Page 96 - 148 Years of the Royal Philatelic Society London

In 1961: U.S. breaks ties with Cuba; Bay of Pigs fiasco; Berlin Wall built; OPEC formed; Yuri

Gagarin first man in space; Alan Shepard lst U.S. astronaut; Barack Obama+ Princess Di born

At the RPSL: First thematic display at 41 on Olympic Games; Society lends display of fakes

and forgeries to exhibition at British Museum; Prince Pamphili bequeaths Italian collection.

RPSL Presidents were W . Ewart Gerrish and H. R. Holmes. Patron H.M. Queen Elizabeth II.

Membership 1038.

UPU SPECIMEN STAMPS

From the collection of James Bendon FRPSL.

Member since 1991. Lives in the England.

Starting in 1878 and continuing today, members of the UPU have been required to supply

'specimens' of their new stamps to the UPU for distribution to other members. It has been for each

member to decide whether to 'protect' these stamps by overprinting, handstamping or perforating

with the word 'SPECIMEN' or the equivalent in other languages. The 1961 Costa Rica 10 centimos

stamp commemorating the Birth Centenary of Professor Miguel Obregon, shown here in a strip of

three as distributed, was the last stamp of any country circulated by the UPU that shows any form of

protection, a 'MUESTRA' overprint.