Newsletter No 243February 2012

President
Mr R. B. Adlam
13 Hartington Road,
Gloucester
Gloucestershire GL1 5TJ / Secretary
Mr D. Greensweig
36 Tuffley Lane
Gloucester GL4 6DU
01452 505400 / 01452 524097

Editor: Martyn Bailey

Any opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the editor.

Hi all welcome to an early edition of the quarterly Stamp Hinge, not due until March it is out now to pass on an important message from the Packet Secretary Richard Wilson.

SOCIETY NEWS.

Some months ago at a club meeting I mentioned problems I was having with completed boxes and asked members to take additional care when totalling their purchases. The state of two recently completed boxes unfortunately means I have to repeat this request.

The first box suffered from unsigned spaces, only one of which I was able to attribute to an individual member.

The other box had nine out of the twenty books completed incorrectly – in other words, what had been removed did not match what had been signed for. Nine separate members had made these errors (some more than once) whilst another member had signed all the relevant books correctly but then paid a completely different amount.

Every mistake of this kind has to be resolved, and the cumulative effect was that this particular box took around five hours to be reconciled.

In addition, these mistakes invariably lead to members signing and paying for less than they have actually taken. In order that vendors are not penalised, the society has to make up this shortfall.

Proceeds from the boxes are an important source of income to the society and it is in the interest of everyone who takes and enjoys the boxes for this to continue and run as seamlessly as possible.

Some mistakes will always occur but many of the recent ones could, I believe, have been avoided.

Can I therefore again please ask members to exercise additional care when removing stamps and totalling their purchases

Many Thanks.

Article

Following on from my article about Christmas stamps I received the following communication from Lawrence Coulthurst

“Following up your article about Xmas stamps, I looked in the direction of Christmas Island; the Island had been part of Straits Settlements and then Singapore. In 1958 it became an Australian territory with Australian stamps overprinted in black, with name and value. Not until 1969 did it issue a Xmas stamp, of 5c showing an Angel (mosaic).

My thanks to Lawrence for his input. Anyone else got anything to add? Please feel free to continue this thread.

Well that’s about it for this issue except to say any items for the Stamp Hinge can be passed to me at meetings or posted to (noting my new Email address

Martyn Bailey

13 Sandalwood Drive

Hempsted

Gloucester

GL2 5XD

07961948682

Email

NB We are going to try and arrange a Christmas lunch for Dec 2012 starting to try and organise it earlier this year, so please fill in a questionnaire to give us an idea of general interest and numbers. (yes I’m awear the spelin is rong on the sheep).