-on for the reply cards was of course equivalent to the usual 32-on plate for single postcards). The ‘2oz. Anti- carmine’ is a reference to the amount of ink required for printing. The use of carmine ink is proof that we are dealing with the 1d Full-face design and not the Western Australia 1d Swan, printed in blue on postcards. The conclusion is that when a new order was received from Perth for 1d reply postcards, the Stamp Printer chose to set up a new plate using the 1d Full-face design, presumably considering the Swan design now obsolete. No other printings were made of this reply card simply because none of the other States for whom J.B. Cooke printed the stationery (Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania) ordered any supplies. There is no actual record of the printing of the cards, as no records for the printing of postcards have been found prior to late 1911. The stock record is however available. It should be noted that the stock record (NP-S-8) was maintained separately for each State up to the end of 1912, even though identical stationery was being produced for all of them. Under Western Australia, there are three entries for dispatch of 1d + 1d reply cards: Into Stock Issue from Stock 25 May 1911 4,440 27 June 1911 27 June 1911 1,080 28 June 1911 8 February 1912 1,680 19 June 1912 (On 19 June 1912 there was in fact 1,878 reply cards dispatched, but this included 198 which had been in stock since the beginning of 1911, which must be of the old Swan design). The total quantity delivered into stock, and dispatched to Perth was thus 7,200. Register NP-S-5 is a record of the destruction of spoiled stock. Under date 8 February 1912 there were 5,856 Western Australia 1d + 1d reply cards consigned for destruction. This was the same date the last reply cards were delivered into stock and represented a ‘cleaning up’ of the printing. It seems doubtful that this large quantity could have been spoils and may in fact have represented an unwanted surplus of this unpopular stationery. The total of deliveries plus spoils (7,200 + 5,856) is 13,056, the total quantity printed. The story in Perth must remain a mystery unless some local records are discovered. However, since 35 ` Postal Stationery Collector only 1,989 whole reply cards were returned from Perth in 1917 for conversion into single cards, 5,211 reply cards must have been previously disposed of in some way. Wayne Menuz would seem to be right in saying that the reply card was never issued and that all known copies may derive from the Australia Post archives. I currently know of five examples, one of which has the reply half cancelled to order with a Perth c.d.s., 23 DE 12. There are in addition still four reply cards held in the National Philatelic Collection. Full-face Electros In dealing with the introduction of the Full-face stationery, Mark Diserio makes reference to the Note Printing Branch records of the production of the electros as first published by Richard Peck in 1984.