Maximaphily, with 18 exhibits, was well represented at rthe International Stamp Show ESPANA 2000, which was held from 6 to 14 of October. They came from 13 countries: Armenia, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Korea, Poland, Spain, and the U.S.A.

I greatly enjoyed looking over this major presentation by those in our hobby who like to display their work for themselves and for the enjoyment of others. Medals competition is a factor of course, so I hope that all exhibitors werw pleased with end results. Our Editor George Constantourakis won a Vermeil for his exhibit of 'Greco - Roman Sculpture and its Influence'. Another Vermeil went to my exhibit 'To Conquer the Sky'. There were two European exhibits, one that I personally felt was undervalued and one that was clearly overvalued.

The overvalued exhibit, I was told by a judge, was because of 'politics'. The undervalued exhibit, I believe, was because it contained many relatively new Maximum Cards. I value the scarcity of a Maximum Card, as well as its age. There are recently created Maximum Cards that are pretty scarce - only a few made with a large quantity or only one.

Stamp Show 2000

The Stamp Show 2000, held in London from May 22 to 28, included just four Maximaphily Exhibits. One by Nicos Rangos showing, in five frames of 16 pages each, much about the history, culture and Civilisation of Cyprus entitled Cyprus: Cross roads of Three Continents, won a large Silver medal with 77 points.

A vermeil medal with 84 points was awarded to David Rodrigues Cruz of Portugal for his eight-frame exhibit The Military During Peace and war, which illustrated some of the many significant conflicts in history between major world powers. It had quite a few pre 1940's maximum cards showing the heads of countries involved. Peace, it seems, was rather short intervals between wars.

Vermeil also went to Daniel Olsen for his five frames exhibit about aviation, To Conquer the Sky.

A pleasant surprise was to find a maximum card exhibit in the Youth Class winning a Bronze medal in this International Stamp Show. entitled Cyprus My Country, br George Christofi. It was described as "Cyprus captured through maximum cards". This demonstration of youthful enthusiasm for Maximaphily, proves that more of our members should be exhibiting at stamp shows held in their own home town or region.

Upon receiving the last issue of our journal, I quickly read it from cover to cover and then went through it again. The quality and quantity of information in it impressed me a lot. For their informative first hand reportage on the Maximaphily exhibits at two important International Exhibitions in Paris and Beijing, I would like to thank Bruno Bouveret and Yulong Zhong.

And how about that wonderful batch of U.S.A Celebrating the Century maximum cards? That should encourage others to try their hand in creating their own MC! Our MACSU is small in comparison to Maximaphily societies in some other countries. We do not have a service that can supply our members with maximum cards of the latest U.S.A stamp issues. So some of our members make their own, and that is the heart and soul of Maximaphily. Many of the MC issued by other societies are on postcards that have been printed to suit the stamp issue. We have to search for previously issued postcards and that can be the most difficult part of making a maximum card.

Then not all of our FDI cancellations have correct concordance with the stamp subjects (and hardly add the appearance). So extra challenge of getting either a pictorial postmark or a more appropriate town cancel presents itself.