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The London Philatelist

respectively). If that is what their adherents wish to do and the philatelic establishment wishes to
support them, then far be it from me to demur. If thematic or social philately can be used to attract
people to become philatelists, then fine, but the current trend seems to be the other way. For me,
social philately is membership of the RPSL!
What seems to be missing from this list of enthusiastically supported areas is ‘revenue philately.’
I put it in quotes because, at least in Great Britain until the Post Office was privatised, all postage
rates were determined by the Government’s need for revenue, not by the costs of the postal service,
so all stamps were essentially revenue stamps. Thus, we are all ‘revenue philatelists,’ whether we
are collecting postage stamps or fiscal stamps. When I reached the point where I had taken postal
history as far as I wanted (or could afford), an auction catalogue dropped through my letter box
offering (inter alia) a part set of fiscal stamps. I had never heard of them, but their purpose interested
me, so I made a speculative bid. It must have been the only one, because I secured the stamps at
the reserve price and they have provided an almost endless source of fascination and delight.
What they have also taught me is that the apparent cordon sanitaire between postal and fiscal
philately is largely artificial and counterproductive. These two aspects of the hobby provide almost
the same scope for the study of stamps in all their complexity and, in the course of my research, I
have had many happy and vigorous, discussions with a dedicated postal philatelist, at the end of
which we have both admitted having learned from the other. This is just as it should be. Of course,
studying an individual stamp closely can reveal some of its secrets but, at the end of the day, it is
just a stamp. Incidentally, I once discovered in conversation that a prominent member of the RPSL
did not know why a stamp was called a stamp! Stamps (largely impressed, which we now call
handstamps) existed for many years before the introduction of postage labels (which have usurped
the original meaning). We need to keep a sense of perspective.
My own introduction to stamp collecting was simply accumulating as many stamps as I could
(as schoolboys do). They were (mostly) colourful, and spoke to me of far-off places. They may even
have taught me some geography or history. I progressed from there. I wonder how the very earliest
philatelists were attracted to the hobby, when there were no copious new issues to tempt them?
Nowadays, we bemoan the proliferation of ‘special’ issues and argue that they do nothing to attract
newcomers to our hobby. But I am not so sure. They may not attract many, but even a few are
welcome and the work of groups trying to encourage youngsters is heartily to be commended.
Richard Berry’s advocacy of ‘philately through social history’ may also work, but I suspect that it
is more likely to swell the ranks of ‘social philatelists.’ Perhaps that is what he is trying to do,
especially if addressing a regional meeting of the RPSL. What I think we need, is for people like
Richard to go out and spread the gospel to non-philatelic groups. Whether my activities in this
direction have borne fruit, I do not know, but it was worth doing. I would like to acknowledge the
philatelists (of all persuasions) whose friendly conversations over many years have influenced my
thinking.

From Alan Spencer.

found the article ‘Postal History is less than Half the Story’ by Richard Berry very
I interesting and informative. Letters and postcards were in their essence means of communication
and the messages that they conveyed, as well as the senders and recipients, are part of the story.
When I am writing up my material, I try to include what Richard called the ‘back-story.’
The following are two examples.
The first item is a letter that was carried on the Falmouth Packet and has a green ‘Lisbon/F‘
handstamp applied on arrival. It then travelled up to Edinburgh, where it received a weak strike of
the date stamp for 6 September 1812. It carries a manuscript charge mark of 2/8d (2s 8d).
This letter was written from Salamanca, where an Anglo-Portuguese army under the Duke of

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