Volume 3, Number 3

Irish Philatelic Newsletter

Volume 3, Number 3                                                                                                                                          March, 2001

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
 
IMP Notes 

IMP 24
Maurice Barrett
maurice.barrett@ie.pwcglobal.com

Today, 1 March 2001, I saw a new IMP slogan, from DMC machine 1, dated 28 February 2001, numbered 1 37 03303, with the wording: 29th IAAF / IRELAND / World / X Country / Championships / DUBLIN MARCH 24 – 25 and with a symbol  that looks like a star or a runner! (presumably it’s the logo of the Championships or the IAAF , the Irish Amateur Athletics Federation).  The holding of the Championship itself is in doubt due to travel restrictions because of the FMD (foot and mouth  disease) outbreak so the slogan may be short lived.

Prize.buy.Com was used at DMC 1 and DMC 2 on 27 February 2001. The only other slogan that I have seen for 28 February 2001 is PMC 2 – it too was Prize.buy.Com

Other IMP News

John Lennon has two covers from DMC machine 1 for 31 January 2001 at 7.30 pm.  The indent numbers were close.  The slogan was incorrect on both – it was the Post Early For Christmas slogan. It would appear that somebody incorrectly changed over for the new February slogan but made the wrong choice and the error was noticed after some covers had been processed.

Regards,

MAURICE BARRETT

IMP 25
Maurice Barrett
maurice.barrett@ie.pwcglobal.com

As I suspected, IMP 24 (“….. World X Country…..”) was short lived. The championships were to have been held in Dublin on the weekend of 24 and 25 March 2001 but, due to FMD restrictions, they have been transferred to Brussels for the same weekend.

IMP 24 was last seen used on 5 March 2001.

A new IMP slogan, IMP 25 worded: DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE /FOOT AND MOUTH ADVICE /
FREEPHONE 1800 607 608 /WWW.IRLGOV.IE/DAFF all inside a box is in use at both the DMC and the PMC on and from 6 March 2001.

Regards,

MAURICE BARRETT

IMP 26
Maurice Barrett
maurice.barrett@ie.pwcglobal.com

IMP 26 is now in use at both Dublin and Portlaoise Mail Centres. It is worded: DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE / 
FOOT AND MOUTH ADVICE / LO-CALL 1890 607 608 / WWW.IRLGOV.IE/DAFF all inside a box. As John Lennon has already noted, this change from Freephone to Lo-Call was made as the Freephone line was being abused by hoax callers. The slogan is the same layout as IMP 25.

The earliest dates seen foe IMP 26 are DMC and DMC 2 – 9 March 2001.  PMC 2 – 10 March 2001. I have seen no PMC slogans of any description for 9 March 2001. I have seen no PMC 1 slogans for 10 March 2001.

For those interested, the World Cross Country Championships scheduled for Dublin this month, will now be held in Belgium but the 2001 Championships will take place in Ireland (IMP 24 refers).

The Republic of Ireland is free of FMD and only one case has been reported in Northern Ireland. Over 150 cases have been recorded in Great Britain.

Regards,

MAURICE BARRETT

More IMP 26
Maurice Barrett
maurice.barrett@ie.pwcglobal.com

I can confirm that IMP 26 (“…..FOOT AND MOUTH…..LO-CALL…..”) was also used at the PMC on 9 March 2001, machine 2.

Regards,

MAURICE BARRETT

IMP 23-25
John Lennon 
johnglennon@eircom.net

This is the sequence of the changes from IMP 23 to 25

                       Dublin (D1,D2)

D1 & D2 both had ‘prizebuy.com’ on 27/2.  D2 began at 1400hrs 28/2 with the new ‘X Country’ slogan, but D1 continued with ‘.com’ until shortly after 1500hrs when it then changed over to the new slogan. This is the first time I have seen such a change-over. Previously changes were made while machines were not in action; either over-night (usually) or during one of the two normal one-hour stops in the day.   The last ‘.com’ I have is 130001895 and first ‘X Country’ 13005735.

Both machines ran with ‘X Country’ until Monday 5/3. D2 finished just before midnight (24710095) but D1 ran to shortly after (10005392).

When the two machines started again at the normal 1400hrs on 6/3 they had the ‘Foot & Mouth’ slogan. I have only 3 examples of D1 for 1400hrs (I usually get about 20 for each half hour) and they all have very high numbers (12818895 – 12819823).

                      Portlaoise (P1,P2)

P1 seems to have been giving trouble and didn’t run from 1300hrs on Sat(unusual) 24/2 until Fri. 2/3 1930hrs when it used ‘X Country’. Before 2000hrs it had deteriorated so much that ‘X Country Championships’, the date and the time were only showing a few bits and were illegible. It hadn’t improved when it finished before 2200hrs. P1 next ran on Tues. 6/3 with ‘Foot & Mouth’ at 1330hrs. My 5 examples have high numbers (12712394 – 12713824).

P2 continued with ‘.com’ to 1/3 1645hrs and resumed at 1930hrs with ‘X Country’. My 19 examples have high numbers (23907771 – 23914589). This machine ran until 5/3 (except 4/3) with this slogan and started around
1345hrs on 6/3 with ‘Foot & Mouth’.

The high numbers could mean that a lot of blanks were run through before going ‘live’ or that it didn’t ‘zero’  before starting.

The Foot & Mouth slogan gives a Freephone number which has been abused so much that it is being replaced with a Local Call number so there’s probably another change on the way.

The scarce item will be legible ‘X Country’ on P1

John Lennon

A Latvia Trio
Stan Challis
challis@guernsey.net

Mail from Latvia into Ireland doesn’t exactly grow on trees � the number of surviving censored covers can perhaps, I suggest, be counted in double figures.  I was delighted to have the opportunity last year to acquire the three attached items.  The stamps are of little value, but there is lots of history � both postal and real and tragic events.

Item one posted on 15 February 1940 was routed airmail via Stockholm through London, the assumed routing before war broke out.  Latvia was neutral at this time (with a not insignificant German speaking minority), as was Sweden.  Censored only in Dublin by censor 4.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Item two posted on 27 April 1940 is endorsed �via Moscow�.  At the time of posting German troops had just gone into Norway and the previous routing via Stockholm was not available. How much of the journey was by air mail and the exact route is, at the moment, a matter of conjecture.  A suggested routing could have been, Riga, Leningrad, Moscow, Kiev, Bucharest, Belgrade, Rome, Marseilles, and through France to London, but this is at best tentative. Italy was not then in the war and the western front was not to explode until 10 May. Who knows more?  The item has been censored in the UK and Ireland (censor 29).  Happily (from a collecting point of view, but no doubt both sender and addressee had great concerns at the time) Mrs. Cormack was away in Leitrim so we know that delivery was originally made in Dublin on or just prior to 14 May.
 
 

Item three posted on 20 June 1940 is endorsed via Siberia and United States. By now France and the Low Countries had been occupied and Italy was a belligerent.  This is stamped at just 35 santimi, the surface letter rate (others are at 50s air mail rate).  Routing was seemingly via the Trans-Siberian railway to Vladivostock, then perhaps via Japan and by surface to perhaps San Francisco, across the USA by train and thence by ship to the UK (where it was censored) and then to Ireland (censor 9) � the most indirect route into Ireland I have found. Again we know the approximate delivery date in Dublin � 29 august, a journey of 70 days. The Latvian government fell on 22 June, two days after this was posted, Soviet troops moved in and the country was incorporated into the USSR where it was to stay, for the next 50 years.

An indication of the unreliability of mail at this time is that the sender was still writing to Mrs. Cormack in Dublin in late June when she had clearly moved to Leitrim by mid May.  In many respects it is a miracle that anything got through at all.

If anybody knows more about the individual routings, I would love to hear from them. 

Cathedral Stamps 

COMMEMORATIVES
31.12.00 Millennium 5th Phase World Events
01.01.01 Millennium 6th Phase Epic Journeys No Official First Day Covers were available.
24.01.01 Love Stamp Adhesive 
24.01.01 Greeting Booklet  5 Self Adhesive Stamps 
24.01.1  Year of the Snake Miniature Sheet 

BIRDS SERIES
New Printings reported and Found are 1p CCP1, 10p CCP1.  NO FIRST DAY COVERS ARE KNOWN TO EXIST

SELF ADHESIVE 30p PHOSPHORS ISSP Printing with NO SELVEDGE around Stamps.  PERF 9 with Colour labels throughout, the same as the Aviation Self Adhesive Issue, This Issue has not been readily available 
as far as we can gather and NO ISSUE DATE IS AVAILABLE AT PRESENT.

BOOKLETS
2001 Greetings has changed to Self adhesive
2001 Definitive £3 HOLIDAY CCP3 PHOSPHOR New Printing Found Right Margin has a Missing Perforation in the Margin, 4 Perfs only on the one seen and reported.

Declan O Kelly
Cathedral Stamps

We have moved around the corner from our old shop at Marlborough Street to new larger premises at 8 Cathedral Street (off O�Connell Street) Dublin 1.  The new premises is approx. 5 times the size of our old shop.  100 yards from the GPO, turn into Cathedral Street at Burger King and we are 20 yards down on the right above SPORTSMITH .  Entrance through the Sports Shop. 

Auction Action 

Éire Philatelic Association 
Joe Foley 
JFoley4197@aol.com

PRICES REALIZED – AUCTION #123                               (Lots not listed were not sold) 
1
14.00
2
3.25
3
4.25
4
5.50
5
18.00
6
5.00 
7
5.00
8
4.00
10
2.00
12
0.25
19
0.75
20
1.25 
22
1.00
23
2.00
26
0.75
27
1.25
28
0.75
29
1.00 
34
2.00
35
6.50
36
7.50
37
7.00
39
1.25
41
0.75 
42
7.00
46
2.00
48
1.50
49
4.75
53
1.25
56
5.50 
59
11.00
60
9.00
61
5.50
62
6.50
64
6.50
65
0.50 
66
8.00
67
2.25
68 
27.50
69
2.50
70A
8.50
70B
8.50 
71
110.00
73
21.00
74
27.50
77
11.00
78
11.00 
79
3.25 
81
5.50
82
1.75
85
1.00
86
1.00
101
1.50
102
1.00 
103
1.50
104
1.00
105
1.25
106
1.00
107
1.75
108
0.75 
109
0.75
110
1.50
111
2.25
112
1.75
113
21.00
114
2.25 
115
1.00
116
1.25
117
6.00
118
2.25
119
1.25
120
1.25 
123
1.75
124
2.25
126
2.75
129
1.00
130
1.75
131
1.25 
132
4.00
133
4.25
134
1.00
135
3.00
137
1.00
138
1.00
139
1.00
140
3.25
145
21.00
146
2.75
147
2.25
148
0.75 
149
0.75
150
2.25
151
1.25
162
1.25
163
1.50
164
2.25 
165
11.00
166
10.00
167
1.00
168
5.50
169
8.00
170
5.50 
171
6.60
172
10.00
173
10.00
174
21.00
177
2.50
185
1.75 
186A
1.00
186B
16.00
187
14.00
188
25.00
189
27.50
190
21.00 
191
7.00
195
3.00
196
2.75
197
3.00
198
3.00
199
2.00 
200
1.00
203
4.00
205
4.25
207
4.00
208
9.00
210
6.00
212
5.50
213
2.75
214
3.25
215
7.50
219
42.50
222
W 
226
110.00
227
27.50
228
13.00
229
14.00
230
11.00
231
5.50 
232
27.50
233
40.00
234
4.25
235
7.00
236
9.50
237
5.50 
238
47.50
239
16.00
240
5.50
241
5.50
242
6.50
243
6.50 
244
16.00
245
5.50
246
22.00
249
1.50
250
11.00
251
3.50
252
3.50
253
11.00
254
11.00
263
9.00
264
6.00
269
2.25 
278
3.25
279
1.25
314
3.25
315
15.00
316
8.50
317
17.00 
318
20.00
319
8.50
321
9.50
323
7.50
324
40.00
325
24.00 
326
225.00
327
5.50
336
5.50
337
5.50
339
11.00
340
11.00
341
11.00
343
8.00
346
5.50
348
16.00
349
7.50
352
5.50
355
1.00
356
7.50
360
3.25
361
2.00
362
2.75
363
22.00 
364
20.00
366
W
367
6.00
369
21.00
374
2.00
383
14.00
Note: some very low bids were not considered. 
W=withdrawn. 
Recent Show Awards

Corrections

Charles J. G. Verge
vergec@sympatico.ca

Would just like to correct a misstatement in the latest issue of the IPN.  It’s not yours and it’s certainly not original. It has been repeated many times. My single frame exhibit of Brown’s Brothers Nurseries at STAMPA has nothing to do with Irish philately. It is a one-frame display class exhibit on a small rural post office in Ontario, Canada that served the Nursery and a few surrounding inhabitants. In its heyday, it was the 4th largest rural post office in Canada in volume.

Brian Warren
brian.warren@ie.pwcglobal.com

My co-author of the ROI Letter Box Listing was Chris Williams, not Otto Jung.

Otto Jung
Jung.FAI@t-online.de

I do not deserve the great honour to be called co-author of Brian’s book on the letter boxes.  It is only the book on the Heritage series we did together.

Greetings across the ocean                      Otto Jung 

Re: Finding the closed offices by Stan Challis
Klaus Stange
StangeFAI@aol.com

As many of you may know my favourite County is Monaghan. I came across this one by chance as I was lucky enough to buy the collection of the late Dr. de Burca on this county. Like Cavan and Leitrim he has visited this one in 1964 and 1965, too, and took photos of most of the post offices. Meanwhile I myself have toured Monaghan several times and I have made photographs of all post offices I could find, most of which are on Michael Rupp’s CD.

I can confirm the hints Stan has given how to find PO’s. As far as telephone boxes are concerned these mostly remain at the site where they first were built. So if the premises of the PO have changed you may find the former
office near the telephone box. This is not the case with way side post boxes.  They mostly change premises together with the PO.

On former premises of PO’s you often still may find the slit for the letter box in the wall under or near a window.  And Stan is right: You always find someone who may be of help. And if you are not successful: Look for the next
church – the priest will do the job for you, even if you are a protestant!

Best wishes to you all.
Klaus Stange

Re: Photos of Post Offices 
Dave Brennan
BRENNAN704@aol.com

Glad to see the responses to the TPO sign on the side of the mail carriage car resting in Downpatrick.  I should have told you that it came from the Republic and not Northern Ireland.

Dave

Birds Self Adhesive
Padraig O Shea
raven1@indigo.ie

Totally new printing of the Birds Self Adhesive from Irish Security Stamp Printers new perforation perf 9. Now the excess paper has been trimmed and they resemble the Sprintpac format but without the Logo on the reverse. In addition there are various advertising messages included throughout the roll. A full listing follows 

BSA 1.  30 P Self adhesive strip of 4 with Leader Label �To know more about our services Callsave 1850  262362� printed in black on white label. 

BSA 2.  30p Self adhesive strip of 4 with label between �Always Include a return address on your envelope� printed in green on yellow label.

BSA 3.  30p Self adhesive coil join strip of 4 with label between �Remember to seal your envelope� printed in green on orange label.

BSA 4.  30p Self adhesive strip of 4 with label between �Priority for faster overseas delivery� printed in white on dark blue label.

BSA 5.  30p Self adhesive coil join strip of 4 with label Registered the safest way to send all your documents� printed in white on light blue label. 

BSA 6.  30p Self adhesive strip of 4 with label between �Swiftpost guaranteed next day delivery nationwide� printed in white on red label. 

BSA 7.  30p Self adhesive coil join strip of 4 with label between �Always Include a return address on your envelope� printed in green on yellow label. 

BSA 8.  30p Self adhesive strip of 4 with label between �Remember to seal your envelope� printed in green on orange label. 

BSA 9.  30p Self adhesive coil join strip of 4 with label between �Only 20 stamps left� printed in yellow on green label. 

BSA 10. 30p Self adhesive strip of 4 with label between �Only 10 stamps left� printed in yellow on green label. 

BSA 11. Complete set of one of each of the above items, offered only as long as stocks last.

BSA 12. Full box containing 100 stamps with all of the above instructional labels. 

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 from the ÉPA web page. 

Past issues are archived and are available for online retrieval, again from the ÉPA web page.  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.