Press Release from RPSL
An outstanding display and presentation of the first stamps of the United States was given to the members of the Royal Philatelic Society London at its meeting on 22 February by Gordon Eubanks FRPSL. The two values were issued on 1 July 1847: 5 cents and 10 cents for half-ounce letters travelling up to or over 300 miles respectively. The material shown was incredible, with many unique covers and multiples, some the largest recorded, plus examples of the use of bisects, all of the finest quality.
Among the items shown was a cover sent on 7 June 1851 from New York bearing a strip of ten of the 5 cent, the largest recorded multiple of the stamp on cover. No less spectacular was the largest known franking of the 10 cent on a cover sent from Peru and addressed to Mexico: the stamps were applied in Panama and comprise two strips of three and three singles, a total of nine of the stamps.
The display had been a ‘delight to behold, with amazing content, and of aesthetic beauty’, said Simon Martin-Redman FRPSL, in giving the Vote of Thanks. President of the Society, Michael Roberts FRPSL, gave his own thanks for what had been a superb presentation.
