2025 News
Text Box: Henley and District Philatelic Society Chairman’s Evening—”Argentine Postal Cards” 12th February 2025 As a number of members were unable to attend the scheduled meeting by illness or other circumstances, the meeting was switched to Zoom at short notice. This enabled a few farther-flung friends to join in the fun, though they were deprived of the Chairman’s usual hospitality of wine and nibbles. To everyone’s surprise, Ian’s display consisted of Argentine material. He returned to the subject of postal stationery, this time postal cards, of which he exhibited almost all the cards issued between 1878 and 1985. Postal cards first appeared on the scene in 1869, in Austria-Hungary, and were rapidly taken up by other countries. Postal cards are distinguished from ordinary postcards, by having an imprinted stamp or indicium, indicating that postage had been paid. Argentina was somewhat later on the scene, but immediately introduced the concept of the reply-paid postal card, consisting of two attached cards, both bearing indicia. Not long after, urban rate cards were issued, initially overprints of the regular cards, then by distinctly designed cards. The indicia now took on the appearance of regular postage stamps. In ensuing years, the pattern was set for four values: domestic, urban, overseas and overseas pre-paid reply. In 1897, pictorial issues began to be issued, firstly with views of Buenos Aires. Three printings of the first issue resulted in composition changes and a multiplicity for collectors, some quite rare. Regular (definitive) cards were supplemented by commemorative issues and New Year greeting cards. The commemoratives included: A visit by Brazilian President Campos Sales; The 50th anniversary of the Santa Fe Constitutional Congress; A visit by a Chilean Peace Delegation. The Peronist 5 Year Plan The New Year ones displayed: Maps of the then 14 provinces; Vistas of rivers and lakes. Some cards had tourism themes. In the 1930’s two issues consisted of folded cards bearing national statistics. Who would have guessed that in 1932, there were more sheep than cows in Argentina (44 million, as against 32 million), sustaining a population of 12 million and 1.15 million tonnes of livestock product exports? The issue of postal cards died out after the Perón era, but was briefly resurrected in1980 with a four card set commemorating the Buenos Aires 1980 Philatelic Exhibition. Surplus cards of this issue were then overprinted for the Juvenex ‘82 Exhibition and the Argentina ‘85 Exhibitions. Ian wrapped up his display there, but added that Argentine postal cards had resurged in 1994 with commemorative cards, often complementing issues of postage stamps, or even replacing stamps altogether. These issues continue to the present day. Daphne McMillan—”Airgraphs” 8th January 2025 To safeguard against adverse weather conditions, the Society’s calendar year began with a Zoom meeting, allowing members to enjoy a philatelic evening in the warmth and comfort of their homes and enabling an invitation to a speaker well furth of the Thames Valley. We also welcomed members of Oxford Philatelic Society to our meeting. Our regular notetaker had succumbed to a fall, incurring damage to both knees, and presented apologies from his hospital bed. This account of the meeting is presented by your Chairman, which explains the lack of customary detail. Subsequent discussion placed this topic in the realms of postal history, for unlike postal stationery, the consignments bore no printed indicium (with one exception displayed), yet still involved the transmission of a message. In principle, an airgraph is a message written on a preformatted form, photographed onto microfilm which was conveyed to a remote printing facility, where the message was reproduced onto photographic paper and disseminated locally by the Royal Engineers’ Army Postal Services. The technology had been around since the early part of the 20th century, but came into its own during the second world war. With Europe under siege, it became logistically difficult to carry the volume of conventional mail from the Middle East and beyond back to the UK. With a reel of microfilm carrying as many messages as two sackloads of letters, this burden was reduced considerably. Airgraph forms were free, but their use was paid for by attaching a 3d stamp. As with regular mail, airgraphs were censored prior to being photographed. Beside basic airgraph forms, there was plenty of scope for regimental and other pre-printed forms and Daphne’s display included many examples of senders putting their own artistic skills to use. Daphne fielded questions both during and after her display and pleasantries were exchanged between friends and strangers. Steve informed us that scanning of the auction lots was well under way. Thanking Daphne, the Chairman wrapped up the evening, reminding members that we could look forward to a display on “Viaducts” in two weeks’ time, also on Zoom. He surprised everyone by announcing that the theme of his Chairman’s evening in February would involve some obscure South American country.  CLICK HERE FOR 2024 NEWS