EasyPost is an alternative to buying stamps in a post office.
I took this photograph of an EasyPost printer at the October Coin Show afew weeks ago. It was being used at the Stampa table.
EasyPost Desk Unit
EasyPost Stampa 2022
The Desk Unit is hired from An Post and there is a maintenance charge. As far as I am aware, there is a minimum number of labels which must be purchased. The SOARs I bought at Stampa are shown above and you will note that “Stampa 2022” is shown in the bottom right.
EasyPost SOAR
The SOARs shown above are “regular” EasyPost labels issued in businesses. There is no way of knowing which businesses issued the SOARs but SOARs issued by businesses are easily identified by the frame around the stamp value.
The businesses using EasyPost include Banks and multi nationals and major employers.
My own totally unscientific reckoning is that about five per cent of all stamps found in kiloware are EasyPost SOARs.
So this Blog is completing its second year. It is actually getting some good readership stats. It would probably be even better if I was good at promoting it.
Of course, we do not live in a bubble. We have got used to COVID, get vaccinated and live the best lives we can.
So how has the last year gone. I have been to a couple of shows and fairs (most recently a low key STAMPA a few weeks ago).
STAMPS
I have kept up to date with the Irish stamp issues for 2022. On the downside, I have not made any progress with my “wants list” of Irish stamps. It is as much about availability as cost.
I have also completed my collection of SOARs from all current post offices.
Maybe only the mega rich are the only people who can complete a collection. Maybe collections are not meant to be complete. Maybe the early over-printed Irish stamps of “George V” are not Irish in the fullest sense of the word.
Irish stamps is a serious, obsessional interest. World stamps, cheap from kiloware is a relaxation but I have not been able to buy kiloware in recent years. Hopefully I will get some kiloware over the next couple of weeks and have some fun sorting them during the winter months.
AS things stand at the minute, I have about 23,000 non -Irish stamps in my collection. I would like to have around 24,000 by the end of 2023. Maybe I should think in terms of exchanging stamps again. Certainly I will have enough duplicates to send out maybe ten envelopes, each containing 50 stamps and that might mean receiving around 500 stamps in trade.
I am not convinced about exchanging stamps.
MAIL
I like to have authentic mail from around the world. But have made no progress with the five independent nations I still need. These are PDR (North Korea), Timor Leste, Eritrea, Palau and South Sudan.
So once again I appeal to anyone who is starting a jail sentence in North Korea to send me a postcard.
POSTCARDS
In Ireland, postcards are really only available in major newsagents/bookstores, souvenir shops and museums/galleries.
There is no real point in tourists sending postcards from Ireland. They can all capture more images on a cell-phone.
Yes, there is still the hobby of Postcard Collecting. And yes, it is possible to exchange postcards thru groups. But in 2022, I have maybe only exchanged five or six postcards. No real point unless the postcard is from an “unusual place” or has interesting stamps attached.
VINTAGE POSTCARDS
It is really all about the postmark. Limited progress this year. To recap, these are Irish postcards that are from the pre-independence era…say 1900 to 1922. They do reflect an era that was wiped away by Independence, not just in terms of image but themes such as “valentines”, “militaria”, “politics” etc but also British stamps and postmarks in the English language.
The first problem with such vintage postcards is that they often have postmarks showing Dublin, Belfast, Cork and other major cities or seaside resorts such as Bray, Bangor and Portstewart.
The second problem is the quality of card and postmark.
And the third problem is price.
Price is often related to where the card is bought. Best value is a car-boot sale or house clearance on market stalls. Worst value is thru specialist dealers.
IRISH COINS
I have made a lot of progress, maybe too much progress as buying coins can be a distraction from the my main hobby of …Stamps.
Really Irish Coins fall into two categories… Pre Decimal from 1928 and Decimal from 1971 to 2002. After 2002, is the “Euro” and arguably the Irish designs are a third category.
I have almost all of the Decimal coins and most of the pre-Decimal coins. Some of the older coins are rare and currently beyond my budget. But completion was never a big issue for me.
Pensioner Mail. These labels were printed and applied to mail by senior citizens who were “cocooned” or confined to their houses on advice from the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) for the duration of the COVID Pandemic.
Such persons were allowed the concession that their mail could be collected by the Postperson and delivered free by An Post within the Republic of Ireland. No postage was required.
These labels were printed by Paddy Lineen from County Mayo and used by him and others to indicate they were using the concession.
The labels were rarely postmarked. Cancels sometimes appeared on envelopes.
In Stamp Collecting terms, these labels are known as “Cindarellas”.
An interesting footnote to a period in our History when NPHET and An Post and indeed the entire nation worked together.
Interesting book from An POST to commemorate 100 Years of Irish Stamps.
“100 Years of Irish Stamps”
Stamp Collecting is not just about people and events commemorated. It tells us a lot about the time at which the commemorative stamp was issued.
For example the 1916 Rising was commemorated in 1941 (during The Emergency (WW2) and a paper shortage), 1966 (in elaborate fashion), 1991 and 2006 (both low profile) and in 2016 (again elaborate).
Of course the low profile years were during the Troubles in Norn Iron.
The 2016 designs had a theme of Remembrance, Reflection and Reconciliation.
The subtitle of the book is interesting. Are we Irish “dreamy idealists”? Are we “progressive people”? Are we both?
It is tempting to think that at some point we transitioned. But I prefer to think it was an evolution. At the idealistic foundation of the State, it was “progressive” and I think there was always an element of “internationalism” in the Irish approach to Life.
I do not fully go along with the notion that Ireland only became a progressive nation after joining the (then) Common Market in 1973.
By any Index…Democracy, Freedom, Human Rights…Ireland passes any test. Of course social norms do change but I think Ireland was pretty much involved and our stamps reflect that/
So….an interesting book. But I would say “Dreamy Idealists AND Progressive People”.
The year 2022 marks the centenary of the Irish Free State, Irish stamps and the 50th anniversary of Stampa, the National Stamp Exhibition.
Of course two years (2020 and 2021) were lost to COVID so a welcome return to Griffith College and the three days showcasing our hobby.
I went on Friday, 7th October, the first day of the show. It was I think very low key.
Stampa is really an “exhibition” and a fair where dealers and collectors meet. And the third “stakeholder, An Post Philatelic Section also has a stand.
Stampa Catalogue
The Stampa committee (the organisers) had as always a stand at the entrance. Admission was free but the costs of putting on the show were defrayed by the souvenirs on sale.
This years souvenirs were a cover representing the Centenary of Irish Stamps and a small sheetlet with the four designs used on the first set of definitive stamps.
Stampa Cover and Sheetlet
A strip of eight Stamps on a Roll was also produced on a Easy Post machine showing “Stampa 2020”. I bought two of these strips. SOAR stamps issued on Easy Post machines can be identified by the “box” around the value.
Stampa 2022 Easy Post strip
Easy Post is actually a service for business users. A machine suitable for an office desk produces the stamps. I should have taken a pic of the machine and I cannot find a suitable image online. So the link below is to An Post “services”.
As to the Dealers. Apart from the auction house McDonnell-Whyte, there were just six dealers in attendance and three (two Irish and one German) could be described as full time. I bought some accessories and the cover below from one dealer. Essentially the full-time dealers sell top of the range stamps and are out of my league. But I can dream.
1870 Cover
So I bought around twenty First Day Covers from two other dealers. I will post about these purchases later in the week.
An Post had no new stamps to sell. The next issue is on Thursday 13th October. They did however have some “freebies” (two large postcards). See below.
Postcards from An Post
The strange thing about Stampa 2022 was that as a 50th anniversary, it should have felt like a celebration. But at times, it felt like a pre-wake for a hobby that is dying. Very sad.
Fantastic lecture by Cathy Scuffil with the above title. Green post boxes (1922) and later Irish stamps (also 1922) and even later Irish Coins (1928) were the most visible indications of the transition from being part of the “United Kingdom” to being the “Irish Free State”.
This lecture was held at Inchicore Library, formerly Richmond Barracks. In a hall honouring the 77 women who were arrested and detained there for their part in the Easter Rising of 1916. And a photograph of the British garrison marching out as the National Army marched in 1922.
So I think it is fair to say that the lecture was literal but it was also a metaphor for the wider transition…..the Dublin Metropolitan Police and the Royal Irish Constabulary becoming the unarmed Garda Siochana, the National Flag, the National Anthem (a prolonged debate and an amusing one), education and much more.
Starting a country almost from “scratch”.
I am a History graduate and have even lectured once only (in Texas) on the subject of Conflict Resolution and have blogged extensively on that theme. But in this blog, specifially on Stamp and Coin collecting, I want to concentrate on post boxes, post offices and coins in that transition.
The first green postbox is outside the gate at Dublin Castle (the seat of British power in Ireland) and was first painted on 15th March 1922, just two days before St Patrick’s Day. It is directly across from the Olympia Theatre. I took this photograph after the lecture. You can see the royal cipher (Edward VII) on the door.
The First Green Postbox
The instruction “paint it green” …but what green? I was not the only one thinking Johnny Cash and his forty shades of green before Cathy Scuffil mentioned him. Reading our thoughts. But it is actually true that various shades were used…a bizarre “free state green”.
Actually a lot of pre-Independence post boxes still stand. The royal ciphers (VR, ERVII and George V) are still to be seen. There is actually a book by Stephen Ferguson called “Irish Post Boxes…silent servant of the State”. Published in 2009, it is available at the General Post Office in Dublin.
Wall boxes with “VR” cipher are on railway station platforms in Kildare, Monasterevan, Newbridge and I think Portarlington. I have also seen them in Wicklow Town and in Arklow. Perhaps the most unusual and ironic place is at the Gate Post at Collins Barracks, the Irish Military Museum.
On a trip to Bray in County Wicklow some years ago, I saw an unusual Victorian pillar box, a “Penfold” on Simmontown (?) Road.
The four postcards below are from a set sold by the Irish Post Office about ten years ago.
Postcards
I suppose most people do not notice the royal ciphers. Should boxes have been replaced after 1922? Or should they stand as a memorial to nation building? A matter of opinion.
Turning to Stamps…Ms Scuffil had several examples of the essays and fore-runners suggested for Ireland’s first stamp designs to replace the overprinted stamps which had been issued as an interim measure.
Below is a postcard recently issued by An Post which shows an overprinted British stamp. I also show the only example I have of a fore-runner or an essay. The Stampa 2022 souvenir neatly shows the four designs that were actually chosen…a map of Ireland, Celtic Cross, the Sword of Light (a common folklore belief) and the shields of the four provinces. Note that the map shows ALL of Ireland.
Postcard showing Overprint.
Proposed & Successful Designs
These designs are classic and not replaced until 1968….a run of 46 years making it the longest used “definitive” series in the philatelic world. Again I emphasise that the map is ALL of Ireland.
Ms Scuffil mentioned the Post Office strike in 1922. In part it was a reaction to limiting promotion chances to say London, Birmingham and Manchester. I am tempted to think that there was a “unionist” element to its work force, having served the old regime but maybe I am being unfair. As a side-note the new Postmaster General in the Irish Free State was J J Walsh who had actually fought in the Easter Rising in the General Post Office. He had actually been a postal worker…as indeed Michael Collins himself had been.
Walsh is maybe one of the most repugnant figures in modern Irish history. A semi-fascist with anti-semetic rhetoric.
Turning to Coins…the introduction of Irish coinage in 1928 was a new dimension to sovereignty. Of course the economy dictated retaining British sterling.
Irish Coins
Of course place-names changed after 1922. Inappropriate names like Kingstown and Queenstown became Dun Laoighre and Cobh. Maryborough became Port Laoise and Philipstown became Daingean. Maybe it is just as important that local populations rejected some name changes…Edgeworthstown never fully became Meas Troim, Kells never really became Ceannanus.
Kings County became County Offaly and Queens County became County Laois.
I really enjoyed this lecture.
If I was to add one thing, it would be the relationship between the British and Irish post offices in those early years. It seems like at times it was an acrimonious divorce as British Post Office archives suggest. There is a sarcastic comment about when the Irish re-Christening (sic) of places will end. Mail from England destined for County Offaly (previously Kings County) tended to end up in a similarly named village near London.
Even in Dublin post offices, staff rejected mail destined for Dun Laoighre and other “made up names”.
Of course the border between the Irish Free State and “Northern Ireland” had not really been established. Today in 2022, sending a letter to Britain costs €2.20 but sending a letter to Norn Iron (supposedly an integral part of the United Kingdom) costs just €1.25, the same as mail sent to any part of the Republic of Ireland. Why?…well choose any one of two answers. The first is that Norn Iron is “part of Ireland”. The second answer is that mail to the North travels by road and mail to England, Scotland and Wales travels by air.
The book below Eolaí an Phoist, is the post office guide for 1971. It lists ALL the post offices in all 32 counties…in English and in Irish. It seems optimistic. Sadly I loaned my 1981 copy to an ex-brother in law and never saw it again. Presumed ownership of the North’s post offices is possibly offensive or even provocative to unionists.
Eolaí an Phoist 1971
I think the unspoken fact is that History is not just about the Past. It is as much about the Future. A Continuum. Learning that in 1922, a new state was built…on planning, accident and even inconsistency can resonate in 2022 when many of us think that a united Ireland could happen during this century.
Following on from a post dated 13th June 2021, the story of 2021 is generally living with COVID and things generally getting better.
The issues shown above are “For People, For Planet” (two stamps), Europa (Endangered National Wildlife) (two stamps) which were available in self adhesive sheet format.
The PRIDE atamps were only available in booklet form. Five stamps (four at N rate and one at W rate). There was an Irish (“Bród”) and English (“Pride”) version of the N rate stamps.
Issues above are Centenary of Truce (two stamps at N rate).
Irish Singer-Songwriters at Glastonbury featured in a booklet of four stamps and depicted Christy Moore, Sinéad O’Connor, Lisa Hannigan and Andrew Hozier Brown.
Four stamps were issued to commemorate 150th Anniversary of the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin.
The Christmas stamps were only issued in booklets. The N stamps were issued in two different booklets, one at €5.50 (five stamps) and one at €20 (ten stamps). While the cheaper booklet only featured two designs, the more expensive booklet featured all four designs.
The W stamps were issued in a booklet of five stamps in both designs.
Two N Rate stamps were issued to mark the Centenary of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
Happy to say that I now have at least one “used” Stamp on A Roll from all 933 post offices currently operating in Republic of Ireland. For the record the last SOAR on my list was Templederry in County Tipperary.
In a way, the difference between Postmarks and Stamps on a Roll is that a Postmark shows where the stamp was posted and a SOAR shows where the stamp was bought.
In the 21st century, it is unusual to see a postmark from a small town or village. Mail is take to a few Mail Sorting Centres, where they are machine marked and often not marked at all.
These postmarks are all from towns and villages in County Limerick. They were collected in the 1980s.
Limerick
Limerick: Postmarks 1
Postmarks: Limerick 2
Collecting postmarks was always a good way of finding a use for duplicate stamps found in kiloware. They add to a collection.
Collecting Stamps of Ireland 