Volume 2, Number 10

Irish Philatelic Newsletter

Volume 2, Number 10                                                                                                                   October, 2000

A periodic publication for the members of the Éire Philatelic Association, the Irish Airmail Society, the Irish Philatelic Circle and the Forschungs-und Arbeitsgemeinschaft Irland e.V. The newsletter will be e-mailed to all interested members.

Published and edited by Michael Connolly
 
A Colourful Topic
Stan Challis
challis@guernsey.net

Most collectors of postal history material have found the same postmark at various times used in more than one colour.  Sometimes there is some doubt as to what the colour is really meant to be – blacks became grey and then blue grey and greenish blue etc.  There were clearly problems mixing ink at some offices.

I just found I have the same PAID AT DONEGAL mark used in 1840 in black and red and then in 1846 in blue. One must ask why?  All are on standard penny letters to Dublin. (see attachments).  Was there difficulty in getting certain colour inks? did the surveyors order changes? did postmasters decide that blue was clearer than black etc.?  or did the request come from Dublin Head Office to facilitate reading the postmarks?

Does anyone know; does anyone have the same postmark used in four different distinct colours?  Perhaps some other readers can come up with some ideas on coloured postmarks – a colourful topic!

Best wishes

Stan Challis
Guernsey

Éire Philatelic Association Postal Auction 123
Joe Foley
JFoley4197@aol.com

Auction 123 is in the mail. Delivery by the USPS was greater than normal last time, so the usual closing date has been extended by two and a half weeks.

Closing Date: November 17, 2000

PREVIEW

It’s a large sale with 383 lots. Included are an interesting array of flight covers, a 1933 Irish acceptance Zeppelin cover and a 1929 acceptance for an early airmail to India. Overprint highlights include the high value Dollards, a coil tab leader and an inserted accent. There are some attractive early Great Britain used in Ireland covers, including postal stationery. A member who is disposing of most of her Irish postal stationery collection has a significant portion in this sale, including stamped to order material. We are using the Jung catalog as a reference for this section. Complete booklets comprise more than twenty lots. There are two large lots of early 19th century newspaper stamps on complete documents. Commemorative mint blocks make up a major section. The airmails include an example of the 3d major re-entry on a contemporary non-philatelic cover. Postage dues comprise nineteen lots.

There should be something for everyone in this sale.

Regards to all.

Joe Foley

IMP Notes 

IMP 20 – Ireland Needs A / Change of Heart
Maurice Barrett 
maurice.barrett@ie.pwcglobal.com 

I can report a new IMP from the DMC which I am referencing as IMP 20. It is worded Ireland needs a / Change of Heart and has an illustration of a heart in the slogan. This slogan has been noted in use only at the DMC and IMP 18 (the euro) is still in use at the PMC, at least up to and including 2 October 2000. IMP 20 was first seen used on machine 1, DMC on 2 October 2000 and machine 2, DMC on 29 September 2000. IMP 18 (the euro) was used on machine 1, DMC up to and including 1 October 2000.

A publicity campaign for healthier lifestyles is being run nation-wide at the moment and the slogan is obviously part of that campaign. Heart disease is one of the major causes of death in Ireland.

Regards,

MAURICE BARRETT

ÉPA Commodore John Barry Chapter Meeting
Michael Connolly

The New York/New Jersey chapter of the ÉPA will be holding a meeting at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 11, 2000, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, 11th Avenue and 35th Street, New York City, in conjunction with the ASDA 2000 MegaEvent

I will be making a presentation entitled  “IRISH PHILATELY.COM – The Influence of the World Wide Web on Our Collecting“. 

Any collectors who might be interested are encouraged to join us.  If you are going to be in the Big Apple that weekend, please feel free to drop by.  If you have Irish material for auctioning, bring it along and we will conduct a mini-auction

A Call For Articles
The Editor

Currently, our readership is at 184. We are still managing to get an Irish Philatelic Newsletter out every month.  One of the nice things about putting together this newsletter is that we are not constrained by having to fill a specific number of pages.  It’s also great that there are no printing or mailing costs. The one thing we do try to watch out for is not getting the email too large.  It’s a constant battle between trying to keep the illustrations down to a minimum byte size and keeping the quality of the image up to par.  A well illustrated issue can easily run to 600k bytes and we occasionally get complaints from the readership about the long download time.

As of today we have no backlog of articles for publication in November and it has been some while now since we received any material.  So, put your thinking caps on, make sacrifices to your muse, delve through your extensive and fascinating collection and put pen to paper (or fingertips to keyboard) and let us know what’s on your mind.  A question about a puzzling item, a little-known bit of information about one of your special interests, a particular cover that you feel is a gem; any of these are worth sharing.  Give it a try!

Potato Info Request
Joseph Puentes
makas@nc.rr.com

I am interested in finding out if any Irish stamps have pictures of potatoes on them. If so, what would it cost to purchase some of the less expensive stamps?

Thanks much,

Joseph Puentes

Share a Smile
Michael Connolly

I received this and wanted to pass it on to all of you.

Smiling is infectious,
you catch it like the flu.
When someone smiled at me today,
I started smiling too.

I passed around the corner
and someone saw my grin.
When he smiled I realized
I’d passed it on to him .

I thought about that smile,
then I realized its worth.
A single smile, just like mine,
could travel round the earth.

So, if you feel a smile begin,
don’t leave it undetected.
Let’s start an epidemic quick
and get the world infected!!!

Editorial statement:

In today’s cyber-age, its only fitting that we interact in cyberspace. I can’t see any reason why the members of our societies should not join in. More and more of our members are now accessing e-mail and the internet.

To subscribe to the Newsletter, send a request by e-mail to webmaster.  To remove yourself from receiving the Newsletter, send your request to the same e-mail address. 

Viewing of the newsletter is available online. 

Past issues are archived and are also available online.  E-mail requests for back issues are also accepted.

Members are encouraged to contribute articles or bits of news to the newsletter.  I believe that learned treatises belong in our society journals, where they can be shared with all members. I don’t feel that a newsletter should ever attempt to be a replacement for our journals.

“Newsy” bits would certainly interest me personally and would seem to be ideal for a newsletter such as this.

Requests for information and help with puzzling items can be submitted and, hopefully, some reader will have an answer.

Brief articles or informational pieces would also be welcome.

If you have e-mail access, you can send articles by e-mail to webmaster.

For those in the U.S.A., libraries providing access and free e-mail sites are proliferating.  Members could access the Web even without home or office access to cyberspace.

Input from members can even come via our beloved snail-mail.

Submitters should understand that any material published in the newsletter would, automatically, become available for publication in our journals.