A 1938 Cover With A Story to Tell

What do New Zealand, Hollywood, an actor and model aircraft have in common?

Some fascinating things come across my desk.

This 1938 cover, from New Zealand to the USA, doesn't seem like much. However, I recognised the recipient's name. Reginald Denny was a successful Hollywood actor.

It was sent from Model Aircraft Supplies in Christchurch, which begs the question why they would be writing to an actor at an address other than "c/- MGM" etc.

The reason is that Denny was a mad aircraft hobbyist, who opened a hobby store on Hollywood Boulevard in 1935. It makes perfect sense for the shop in Christchurch to write to him. Denny also established "Radioplane", a maker of military target drones.

The cover is franked with SG91 and SG92, both have which are scarce with inverted and reversed watermarks. I'm going to play around and see if I can extract a watermark.

The two red marks across the airmail label makes this a jusqu'a cover. Jusqu'a means "up to", or in philatelic terms "as far as". The cover is marked "via Air Mail to England". The jusqu'a markings were applied when the cover arrived in England, and the cover would then have continued it's journey to the US by sea. Unfortunately, there are no other markings on the cover.

A fascinating little piece of postal history.

A Very Common Stamp From Hungary With a Great Story

...but it's even better from the back!

In 1943, Hungary issued a series of stamps featuring historical heroes. The 4f value features Janos Hunyadi, a general and Governor of Hungary in the 15th Century.

After the end of World War II in 1945, the stamps were overprinted with new values. The 4f (forint) value was overprinted three times, with this stamp being the third overprint, 10f on 4f in carmine, SG800 Scott 657. Numerous overprint errors exist on this provisional issue, and it's a minimum value stamp in all catalogues.

In 1946, the Hungarian currency, the Pengo, collapsed, and Hungary went through a period of hyper-inflation. 

Reminiscent of Germany in the early 1920's, stamps with a face value of 500,000 billion pengos were issued during 1946, before the currency reform later in the year. Prior to the issue of the high face-value stamps, remaining stocks of low face value definitives were overprinted with a code, with the stamp being sold at the relevant rate for that code on a given day. The modern equivalent would be the "Forever" stamps.

In this case, our stamp was overprinted with "TI. 2.", which was an abbreviation for "Tavolsagi level", or "Inland letter", thus becoming SG890, Scott 811. I'm assuming that the "2" represented a different rate, but would appreciate feedback on this.

So there we have a stamp overprinted twice, telling the story of the collapse of an economy after a long and bitter war. The story should end there. That is, until you turn the stamp over.

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Referrals and Recommendations Welcomed

I'm embarking on a medium to long term project to develop a website, and need a website designer to work with me.

I'm looking for a dedicated, professional, and committed designer that can work across time-zones if necessary (remembering that I'm in Australia), and can take constructive criticism and direction. I'll need to see live examples of websites created, and testimonials are required. Therefore, no beginners will qualify.

If you are a website designer (or can recommend someone without hesitation) and can meet the above criteria, please email me at globalphilately@gmail.com. 

The Grumpy Old Men's Club

Definitely "THE" Friendliest Stamp Forum on the Internet Celebrates It's 3rd Birthday

There's more than one stamp forum on the internet, and more than one that touts itself as being the friendliest.

The Grumpy Old Men's Club (where you don't need to be grumpy, old or a man!) is, in my opinion, the only one that can lay claim to the title. Created in 2010, and told it would last a month by the owner of another forum, The GOMC recently celebrated it's 3rd birthday.

There's a distinct lack of rules and no overbearing admin or moderation. There's a genuine sense of a club atmosphere, as members suggest Ebay items for others, find items for others, and produce gems like this for members just for fun

If you think you'd like to join a diverse range of philatelists, collectors and beginners, where mutual respect is the order of the day, click here

I hope to see you there soon!