ONE OF the facets of philately is to have on permanent record what is happening from day to day in our country's philatelic field. This information must be fed regularly to The SA Philatelist which must not be looked upon as just a stamp magazine, but should be regarded as an encyclopaedia of vital philatelic knowledge, especially in regard to Southern Africa, so that future generations of philateli§ts will not be left with questions unanswered.
With this in mind, I now want to place before you a very interesting story.
Early in 1979 1 read in the Newcastle Advertiser that a meeting would be held with the idea of forming a philatelic society in Newcastle. I noticed that, in the advertisement, the convener had produced a remarkable replica (so I thought at the time) of a Newcastle stamp canceller with the words "PHILATELY/ FILATELIE" incorporated therein.
As I am an old Newcastle boy, I wrote to become a member and also congratulated the unknown artist on his life-like drawing of the canceller, a copy of which is reproduced. Imagine my surprise when I was informed that the canceller was not a drawing, but an actual strike from an official canceller at the Newcastle post office philatelic counter. I was informed that another post office in South Africa also had such a canceller.
On a recent visit to Newcastle I discovered that this special canceller had been withdrawn, the last day of permitted use being 28 August 1979. '
. philatelic Services says the issue ofthe philatelic datestamp to the Newcastle post office was the result ofan oversight. A similar postmark which had been in use at the De Aar post office, had also been withdrawn. The comment says, for certain reasons, this type ofpostmark is used only at Philatelic Services in Pretoria, and it is not the intention to have cancellers used at other counters identified specifically for philatelic items. - Editor