Page 31 - 148 Years of the Royal Philatelic Society London

In 1897: Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, Boston opens first U.S. subway, Zululand annexed

by Britain, Marconi granted patent for wireless radio, electron discovered, Dracula published.

At the PSL: Society stages a major exhibition in London to mark Queen's Diamond Jubilee,

the first to be jointly organised with the trade, the classes start to reflect modern exhibitions.

Honorary President H.R.H. Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, K.G. (Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha).

PSL President was H.R.H. Duke of York. Membership stood at 292.

300,000%! SIERRA LEONE REVENUE

OVERPRINTED FOR POSTAGE

From the collection of Simon Binsted.

Member since 2012. Lives in Andorra.

In 1897, sending letters from Sierra Leone to England cost 2Yid (40 = £1). A critical shortage of stamps

forced the Colonial Government to ask the local printer to overprint revenue stamps. Just 240 two-

shilling stamps were overprinted using the only typefaces available. In the forme used to hand-press

30 stamps at a time, there were only three of the right-hand stamp illustrated, so only 24 ever

existed; 21 are known today; and only 5 are attached to another type. Today a dealer might well ask

you 300,000 times more than when bought over the counter 119 years ago I