07/01/2019

FAKED PRE-RELEASE HANDSTAMPING

INDUSTRY YEAR

PHQ / STAMP CARD SET

Stamps set issued – 14^th January 1986

PHQ Stamp Cards cancelled – 7^th January 1986

I picked this set of four PHQ stamp cards out of a box at Stampex last year. It cost me a £1, for all four cards. The cards were together in a bag with a card, this card depicted here, which shows that some was originally trying to sell this set for £500. As you can see here this card states that the cards were posted on the YORK to SHREWSBURY royal mail train on the 7^th January 1986, which is seven days before the release date for the stamps. The card also gives details of the train itself and states that only one set was produced. The card is also signed by the locomotive driver.

So, without knowing some certain facts, and without examining the cards closely, and taking the facts at face value, someone could be misled into thinking they had something very valuable here. This is not the case though, and let me explain why:

1) PHQ Stamp cards were originally released two weeks prior to the stamps they depicted being released. So, these cards were available for the 7^th January.

2) In my mind, it is clear, that the TPO [Travelling Post Office] cancellations – ‘YORK-SHREWSBURY – T.P.O. 7 JA [January] 86 – were applied to the cards before the stamps were stuck down. This means the cancellations were applied to blank un-stamped cards – long before the stamps were available and long before, seven days in fact, before the stamps were available and later applied. The cancellations were cleverly applied in just the right location so that the stamps could be applied and still be located top right on the reverse side, unfortunately, and this I think proves my point here, the cancel on the card depicting the 34p value stamp was applied a little too high which resulted in the stamp needing to be applied a little higher, so overlapping the top of the card, so as not to cover too much of the top of the cancellation.

The cancels were applied this way so that the stamps could later, at least seven days later once released, be applied really close to the top of the cancel. The person then producing these… for want of a better word… fraudulent items then inked or pencilled a little addition across the top of the cancel so that it now touches the bottom of the stamps thus making them look like they have been struck with the cancel. The stamps HAVE NOT been cancelled by these cancellation strikes.

 These are fake items – real stamps – real cards – real cancels – but put together in a fake way, and one clearly designed to defraud someone of a lot of money, something which it may have done as I suspect it was part of someone’s collection placed in boxes and sold off cheaply by the dealer that bought it all. There was certainly no attempt by the dealer I bought this from to trick anyone as he had it in a £1 box. I do hope I am wrong and that no one was defrauded. Someone did though put a lot of thought into this and it was a pre-planned thing. Definitely-not worth £500, but I think worth more than the £1 I paid for this set. It must be worth at least that just for the story that I have uncovered here.  

I depict all the cards below, front and back, and you can see what I mean.

INDUSTRY YEAR

ENERGY

17P DESIGN

Published by

ROYAL MAIL

Ref: PHQ 89(a) 1/86

This also has the TPO cancel applied to the front of the card, as do all four of the cards depicted here in this set.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

With the appropriate stamp applied. Check the top of the cancellation and you will see the additional inked (possibly pencilled) section added to the top and which goes across the bottom of the stamp.

INDUSTRY YEAR

HEALTH

22P DESIGN

Published by

ROYAL MAIL

Ref: PHQ 89(b) 1/86

This also has the TPO cancel applied to the front of the card, as do all four of the cards depicted here in this set.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

With the appropriate stamp applied. Check the top of the cancellation and you will see the additional inked (possibly pencilled) section added to the top and which goes across the bottom of the stamp.

INDUSTRY YEAR

LEISURE

31P DESIGN

Published by

ROYAL MAIL

Ref: PHQ 89(c) 1/86

This also has the TPO cancel applied to the front of the card, as do all four of the cards depicted here in this set.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

With the appropriate stamp applied. Check the top of the cancellation and you will see the additional inked (possibly pencilled) section added to the top and which goes across the bottom of the stamp.

INDUSTRY YEAR

FOOD

17P DESIGN

Published by

ROYAL MAIL

Ref: PHQ 89(d) 1/86

This also has the TPO cancel applied to the front of the card, as do all four of the cards depicted here in this set.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

With the appropriate stamp applied. Check the top of the cancellation and you will see the additional inked (possibly pencilled) section added to the top and which goes across the bottom of the stamp. This is the one which clearly shows that the cancel was applied a little too high up causing the stamp to need to be applied so high it overlaps the top of the card. This was the first thing which caught my eye and the thing which first made me think something was wrong.

07/01/2019

THE OLD PAPER SHOW

THE ICE HOUSE, YORK QUAY CENTER

HARBOURFRONT, TORONTO

SUNDAY ARPRIL 1^ST, 1979

Official Promotional Postcard for the event

CANADIAN SOUVENIR POSTCARD

I loved the black and white photograph depicted here, although unfortunately no details are recorded on the card itself, although considering the location of the event advertised, I suppose this could be a newspaper stand in either Canada or possibly even America. The photograph is interesting, but it was the reverse side that grabbed me.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

Is this an elaborate postcard reverse design or what? This type of flamboyant design is something that is typical of North America, and clearly Canada as well, and I love these.

07/01/2019

CAYMAN TURTLE FARM

ISLAND WILDLIFE ENCOUNTER

Printed by

T. J. R. SPORTSWEAR INC, MIAMI, FLORIDA

(CAYMAN ISLANDS)

I bought this postcard from a tourist gift shop on Grand Cayman island in the Caribbean whilst on my cruise last summer (my first ever visit to the Caribbean). I loved the island and loved the quality of the tourist postcards I came across, especially the wildlife ones like this.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

CAYMAN TURTLE FARM

ISLAND WILDLIFE ENCOUNTER

Printed by

T. J. R. SPORTSWEAR INC, MIAMI, FLORIDA

(CAYMAN ISLANDS)

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

07/01/2019

BUTTERFLY MAGIC

LENTICULAR (3D) POSTCARD

Published by

ARTGAME

Designed in

New Zealand

Printed in

China

Waterproof and Tearproof Postcard

Ref: PC22BFM

Overprinted in Gold for the

SKELETONS MUSEUM, ORLANDO, FLORIDA

(Sold exclusively in this format at the museum)

I picked this one up on my most recent visit to the museum during the summer of 2018. I have visited the museums gift shop a number of times, but last year was the first time I have actually gone into the museum itself, which I must admit I highly enjoyed.

These lenticular 3D postcards are very hard to scan properly, the images always seem blurred (see the one below), but I like these, and they have become very collectible over the last few years.

2023 Update:

Sadly, this skeleton museum closed down around 2019 - 2020 which makes these over-printed postcards that little bit more special to me now. 

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

LION

LENTICULAR (3D) POSTCARD

Publisher not shown

(but I assume it’s is the same as above -ARTGAME)

Designed in

New Zealand

Printed in

China

Waterproof and Tearproof Postcard

Ref: PC20LEO

Overprinted in Gold for the

SKELETONS MUSEUM, ORLANDO, FLORIDA

(Sold exclusively in this format at the museum)

This one really did not scan well, but in reality the lion is superb and really looks good as you turn the card from side to side.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

This has a nice reverse side image which adds something to the overall look of this cracking card.

07/01/2019

JOHN F. KENNEDY SPACE CENTER

N.A.S.A.

Aerial view, NASA APOLLO SATURN-V 500 F. facility vehicle, arrives at launch complex 39 A.

Colour Photo by

NASA

Official NASA Postcard

Ref: 97900

I have visited the Kennedy Space Center twice, once in 1993 and again last year in 2018 (there was a bit of a gap between my two visits!). I have always been fascinated by the Apollo space story and have collected postcards related to the Apollo and the Mercury space flights. This is a card I picked up at an antiques event in Florida. It is another postcard which has an interesting cancellation.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

The US George Washington 5c definitive postage stamp has been cancelled with the special cancellation:

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL [Florida]

MAR 2, AM 1971

I assume this was done as a souvenir of a visit by someone who either sent it to himself or to a friend or family member as a collectible from a visit. It does have a very clean usage which tends to lean towards this being more philatelic than normal tourist usage. The date does not seem to have any relevance to any NASA event.

07/01/2019

WE THE PEOPLE

CELEBRATE THE 200^TH ANNIVERSARY OF

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

1787 – 1987

‘THE 4^TH NATIONAL POSTCARD WEEK

FOURTH EDITION

Published by

DANNY & KATHY DANIELSEN (ILLINOIS)

Limited Edition of 600

Hand numbered cards – this is No 299 of 600

This limited-edition National Postcard Week postcard has been used on the front with an 18 cents US George Washington definitive stamp which has been cancelled with an appropriate special hand stamp which reads:

BRSC STAMP SHOW

ELYRIA OHIO

44035

NOV 14, 1987

200^TH ANNV.

U. S. CONSTITUTION

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

I thought this scroll like design was very attractive and appropriate considering the subject matter of the card itself.

07/01/2019

TWO OF THE TRAFALGAR GUNS IN H.M.S. VICTORY

Published by

GALE & POLDEN LTD

This is from a series of artist drawn images related to the HMS Victory published by this company. I have four cards, but this is almost certainly not all-of the cards. The images appear to be by the same unnamed artist and depict the ‘Victory’ as a memorial to Lord Nelson. She has been a ‘Harbour-bound’ ship since 1824, being moved to a dry dock in 1922, and I think these postcards pre-date that move. It appears civilians were permitted to visit the ship from 1831, with the then Princess Victoria visiting in 1833. This royal visit boosted the visitors to the ship up to between 10,000 and 12,000 a year. A second visit by Victoria in 1844 boosted visitor numbers to 22,000. So, clearly there were visitors to the ship from early on. I wonder if these postcards were sold in connection to the ship itself, or, possibly more likely, were sold generally by the company, who sold a wide range of military themed postcards (a subject they were renowned for publishing cards for).

H.M.S. VICTORY

THE WAY THEY WORKED THE GUNS AT TRAFALGAR

Published by

GALE & POLDEN LTD

This is my favourite of the cards I have as I think the image has a lot going on here.

IN THE COCKPIT OF H.M.S. VICTORY

Published by

GALE & POLDEN LTD

The spot where Lord Nelson died, marked by a commemorative marker.

HERE NELSON FELL

Published by

GALE & POLDEN LTD

Another marker, this time on the deck and showing the point where Nelson was standing and hit by a shot from above and across from a close enemy ship.

This shows someone visiting the ship, and it looks like someone important because of the navy staff standing to attention up and to the back of the cards image. I have wondered if this is King Edward VII as I know that when the Admiralty proposed she be scrapped (actually it was the second time they had done this, and this time was proposed after she had been rammed by another ship in 1903) it was the king himself who personally intervened and prevented this. I can not find any mention of a visit, but then I would be surprised if he had not as he was strongly linked to the navy and the sea, and surely he visited in 1905 for the centenary of the Battle of Trafalgar centenary celebrations.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

Standard reverse as used for all the above postcards

07/01/2019

RHINO SIGHTING

CHITWAN, NEPAL

‘Going out to meet the Rhino’s in Chitwan National Park, about 6 hrs. drive south from Kathmandu’

Photo

ARTHUR PAZO

Published by

(DAC or DAO ?) COLOUR LAB, KATHMANDU  

Ref: 712

A great tourist postcard which fit nicely into my longest running collection; WILDLIFE.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

Posted from Nepal to Australia, but unfortunately the stamp was not cancelled so the year of sending is unclear. The stamp was printed in 1997 and promotes holidaying in Nepal in 1998. There is the partial date of ‘9 .01’ at the top which could be either the 1^st of September of an unknown year (possibly 1997 / 1998) or it means September 2001, which is possible but I feel unlikely as the receiver would have known the year as their friend or family member would have known they were away, I assume.

It is a nice stamp though.

07/01/2019

DRY SORE THROAT?

SOOTHE IT THE SUGAR FREE WAY

EMU

Published by

AVANTCARD AUSTRALIA

Free Rack Card

Ref: # 4450

Issued 2000

I have two cards from this free rack company which advertise these Soothers sugar free lozenges, this green coloured one being lemon & lime flavoured. I did like the use of the long-necked creatures like this Emu with the knotted throat.

DRY SORE THROAT?

SOOTHE IT THE SUGAR FREE WAY

GIRAFFE

Published by

AVANTCARD AUSTRALIA

Free Rack Card

Ref: # 4451

Issued 2000

Companion postcard to the above, depicting another long-necked animal with its neck knotted. As with the above postcard there is no text on the front.  

REVERSE SIDES OF THE TWO ABOVE POSTCARDS

06/01/2019

FFESTINIOG RAILWAY

AT TANYGRISIAU WITH MOELWYN BACH

Published by

JUDGES POSTCARDS LTD, HASTINGS

Ref: C7107

A nice photograph of the Ffestiniog railway train on the track, but it was not the front image that caused me to buy this card.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

This postcard was posted at the station so was carried on the train thus requiring the Festiniog Railway letter fee cinderella stamps to cover the cost of the carriage of the card to the royal mail postal system. Therefore, there are two of these cinderella label stamps applied bottom left. These have been cancelled with an oval ‘FESTINIOG T.P.O. [Travelling Post Office] RAILWAY P.O.’ cancellation. Then there is a black Welsh Dragon Queens Head definitive Machin stamp applied top right which has been cancelled with a red ink [red ink was used in 1990 to cancel the black Queens head stamps issued that year to commemorate the 150^th anniversary of the Penny Black – this also was the colour used to cancel the old penny blacks, so using this colour again was another commemoration] ‘PORTHMADOG GWYNEDD – REMEMBER TO USE THE POST CODE’ slogan cancellation dated 1990. Interestingly, the year part of the date slug was applied upside down, so it looks like 0661. These types of errors are not uncommon, and they have little real value, but they are amusing and show that there can be some funny little mistakes made.

06/01/2019

CHINA

OFFICIAL POSTAL STATIONERY POST CARD

2015

Official Postal Stationery Post Card

Issued by the State Postal Bureau

China issue a wide range of official postal stationery post cards, but with no available catalogue for these, that I have been able to access, so, all I can tell you is that this seems to have a fantasy, science fiction styled image, although the ram at the top seems to have a zodiac astrological theme, so possibly Aries. I picked this out of a cheap box at STAMPEX one year. I just liked the image.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

06/01/2019

‘POSTCROSSING’

Now that I have signed up to the ‘postcrossing’ craze, where you send postcards out to randomly chosen addresses across the world and receive a postcard from a randomly picked person also on the ‘postcrossing’ webpage site, I am receiving unusual postcards from all over the world.

You have no idea what you are going to receive, and I think that is part of the fun of this craze.

I will be depicting the cards I get here on the webpage.  

FREIBURG

SCHWARZWALD

Dieses Motiv gibt es auch als Poster im Spielzeugladen Holzpferd, Freiburg

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

06/01/2019

MOOOOOVIN!

Published by

SCOFIELD INC

This was a postcard kindly sent to me back in September 2018 by my postcard friend Frank, otherwise known as the ‘Postcardist’ (check out his blogs). Somehow, I have not got around to posting this one until today, but today I remedy this.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

This was another example of a postcard increasing my stamp collection. This has three coastal scene US ‘Forever’ stamps which are so far the only ones from this series I have so far received, so many thanks Frank.

06/01/2019

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

Top: Visiting Sound Stage; Action at Stunt Show; Back Lot and surrounding area

Bottom: “Jaws”; Quicksand Pit; Collapsing Bridge; Ray Berwick’s Animal Show; Parting of the Red Sea  

Published by

UNIVERSAL CITY STUDIOS, INC

Printed by

MIKE ROBERTS (EMERYVILLE)

THE CONTINENTAL CARD

Ref: B10935

(218 appears in the stamp box)

Copyright 1981

This postcard goes well with the one I posted two days ago (see entry dated 04/01/2019). I shall be visiting the Orlando based Universal Studios later this year, but I have never been to the California one, in fact I only visited California for the first time briefly last year.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

06/01/2019

MAGNIFICENT FRIGATEBIRD

CAYMAN ISLANDS

Maxi-Card

Published by

THE PHILATELIC BUREAU – CAYMAN ISLANDS

(Printed by ‘PINNACLE’)

I bought this postcard in a stamp shop on Grand Cayman last year. I bought it for two reasons. The first being that I love maxi-cards and stamp cards and this card has the stamp it depicts applied top right, and which has been cancelled with a ‘GEORGE TOWN, GRAND CAYMAN CI’ double ring cancel dated 17^th December 1998. This may be the first day of issue for this stamp, but I do not have the information to confirm this.

The second reason I wanted this card was that I had seen these birds flying around the coastline on this very island. This was the first time I had seen these birds in the wild and I enjoyed watching them from my cabin balcony once we returned to the ship we were on. They are lovely big birds which fly really-slowly, almost gliding everywhere. This card reminds me of seeing these creatures.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

06/01/2019

TO GREET YOU

Embossed Postcard

Unknown Publisher

Ref: 814

A nice embossed cat postcard which was posted in America in 1912. Having said that, I do think this cat looks a bit scary with the huge grin!

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

A PURR-SONAL

GREETING

Embossed Postcard

Unknown Publisher

Ref: 814 (as this number also appears on the reverse side of the above postcard it may be a series number rather than an individual card number, obviously)

This card is clearly by the same publisher as the card above as everything is similar, the embossing, the reverse layout and the scary huge grin!

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

06/01/2019

“FINALLY FOUND A PLACE

WE CAN AFFORD”

‘If we can get a big enough loan!’

FLORIDA

Photo by

RINDY NYBERG

Published by

SOUTHERN CARD & NOVELTY, INC (FLORIDA)

A fun comedic photographic postcard from Florida. We have booked our next Florida holiday for this year and will be heading back there in December to see the Christmas stuff around the theme parks. I am sure I will pick up some new postcards to depict here.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD

06/01/2019

STUDIO

PHOTOGRAPHER’S WINDOW DISPLAY

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA 1936

Photograph by

WALKER EVANS

Published by

FOTOFOLIO (New York)

Ref: WE3

I bought this one whilst in America. It came from an antique shop box and cost me just 25 cents. The image on the front caught my eye and appealed to me. I have found that ‘fotofolio’ issue some interesting images in their photographic history series of postcards.

06/01/2019

FANTASTIC BEASTS

A CINEMATIC YEARBOOK

BOOK (ANNUAL)

Published by

SCHOLASTIC CHILDREN’S BOOKS

2018

I picked this annual up today in the WH SMITH sale. Two years ago, I bought the Harry Potter annual because I found that it contained some postcards printed on one of the pages inside, so, when I saw this one today, I had a look inside out of curiosity. To my delight I found that this one also contains a page of postcards which can be cut out (although they, and I suspect that few will do this).

So, I bought a copy. To be honest I am not sure I would pay the full price of £7.99 for this book (but, if you are a true fan of the Harry Potter world, or perhaps just a ‘Fantastic Beasts’ fan then you may feel differently about the price). Thankfully, in the sale this is now just £1.50, and I was more than happy to pay this to get the one page of postcards (although clearly these are printed on a sheet of the books paper so are quite thin – nice designs though).

POSTCARD PAGE FROM INSIDE ABOVE BOOK

Here are the four designs on the page within the book. I rather like the MACUSA design one top right.

REVERSE SIDE OF THE ABOVE PAGE OF POSTCARD DESIGNS

I like these unusual reverse designs as they add something to the overall concept.

PAGE FROM THE ABOVE BOOK

I have included this page because it relates to the postcard that appears in the film and which plays an important early part in the story.

06/01/2019

HATCHING SOMETHING FOR NATIONAL

POSTCARD WEEK

1985

MAY 5^TH TO 11^TH

WEBFOOTERS POSTCARD CLUB

Design by

ANN RUSNACK

Published by the

WEBFOOTERS POSTCARD CLUB

A nice simple design and one typical of Ann’s output.

REVERSE SIDE OF ABOVE POSTCARD