From our Collections...
This was my first attempt at producing a display of 9 sheets in the 1970’s, before we all had desktop PC’s readily at our disposal. This is evident from the rather crude typeface and very basic presentation by today’s standards. It took me a number of attempts at the time to get the display as I wanted it.
I had been collecting stamps since about 1945 when my father, returning from duty in WW2, was keen to take up a relaxing hobby. He used to pass me his spare used examples and I soon progressed from my ‘schoolboy’ album to loose-leafed albums of GB, Commonwealth and Foreign collections.
By the 1970’s I had built up reasonable collection of mint GB commemoratives, and wanted to expand my collection by including a wider range of material from each issue not necessarily covered in the Stanley Gibbons British Empire catalogue. So I invested in The GB Specialised Catalogue of GB QEII Issues.
It was then that I discovered just how varied and sophisticated the production of stamps had become, and in order to understand the terminology and the processes involved I would need to study the small print. The more I read, the more I learnt, and the more fascinating I found the various aspects of the security printing process that is required to print multiple examples of identical images, and how, very occasionally these processes can go wrong.
It was some time before I felt confident enough to write-up a 9 page display that I could show to my fellow society members and perhaps enter into one of the society competitions, and I chose to adopt an approach that would clarify my own appreciation of the topic, and one which I could refer back to in time when my own understanding might become a little muddled. Although this display now looks very ‘dated’ and could obviously do with a re-write, I still refer to it whenever I need reminding of the fascinating developments that took place in this period.
