Dear Bureau Member,

First I must apologise to you all as I have not been able to contact many of you due to an extremely busy summer, with myself judging too many national and international competitions. However, it has meant that I have seen quite a number of revenue exhibits, and indeed have found time to finish mounting my Tasmania Revenue exhibit, and entering it in the FEPA show, WIPA08.

I have the good intention of writing a short note to all of you regularly just to keep us all in touch. I also would expect that Dingle Smith, our hardworking Secretary, to take anything from my notes to use in the next issue of our newsletter.

Since Bucharest, FIP held an international exhibition in Prague, Czech Republic, which was a limited international with only the classes of Traditional, Postal History, One Frame and Literature. There were two exhibits of revenues in the One Frame Class (remember that One Frame medals are only Bronze, Bronze silver, Silver, Vermeil and Gold):
“Princely States of India – Revenue Stamps of Vala State” by Jiri Cerny, Czech Republic – 77 points, Silver
“The Judicial Delivering Stamps of the Regional Court in Lviv” by Alexander Zharivsky, Ukraine – 82 points, Vermeil
Additionally there was an exhibit entitled “Germany: Railway Fee-Stamps of July 1874” by Han Vermeulen, Germany, which, depending on the approach, could be a revenue exhibit – 87 points, Vermeil

Praga2008 is the last FIP International Exhibition to have a separate One Frame Class judged by a single team. As the class is no longer experimental, One Frame exhibits will be judged in future by the ‘multi-frame’ team. Within FIP ‘regulations’ for commissioners, three One Frame exhibits equate to a five frame exhibit. Revenue One Frame exhibits will bring us, the judges, more difficulties as the big thing with One Frame exhibiting is that often the subject is small and more esoteric than in multi-frame exhibits and so we are likely to find some fascinating new revenue subject matter.

As I have mentioned above, I entered WIPA08 as an exhibitor, and thus I had some time to spend on non-judging activities during the exhibition. Jussi Tuori, Vice President FIP and FIP Board Member responsible for the Revenue Commission, was the team leader for the revenue judging team. We had an opportunity to get together so that we could brief each other. I explained that my priorities are (1) website, (2) to establish a full list of delegates including email addresses, and (3) to improve communications within the revenue commission. His priorities were for us to arrange revenue seminars, and to train up revenue judging team leaders. Jussi by the way gained a Large Gold medal in Israel 2008 for his superb exhibit of Classic Finnish Revenues. We also discussed briefly the possibility of other areas, such as Postal Orders, that may fit better within the Revenue Commission, rather than in Postal Stationery.

WIPA08 had only a very small revenue class with just five exhibits. To an extent this is surprising when we consider the wealth of revenue material in Austro-Hungary. The details of each exhibit are listed below:

“Das Zeitungsstempelwesen Osterreichs 1789-1899” by Carsten Mintert, Germany, 95 points, Large Gold and Special prize.
“Tasmanian Revenues” by Francis Kiddle, Great Britain, 88 points, Large Vermeil
“Philatelie fiscal d’Alsace Lorraine 1840-1944” by Claude Munch, France, 80 points, Vermeil
“Fiscal Stamps of Serbia during German Occupation 1941-44” by Vasil Micevski, Serbia, 80 points, Vermeil
“Princely States of India – selected revenue issues through 1950” by Jiri Cerny, Czech Republic, 77 points, Large Silver

Finally, I have re-discovered Juhani Olamo’s listing of all revenue exhibits that have been entered in FIP exhibitions since 1989. It is only complete for just over 10 years, but it is a good foundation for us to compile a complete list of revenue exhibits and exhibitors. More about this subject later.

Kind regards,

Francis Kiddle