From our Collections...
I started building up my Commonwealth stamp collection during the later years of King George VI, and soon became absorbed by the fine detail and pictorial content of the definitive issues that most colonies issued throughout his reign. Those of Gibraltar, were of particular interest in that it was the only colony that I had had the privilege to visit, and its issues seem to stand out, despite the undoubted quality of those from the other colonies.
I managed to complete a basic collection of George VI issues and then gradually worked my way backwards collecting: first George V issues, then Edward VII issues, and finally, the Victorian Issues. The Victorian issues are a fascination in themselves as the currency changed from Sterling to Spanish and then back to Sterling again.
Of course no ‘collection’ is ever complete as we inevitably get side-tracked into expanding it into hitherto unintended directions by the plethora of wondrous material available in the philatelic marketplace. And so it was that before I managed to ‘complete’ my basic Victorian collection, I became fascinated by the study of the postal history of Gibraltar before it was able to issue its own stamps.
The study of the changing routes taken by mail to and from the colonies and the rates of franking applied often reflects contemporary changing political and economic occurrences, whilst the study of the various manuscript and handstamp markings that become required can become a research project of its own.
Putting together any postal history display can be challenging, but the researcher will inevitably be rewarded by being transported back in time to a world where communications took days, or weeks, rather than seconds, and we all had time to smell the roses!
