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lasaboy View Drop Down
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    Posted: 08 June 2011 at 23:10
I think it sums up Cinderella's to a tee, it has certainly changed my mind on the subject
Blessings from Downunder
Larry

FLYING THE FLAG FOR ILLEGALS

By Roger B West (Avion Thematics)

When the USSR broke up a number of new issues appeared bearing the names of the new republics, names such as Altai, Buriatia, Chuvashia, Dagestan, Kalmikia, Mordovia, Sakhalin Isle, Tatarstan, Udmurtia among many others. It didn’t take long for the press to condemn them and being ‘unofficial’ they were given the name ‘illegals’. They must have proved financially rewarding for the producers as before too long, some third world territories also started appearing on the market – stamps bearing such names of Benin, Burundi, Chad, Congo, Djibouti , Malawi, Rwanda, Somalia, St Thomas etc, and these too bore the title ‘illegals’.

At one time it may have looked as if traditional philately would self destruct and the philatelic press were not slow in slanging these new issues, even suggesting they were robbing the countries concerned of revenue. I’m sure the authorities knew where these issues were coming from but must have been powerless to stop them. There followed considerable discussion at UPU level to identify these ‘illegals’ and future authorised issues were inscribed with a number.

Now, twenty years later the situation has settled down somewhat. Illegals are still being produced, albeit in more modest numbers probably governed by the knowledge of just how many the market can stand. The knockers have also quietened down a bit and attempts to list all doubtful issues seem to have proved fruitless.

But are these illegal issues really such a bad thing?

I am a thematic dealer and cater for the collector who collects by subject rather than by country. In my very early days, I was made aware of a butterfly collector who paid good money for a self-adhesive item simply because it had a butterfly logo on the backing paper. It didn’t take too long for me to realise that other thematic collectors would be looking for similar non-stamp images and to this end, I started dealing in matchbox labels, telephone cards, postcards and of course, illegals. To supplement this, apart from traditional stamps, my stock also includes other items that over the years have received their fair share of knockers – I’m referring here to GB Locals, forgeries, Gulf States and Cinderellas.

A big plus for most of the above is that they are relatively cheap and they enable one to put together a fairly comprehensive and diverse thematic collection at a reasonable cost. I believe that most collectors are aware that these dubious issues should never be used in a competition entry but in this respect, we’re only talking about a tiny percentage of the collecting fraternity. The remainder are obviously quite happy to collect such items.

Another very strong point in their favour is that the illegals are very well produced and as far as designs, printing quality and perforations are concerned, they’re as good as many and better than most.

I’m reminded here of an incident that happened one day while I was doing a stamp fair. A young lad was being a bit bothersome while his father was buying some stamps from me. To keep the lad quiet, I showed him a stockbook of aviation made up almost entirely of illegals. Not only did it keep the lad quiet but he was so taken by them that his father bought him a few. That lad is now a stamp collector thanks entirely to illegals, and if he screws them up by putting them I his pockets or takes them to school to swap for a Dinky toy or whatever, it really doesn’t matter, we all started in a similar way and we all learnt from so doing.

If we look back into the past history of postage stamps, we find that 120 years ago, there were people nagging about the USA Columbian Exposition issue. At a time when 1c and 2c stamps had postal validity, this issue contained values up to $1, $2, $3, $4 and $5 all of which were unnecessary. The total face value of the set amounted to $16.34 – today’s equivalent value is $980, but today, such items regularly appear in major auction catalogues.

But if we need something to complain about, there are plenty of other things in the philatelic world to get your claws into. I’m frequently reminded of the thousands of people who pay good money to the Post Office for first day covers only to find that 20 or 30 or 40 years later when they come to sell them, they’re virtually worthless.

Or maybe you could take the GB Machin series. Arnold Machin’s design first appeared in 1967 yet we still see it in use today 45 years later; what’s more, Stanley Gibbons identify 435 types in their specialised listing.

Or what about the huge quantity of new issues being thrown out by many Postal authorities, most are produced purely for the collector often only available from the Bureaux and all too often printed in so many formats, well beyond the normal postal requirements.

While on the subject of requirements, does Tristan da Cunha really have a need for postage stamps? In 1952 when they received their first issue, the number of islanders who had contact with the outside world you could probably count on the fingers of one hand. A similar situation arises with Pitcairn Island but here you could divide the population (just 50) into the number of stamps issued (over 800) and come up with 16 stamps per head of population!

Maybe a more appropriate nag would be towards the postal authorities who are doing away with stamps altogether in favour of self-adhesive labels. This is probably the direction philately is going and in this regard we really do need to be flying the flag for illegals – at least they’re stamps!


Text for images:

Fig.1 How it all started, a typical overprint on a block of 4 obsolete Russian definitive

Fig.2 A typical ‘illegal’ – an attractive design well printed with good perforations

Fig.3 Is this were philately will end up?

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Post Options Post Options   Quote Colin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 June 2011 at 23:20
Perhaps we should think twice before rejecting forum membership requests from the printers of dubious African Nation stamps?
 
But it just goes to show that philately is big enough to take in all sorts of areas of interest, and that the mainstream attitude towards cinderellas is changing for the better.
 
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 July 2011 at 23:28
I wonder what was the image used for:
 
Fig.3 Is this were philately will end up?
 
I have collected charity labels for many years and these are now becoming acceptable, not because of any philatelic reason imho, but because of changes in the way that charities present themselves, they are more acceptable to the public.
 


 
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