Page 47 - 148 Years of the Royal Philatelic Society London

In 1913: Henry Ford develops first moving production line; Billboard publishes first charts,

for vaudeville songs; Panama Canal completed; crosswords, Brillo pads and Ecstasy invented.

At the RPSL: A sad year that saw the deaths of two great members, President Lord Crawford

and Honorary Secretary and Curator of the Royal Collection, Tilleard.

RPSL Presidents were Lord Crawford and M. P. Castle M.V.O., J.P.

Patron H.M. King George V. Membership stood at 268.

UNISSUED RUSSIAN STAMP FOR ROMANOV

JUBILEE OVERPRINTED FOR USE IN FINLAND

From the collection of Alfred F. Kugel FRPSL.

Member since 1995. Lives in United States of America .

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Unlike other parts of the empire, when Finland was ceded to Russia by Sweden in 1809 it was kept as

a separate political entity with the Czar also being the Grand Duke of Finland. From 1865 the Finns

were allowed their own currency of pennia and markka for internal purposes. In 1913, the Russian

Empire celebrated the Tercentenary of Romanov rule by issuing a set of commemorative stamps

depicting the rulers of that family. It was planned to issue eleven values of this set with overprinted

denominations in Finnish currency, being those which could be easily converted from roubles.

However, due to fear that the anti-Czarist Finns would not use the Romanov stamps, or would show

their disrespect by affixing them upside down, this plan was abandoned. Shown here is the high

value of the set, a 5 rouble stamp overprinted 13 markka. Only a handful of these stamps with trial

overprints escaped destruction. It is believed that just three such sets are in philatelic hands, in

addition to one in the postal museum. This example is ex Faberge.