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Glen Stephens
Monthly "Stamp
News"
Market Tipster Column
September 2008
“Olympex” Beijing 2008 A Smash
|
I received a report on this show from David Maiden as this column was being typed mid August. The games related show was called – “Olympex - Olympic Expo Beijing 2008.” David was Group Manager Philatelic, for Australia Post from 1991 to 2002, and Special Olympic Advisor to the Greek Post Office from 2003-04, and is a Member of the Australian Philatelic Order. More importantly he was the real mastermind behind the super successful "Australia 99" in Melbourne, and so knows a thing or three about large International stamp gatherings! Maiden also oversaw the issue of world’s first “instant” stamps – for the 2000 Olympics Gold Medal winners. And was right behind this Beijing Exhibition. |
Part of “Olympex 2008”
|
I write this piece, as it is most encouraging to see that the emerging stamp market of China seems to be VERY much alive and well and vibrant! Many folks wonder aloud if stamps have a future. Well if “just” a million Chinese get interested in stamps, philately is in VERY safe hands going forward. |
First hand report:
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Maiden told me mid August: "There are 34 booths in Hall 7 and every booth is three deep with customers, and most have queues 10 to 15 metres long, waiting to buy. Everywhere I look there is a frenzy of activity. “The air is electric and I can hardly hear myself think as booth holders and their wonderful volunteer staff literally run back and forth from counter to stock shelf to serve the sea of customers. "The Opening Day (Friday afternoon) was very good in terms of attendance, and Day Two (Saturday) was excellent, but today has been truly outstanding. It seems like everyone in Beijing who is not at a sporting event is here “Official figures are not available yet, but a straw poll I have taken amongst experienced booth holders suggests we have had at least 40,000 people through in two and half days already. "Despite the frenzy of activity, the organisation and order is excellent, thanks to the volunteer guides ( 1000 of them ) and to the overwhelming friendliness of the Beijingers, who are celebrating a special time for their city and nation. "Never in my most optimistic dreams could I have imagined how successful it would be. China Post and the IOC have pulled out all stops to make this Expo an absolute show stopper. It is the best conducted and best attended I have ever seen. “It is not just the large crowds and the level of sales, it’s the entire organisation and operation of the Expo that is so impressing everyone. “Time is now 4pm, and I have had to interrupt writing this several times during the day to go and assist Max Stern, and the Greek Post Office tear stamps to keep up with the incessant demand. “Max has 5 people in his booth working flat out, and the Greeks have 9 staff, and crowds of 3 and 4 deep continue to surround the booth” David Maiden concluded. |
Non-stop
crowds This is indeed great news for
stamp that the world's most populous country is getting
so excited abut the hobby. I phoned Sam Seigel, Managing
Director of Max Stern and Company in mid August, to ask
what feedback he had received. Sam has worked in the business
for decades, and said all the reports he'd heard back
from China were incredibly positive. "Max has needed to increase
our sales staff there in Beijing from 5 staff, to eleven
- and even that is not coping with the lines"
Seigel told me. Seigel continued - "Max has
been attending stamp shows worldwide over the past 70
years or so, and told me this has been the biggest and
best run show he has ever been involved in." That is indeed some endorsement!
Max with army of staff
Where Max gets the
energy from I truly do
not know. He is 87
years old, and I
understand is the oldest
registered soccer player
in Australia.
"Max still trains
twice a week, plays each
Sunday, and is an active
Committee member of his
beloved Maccabi Soccer
Club” Sam told me.
Seeing DOUBLE in Roos
Well “it
never rains but
it pours” as
the old saying
goes.
Not just ONE
previously
unknown First
Watermark
Kangaroo was
recently
auctioned with a
“kiss print” –
but TWO.
Premier Postal
auctions in
Melbourne
invoiced a 1913
2/- Brown “kiss
print” late July
for $A18,150 to
a local
collector –
around 3 times
the $6,500
estimate.
I wrote a
feature piece on
this stamp in my
July 2008
column.
To re-cap -
Melbourne dealer
Kevin Morgan
bought some
Kangaroos off
Richard Juzwin,
took a few
better items out
of it for his
auction as
separate lots,
and sold off the
balance.
One of the
better items
taken aside was
a group of 8 x
perforated large
“OS” 1913
Kangaroos. It
went to auction
at 21st Century
Auctions on
November 30,
2007, and
attracted no
bidders.
Melbourne dealer
David Wood was
glancing through
the unsold lots,
and bought this
card of
Kangaroos for
stock at a
nominal sum.
Double Vision
On closer inspection,
Wood noticed the 2/-
value appeared to have a
doubled frame line at
base. A closer look
revealed more design
doubling.
Further research has
confirmed that this is
in fact only the third
copy of this variety to
be discovered. All
three “OS” copies show a
similar example of the
"double print" and all
are postmarked in
Melbourne during July
1914.
The ACSC catalogue makes
a note that this is
probably a “kiss print”
rather than a true
double print.
In fact all the other
“double prints” in the
Kangaroo issues are
thought to be actually
kiss prints. (A “kiss
print” occurs when paper
"flaps" onto the
printing plate twice -
usually caused by the
paper not sitting flat.)
The 2/- stamp recently
received a 2008 RPSV
Certificate, stating it
was a genuine copy of
ACSC 35c “Double Print”.
Even the astounding $7¼
million Arthur Gray
Kangaroo collection did
not contain this error.
One of the few SG listed
Kangaroo errors he was
missing – possibly the
only one.
Premier owner David Wood
told me after the
auction: “we had two
very determined local
bidders for this error,
and we were pleased with
the final price.”
Second Error Appears
|
A few weeks later on August 11th, Charles Leski in Melbourne auctioned a 10/- Kangaroo, also in the 1913 First Watermark. It was described as a “Double Print” and had no certificate. |
Sold for
$A29,125
|
The ACSC makes no mention of any kiss prints being recorded on this stamp. It was invoiced for $A29,125 - also to a local Australian buyer. The sale received quite a deal of general media coverage - print, radio and TV, which is great for stamps. Charles Leski was quoted on an ABC national television piece as saying the vendor bought in an album of stamps for sale, and this item was noticed among it. Both stamps being auctioned also attracted a good deal of discussion on stampboards.com One member there pointed out the Leski copy had been auctioned as a “double print” at a US auction in May 2008 for just $US2,800 plus commission, so the Leski invoice price was near 10 times that figure – a massive gain for someone in a couple of months. Stampboards member Simon Dunkerley commented in the same discussion he’d purchased a very similar, and nearly as pronounced error on this 1913 10/- Roo at a Melbourne Auction in February 2008, for $A1,050 plus commission, and sold it on for a modest mark up. |
USA Highest Value
Here’s a
trivia
question
many
will not
be able
to
answer
unless
you have
cheated,
and
looked
at the
nearby
illustration.
Question
- what
is the
highest
denomination
postage
stamp
issued
by the
USA in
their
161 year
stamp
issuing
history?
The
answer
is
$16.50,
and that
stamp
was only
issued
on June
20. It
was a
stamp
depicting
Hoover
Dam,
designed
by Carl
T.
Hermann
of
Carlsbad,
California.
Named
after
President
Herbert
Hoover,
the
Hoover
Dam is a
US
national
historic
landmark.
The
stamp
artwork,
by Dan
Cosgrove,
Chicago,
Illinois,
depicts
a view
looking
upstream.
Nevada
is on
the
left,
and
Arizona
is on
the
right.
The
first
version
|
Hoover Dam, also often known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the USA states of Arizona and Nevada. When completed in 1935, it was both the world's largest electric power producing facility, and the world's largest concrete structure. There is enough concrete in the dam to pave a two-lane highway from San Francisco to New York. The dam, located 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Las Vegas, is named after Herbert Hoover, who played an instrumental role in its construction, first as Secretary of Commerce, and then later as President of the United States. Construction began in 1931 and was completed in 1935, more than two years ahead of schedule. There were 112 deaths associated with the construction of the dam. The first concrete was placed into the dam on June 6, 1933. Since no structure of the magnitude of the Hoover Dam had been constructed, many of the procedures used in construction of the dam were untried, and pure theory. |
The Naming Shuffle
|
The dam, originally planned for a location in Boulder Canyon, was relocated to Black Canyon for better impoundment, but was still known as the Boulder Dam project. At the official beginning of the project on September 17, 1930, President Hoover's Secretary of the Interior announced that the new dam on the Colorado River would be named “Hoover Dam” to honour the then President of the United States. A Congressional Act of February 14, 1931, made the name "Hoover Dam" official. When Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office on March 4, 1933, he moved quickly to re-name the dam honouring the candidate he had just defeated. Roosevelt arranged an edict to this effect in May 1933 re-stating the "Boulder Dam" nomenclature. This did not happen immediately, but over the following several years all references to "Hoover" Dam in official sources, as well as tourist and other promotional materials, vanished in favour of "Boulder" Dam. Indeed, soon after this, in 1935 the 3c violet stamp shown nearby was issued showing the “new” name, and 73,610,650 copies were sold.
|
Highest Face Value Ever
|
Roosevelt died in 1945. On March 4, 1947 California Republican Congressman Jack Anderson submitted House Resolution 140 to "restore" the name Hoover Dam. Anderson’s resolution passed the House on March 6. A companion resolution passed the Senate on April 23, 1947. On April 30, 1947, President Harry S. Truman signed Public Law 43 which read: "Resolved … that the name of Hoover Dam is hereby restored. Any law, regulation, document, or record of the United States in which such dam is designated or referred to under the name of Boulder Dam shall be held to refer to such dam under and by the name of Hoover Dam." These stamps will be VERY desirable when lightly cancelled. Whenever I have goods being mailed to me from the USA I plead with the sender to use one or several of these top values. The lifespan of it will typically be short, and re-sale value high on nice used copies. I think it is an especially ugly stamp, but that will not affect its long term value! |
Dropping The Ball
|
If you think you have seen EVERY type of stamp issued - think again! I've seen chocolate stamps, perfumed stamps, stamps that when placed in soil grow plants from embedded seeds. Bhutan stamps that play music on a gramophone, 3D stamps, hologram stamps, stamps made variously from cloth, leather, cork, foil, rubber and other plastics. Tin foil stamps, and even the pure gold plated Pope stamps issued by Australia Post earlier this year. Austria took all this one step further in May with a stamp that is an actual film clip! I saw this stamp raised by member “tservies” on stampboards.com in his popular on-line blog, or you can click this link for the discussion on it. http://www.tinyurl.com/6ccues The stamp shows three different perspectives of the winning soccer goal scored by Andreas "Andi" Herzog for Austria in 1997. This goal provided a sense of strong national pride for Austria, as their team defeated Sweden 1-0 in route to their 1998 World Cup appearance. The Austria postal administration has immortalized this television broadcast clip on a postage stamp issued May 2008 issued to mark the Union of European Football Associations 2008 series – “Euro 08”. |
Moving image
|
By using advances in existing technology, Austria Post managed to put the moving image of this goal being scored onto a postage stamp. Whilst the initial technology to do so has been around over 60 years, and has even been applied to stamps before, this is the first time that such a detailed moving image has been put onto a stamp. The technology used is called lenticular printing. This printing method relies on a special lens, called a lenticular lens, to produce its magic. First, a total of 48 snapshots, or frames, of the original television broadcast were printed in a way so that tiny strips of the original images were alternated (interlaced). When a lenticular lens is attached to this interlaced image, it allows only one set of the 48 image strips to be seen from each viewing angle. By subtly changing the viewing angle, different images are displayed; if the angle is moved steadily, the image appears to move. |
A Film Clip Stamp
|
Lenticular printing is not new. Many readers can remember getting little square inserts out of breakfast cereal boxes as kids that would change image when viewed from different angles. Even some simple 2-dimensional dolls and similar products had eyes that would blink based on the viewing angle. All of these were early forms of the lenticular printing process. |
Modern Technology
Those early lenticular images
were somewhat crude, and the motion produced was very
jerky. The technology at that time permitted only a few
images interlaced together, usually 2 or 3, and because
of this, each image had to show a great range of motion.
The human eye requires 16-24
images per second in order for it to be considered
smooth movement. This Austrian stamp is by far
the most complex lenticular image ever to appear on
stamps. Other countries, such as Finland, Ireland, and
Switzerland have produced lenticular images in the
recent past, but those images are not nearly as involved
as the Austrian stamps. The stamp is valid for postage,
although I think it doubtful that many people would use
the stamp to mail something. Most will prefer to hoard
the stamp as an interesting keepsake. Also, the stamp is of a very
high face value 5.45 Euros, so it would not be used for
letter mail, but for packages, overseas mail or
expedited or Registered services etc. The stamp is very large. It
measures 6.5cm (2.6 inches) wide by 4.7cm (1.9 inches)
tall. With its size, denomination, and the novelty of
moving images, it is sure to stand out in any stamp
collection. The stamp can be purchased from
Austrian Post's online shop at face value 5.45 Euros, or
from all leading new issue dealers.
Second Time Lucky
Soccer
is not
always
kind to
PO’s.
Austria
bombed
out
badly
earlier
in 2008
when
they
issued a
soccer
ball
stamp -
that did
not
stick to
mail!
Red-faced
officials
at the
Austrian
post
office
had to
withdraw
thousands
of
expensive
“Euro
08”
postage
stamps,
made of
the same
rubbery
material
as the
official
Adidas
Euro
football
-
because
they do
not
stick.
The
round
stamp
which
cost
3.75
Euros,
was made
to look
like the
official
ball of
this
year's
football
tournament,
the new
Adidas "Europass."
The stamps had been available
for nearly two weeks, however despite costing nearly
twenty times the price of a normal stamp to make, large
numbers were withdrawn and had to be replaced, because
they simply refused to stick to envelopes! Some 490,000 of the special
stamps were printed, and could have been purchased in
Austria for €3.75 from all post office branches and
online. The 69cm diameter ball has been
shrunk to just 36mm, and the stamp is made of the exact
same material as the UEFA European Championship ball – a
synthetic mixed with polyurethane. "The Europass stamp is our
most sophisticated stamp in terms of typography and
fabric," said Erich Haas, the head of philately at
the Austrian Post Office, prior to the issue date .. and
prior to learning they did not STICK!
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Time and Temp in Sunny Sydney! |
GLEN $TEPHEN$ Full Time Stamp Dealer in Australia for over 25 years.
Life Member - American Stamp
Dealers' Association. (New York)
Also Member - Philatelic Traders' Society. (London) ANDA. (Melbourne) American Philatelic Society, etc
"Lothlórien4 The
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