Here we are at the dawn of a new century and we have completed our first year of correspondence with the Irish Philatelic Newsletter.  Thanks to our stalwart contributors, we have managed twelve monthly issues over the past year and had some 64 pages of interesting material (after subtracting for the editorial blurb at the end of each issue).
 
Hopefully, we will be able to do as well or better in the year to come.  It won't happen, however, without the active participation of you the readers.  Make a New Year resolution now to make at least one contribution to the newsletter this year.  It doesn't have to be a scholarly treatise; some little bit of information that you found interesting when you first came across it will probably also interest the other readers of the newsletter.  Perhaps there is a question that has been nagging at you about some stamp or cover; ask it here and you will have an audience of some 150 fellow collectors around the world who may be able to help.

Give it a try.  It won't hurt, I promise! 

Regards and all the best for the New Year.

MAURICE BARRETT

Roy Gault in Great Britain is doing a new Irish Perfin album and also an album of Perfins on the 1922 Overprints.  A number of years age when I started collecting the perfins I got in touch with Norah Wright who just passed away last year.  She was quite a character.  Told me that she collected the junk and now everybody wants a piece of the action.  She was not trading or selling or giving away anything except the information she has accumulated over the years.  I started on my own and decided that the most common die was the C.I.E., a railroad that was still in use at the time.  When I got 50-60 perfins on different stamps she seemed quite impressed.  She said that I was coming along but I would not be complete until I have one on the SE watermark.  She said that hers was on the 2d map. 

Since Roy Gault, Paddy Murphy and myself are into the new publication of the album, I had mentioned it to Roy. He said that he did not believe it.  The stamp was 20 plus years old before the die came into use.  The previous die was the plain CIE.  Paddy Murphy told Roy that he had one.  Roy still didn't believe it and requested he send it to him.  While looking for it, Paddy found 3 other copies and he sent them to Gault to verify that they were real and he also gave Roy a pick of the litter. 

There is not yet an estimated value of the perfin but I can assure you that this is a major find in Irish perfins.  I and  others have found numerous dies which can be proven from old trade catalogues and phone directories but this is a beaut.  I just wonder how and why this watermark SE stamp was ever used.  Whoever purchased Norah's perfins just auctioned off at Whyte's, also must have got the 2d map.  Unless they look for it, it will go unnoticed since its the most common and nobody ever bothers to do watermarking.  I have gone through thousands in my lifetime ,but I never bothered either. 

Wishing you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving. 

God Bless and good collecting,

Bill

Auction #120 will shortly be in the mail.  While it's a small sale, there are some unusual and very useful items.  There are a number of political labels, including several that are difficult to come by.  There's an exceptional offering of 25 lots of Irish Newspaper Stamps on document -- one of the oldest being a Freeman's Journal from 1777.  Numbered among the donation lots are some middle period FDCs and, as a wrap-up, some fine used commemorative sets.

Joe Foley

The first is from an Indian or (now Pakistan) source but
has lost its stamp on route because it suffered from sea water en route.  There is a Lahore backstamp but we shall never know where the cover was posted (note outer ring of postmark to the right of the postage due label).  Clearly sent by an aeroplane which 'went down' would anyone have flight details please?  The postage due stamp is canceled 18 December 1937 so we must assume a crash in early December - who knows where?

The large T in the circle was applied by the Indian authorities (their standard type and possibly Lahore or Rawalpindi - see cover below) who endorsed '10 cts' - i.e.: 10 gold centimes to pay, equal to 1d.  This appears to imply that an 8as stamp had been affixed originally (see cover below).

The second attachment has a rather nice cancellation of Rawalpindi Arsenal of 7 March 1935 and is franked at seven and a half annas. Yet postage due has been assessed - this time 20cts or 20 gold centimes - assessed at 2d in
Dublin. This implies a correct rate of eight and a half annas from India to Ireland.

I believe the India to UK rate was seven and a half annas at this time, so am I right to assume that the India to Ireland rate was eight and a half annas - i.e.: an extra anna for crossing St. George's Channel!   Is this correct?  I have several other covers from the 1930's stamped at seven and a half annas which have attracted a 2d postage due charge in Ireland which would imply this to be so.

Please let me have your answers!

Best wishes

Stan Challis
Guernsey 

Extensive collection of irish stationery, all different & all mint, 276 pieces as follows: envelopes 24, registered envelopes 94, postcards 29, lettercards 13, picture post cards 41, wrappers 12,  airletters 24, booklets 39. 

Interested in selling as a collection.