Sunday, January 22, 2017

Weeks #2017.02 and 03 on SébPhilatélie

Tuesday 10 January: a conference on mail during the conquest of Ethiopia by fascist Italy.
On Sunday 8th at the Montpellier philatelic association, Serge Magallon from the Béziers club proposed a conference on Ethiopia.
One of the military stationery presented: the sender colored the Italian East Africa in red and celebrated the victory... dateed of the 14th year of the Mussolinian régime (collection Serge Magallon, Montpellier, 8  January 2017).
After an introduction on the most famous peoples and facts of the African country, he presented letters and military postcard stationery from May 1936, the month Italian troops sent by Benito Mussolini conquered Ethiopia. Soldiers whose fascist enthusiam is easily found on their postcard to family.

The paper permits to recall the privileged postal and railway link between Ethiopia and Djibouti: mail to the French colonial post were franked as interior mail until the Italian civil post started.

Serge Magallon's one frame collection can be viewed on the Montpellier association website.
The week after, French monthly L'Histoire published a special issue on the history of Ethiopia from the Queen of Sheba to King Haile Selassie, not forgetting the tragic dictatorship after him.

Wednesday 11 January: 2nd cute Postcrossing stamp for Belarus.
The stamp is autoadhesive with straight lined separatione (Postcrossing  website blog).

Monday 16 January: they still stamp their mail!
Two examples of recent mail that show that non-collectors are still using postage stamps and written correspondence.

First a professional sent a colleague a large file franked with four French lottery stamps. Another cover bears a simple red Marianne with the current anonymous cancel of France but it was sent by my nephew during his sky class: teachers bought psotcards, kids wrote messages and all is enclosed in the addressed and stamped covers provided by parents.

There is hope.

Wednesday 18 January: Still a Greek letter as the symbol of the French Republic on stamps...
One of the Friday 20 January issue of Finland with the new postal rate symbol (press release by Posti - direct link to the shop).
... while Finland post office, Posti, decided to put a profile map of the country for interior rate and a euro currency symbol for European rate.

Saturday 21 January: the epidemic of British illustrated machine stamps still growing.
With the December addition of a Canadian test and soon the issue of machine stamp in the Netherlands and the Isle of Man, I summarize what had happened since Royal Mail and Intelligence AR laucnhed Faststamps and Post & Go in Britain in 2008.

Last year the fashion got out of hand: Madrid, Qatar and now privatised Post NL using the British system, perhaps Canada creating its own and Man may use the Irish one (to be confirmed).

... while in France the machine stamp haven't changed since 2000...

No comments: