New views on old information

When coming close to a jubilee it is usual to look back in time to see what the past has delivered. Browsing through dusty old newsletters is not a really nice job, but fortunately almost all articles since newsletter no. 30 (1994) are neatly published on our website (in Dutch, partly also translated to English). Completed with a look through the older printed versions I concluded that over the years we have written a lot about motorized 2-wheelers. Funny articles and more serious items.
But I see also a number of articles in which we were, at the time of writing, convinced to tell the complete truth, but where we now have additional information or have received corrections from experts. Not at least because we also are surfing on the World Wide Web. Unbelievable how much knowledge those computers have brought to our disposal.

Printers' signs

Like in Newsletter 20 where I bumped into the article about printers' signs (according to Nico "printers' signatures"). Printers, working on the production of Dutch stamps, were allowed to imprint the recognisition sign that was assigned to them in the margin of stamp sheet, to make it possible to determine afterwards who had printed the respective sheets. We are talking about the years 1918-1925.
First this were squares, circles, diamonds and other signs, but later real images were also used. Known are fishes, cars, a horse and, off course interesting for us, an image described as a motorcycle. You have to use a bit of your imagination, but it really is one:

Off course we looked for this "marginal phenomenon" and sometimes we found one, but it was not clear to us on which Dutch stamps they could occur. Until we met Bert Venema of the working party "sheet margin peculiarities" on the Postex in Apeldoorn. Bert got a book from his bag which contained many printers' signs, with at least one page full with the motorcycle. When we asked him whether there was a list of it, he promised us to make an overview of all stamps that are relevant for us, and email it to me. And thus happened. Hereafter the overview that he sent us.

Hello, here the list of all printers' sign no. 73, the motorcycle, that I know.

Country	NVPH no.	Edition letter	Orientation of sign	Position of sign	Perforation
N	81	?	R	B10	NB
N	111	A		B10	NB
N	111	A	R	B10	NB
N	111	B	R	B10	GL
N	111	B	R	B10	NB
N	111	B	R	B10	GR
NI	117	B		B10	NB
NI	LP1	B		B10	NB
NI	P33	A		B10	NB

First column, N (Netherlands) of NI (Dutch India).
Second column catalogue number NVPH (Dutch association of stamp traders).
Third column the edition letter used, of N 81 the letter is not yet known.
Fourth column the orientation of the printers' sign, R is turned clockwise, when nothing is written here upright.
Fifth column the position of the printers' sign, only known on the top margin (B) above stamp no. 10.
Sixth column the known teething, NB is with 15 holes in the top margin, GL has 1 hole in the top margin, GR is with 16 holes in the top margin and the right sheet margin completely perforated.

This is all that I know about this printers' sign.
When there are other varieties known within the motorcycle club, I would like to hear this from you accompanied by a scan.

Regards, Bert Venema, working party sheet margin peculiarities.

Well, this is the way we learn from each other. Bert, thank you.

Viennese Printings

Another addition and correction regards all information given about the so-called Viennese Printings. This concerns stamps issued by the at that time (by us) seen as rebellion governement in our former Dutch India. It concerns a stamp showing 2 motorized police officers, with in a medallion the head of some bigwig. Once I heard the story about this issue from an old KNIL-soldier, and remembered this as the truth. Of this stamp several overprints are known, and it was also known that they should have been printed on 2 different locations. When I was asked lately via internet what I knew about this issue, and whether there is an issue of the motorcycle stamp with Republiek (spelled with a 'U'), I honestly reproduced the story as I had it in mind.
Short after that I received an email of the secretary of Dai Nippon, Leo Vosse. Dai Nippon is a philatelist club of specialty collectors from Dutch India under the Japanese occupation (1942-1945), the Indonesian Republic (1945-1949) and related territories. He is the author of the famous reference work about this kind of issues. Broadly outlined my story was correct, and thus also what I told in the past, only the story of the police chef who was so corrupt that he was not allowed to appear in the second series was unknown to him. Unfortunately my source of information has passed away in due time, so verification is not possible anymore. Fact is that the motorcycle stamp is not present anymore in the second series with the U-spelling. Why??
In the 8 pages (A4) counting story about the 'Repoebliek' and 'Republiek' stamp that Leo sent me are a lot of corrections and additions to our knowledge. By reproducing it all I would almost completely fill this newsletter, and therefore I restrict myself to give only the information that is relevant to us.

End of 1947, presumably after the first Police Action (July 21st to August 4th 1947), the Republican authorities have ordered their representative in New York to let produce stamps for the Indonesian Republic that was proclaimed, from their side only, on August 17th 1945. This became the series with the motorcycle stamp. The order to produce these stamps was given to stamp wholesaler J. & H. Stolow in New York.
Already before the actual issue the new spelling revision came into force, in which amongst others the 'oe' had been replaced by the 'u'. However, this message did not reach the representation with the UN in time, and therefore the first series carries the imprint 'Repoeblik'.

The Stolow company let print 57 of these 73 stamp issues with inscription RepOEblik by the Österreichische Staatsdruckerei in Vienna, and 16 stamps by the E.A. Wright Bank Note Company in Philadelphia. Designer was the Austrian graphic artist Professor Ernst Schrom. So if we interpret this in the right way, all our motorcycle stamps have been printed in Vienna.

The first stamps with the inscription RepOEblik were available for the public on the main post office in Djokjakarta at December 15th 1948, 3 days before the start of the 2nd Police Action. Many of these stamps carry the imprint 'RESMI' (= service) and are thus produced officially. The stock of stamps got destroyed in the fights.
The trader Stolow was ordered to make a new series of stamps. Apart from new values, also 13 images from the first series had been replaced by new designs. This time, due to the change of spelling that was introduced in 1947, this series was provided with the text RepUblik instead of RepOEblik. But, as said, our motorcycle stamp is unfortunately not part of this second series.

After the recognition of the independency and the depart of the Dutch from 'our' India Soekarno held a parade into Djokjakarta on July 6th 1949. To remember this for the Republicans memorable event, the Republican PTT decided on December 7th 1949 to overprint all stamps of the Republic with the imprint 'Merdeka Djokjakarta 6 Djuli 1949'. Stamps with this overprint were immediately valid for franking.

On April 24th 1951 all stamps printed in Vienna and Philadelphia have been sent in 360-fold to the UPU in Bern, with the request to register these stamps as official stamps of the Indonesian Republic. All stamps sent to the UPU have been teethed in the original perforation: 14, thus not the perforation of the re-print with line-teething 13¾.
In the August volume of the monthly UPU magazine (Union Postale, no. 8, August 1951) these stamps were announced to be official stamps of the Indonesian Republic. On August 1st 1951 the Indonesion Post declared all stamps printed in Vienna and Philadelphia invalid for franking.
Further Leo Vosse confirmed our findings that the man in the medaillon is not, as written in the Michel catalogue, Sastroamidjojo (Minister under Soekarno), but police chef Soekampto.

Thus a long story. And, again knowing a lot more, we thank Leo for his contribution.

Spyker stamp

Something else that has always interested me, is the question who the lady is on the Spyker stamp from the Netherlands from 2004 (see Newsletter 69). First we had the question which motorcycle brand it was that was depicted on the Spyker stamp, answered by Richard van Buul in newsletter 70. At first glance it looked like Triumph, but after comprehensive study it appeared to be a Trump. Models showed some resemblance with the image of the motorcycle. But there were still some questions left, for example who the lady on the motorcycle was. Until I, Gold-Wing enthusiast as I am, payed a visit to the Naked Gold-Wing clubsite and there ran into this picture:

It concerns a lady, a certain Mrs. Janson, on the Brooklands track. If you look carefully to this picture you can see a car riding on the background. Exactly: the Double Twelve Spyker record car!
After some Google-ing on her name, the info rolled out over my computer screen.
Immediately this picture came out, with the announcement that Mrs. Janson, born as Gwenda Mary Glubb (sister of Glubb Pasha, army commander of a.o. Sir Lawrence of Arabia) sitting on her Double-Twelve record Trump-JAP is being replenished with fuel for her 2nd record ride.

Finished thus? No way. It appeared that in those years the Essex motorclub organised this Double-Twelve, a long distance record ride that was riden over 2 days of 12 hours driving each, because the neighbours of the circuit did not want racing overnight, for both cars and motorcycles, with the Spyker and Trump as winners in 1922. This is the reason that the motorcycle was put on the picture together with the Spyker.

The picture with the winners that has been used for the Dutch Spyker stamp

One of the owners of the Trump motorcycle factory was a certain Col. Stewart, and in 1923 Mrs. Glubb, formerly Janson, married this Stewart, to marry again a few years laters with some other man, Douglas Hawkes, who had a finger in the pie at Morgan Motors. In 1933 Mrs. Hawkes set the hour record at 118 Mph (189 km/h) with a 3-wheeled Morgan. For sure a fast lady thus, both with motorcycles and men.

Here the fast lady on an ancient Morgan.

Duostamps

In Belgium a lot of the so-called Duostamps have been sold over the last years by the Belgian Post.

The Belgian Vicindo stamp with motorcycle

After the Vincendo Belgica 2001 motorcycle-tab-stamp known by us, 3 new ways of collecting have been launched later that year:

• 'My stamp': a stamp consisting of 2 connected parts, the right part being the actual stamp with franking value (the Logo) and the left part a vignette at which a personal picture, a special occasion, a message or something like that can be printed. In fact the personalized stamp in a new dress.
• 'Duostamp': a special issue of stamps consisting of 2 connected parts, the right part being the actual stamp with franking value (the Logo) and the left part a vignette at which certain themes, like birthdays, births, festivities etcetera can be memorized. These stamps have been offered through the Post's Artisshops and Philaboutiques.
• 'Mediastamp': a stamp consisting of 2 connected parts, the right part being the actual stamp with franking value (the Logo) and the left part a vignette at which mainly companies promote themselves or their products. These are made for companies in large numbers under special conditions.

The My-stamps can be found with a wide variety of personal images and texts, made in small amounts. Here I only want to look at the Duostamps, because for us there are 2 of them with a motorcycle on the tab. One of these is the Prior stamp with Snoopy on the tab, the other the one with Mickey Mouse on a motorcycle.

This tab appears to be used with 2 different franking stamps. The first has a value imprint of 49 eurocents. This stamp has been used for the Duostamps from November 3th 2002 until October 15th 2003. The stamp was printed in sheets of 15, with 15 different images on the tabs.

These stamps were also sold in hanging envelops containing strips of 5 vertically connected images each, and thus 3 different strips from the total sheet.

Suddenly the same tab appeared connected to the stamp with the new Prior logo that has been used from April 1st 2004 until September 3th 2007. But now it only says prior, without a value indication to it. In the expectation that there would also be sheets of 15 of these stamps I have been looking for one for several years. I found the hanging envelops in large amounts, but never a complete sheet.

Until I spoke about this stamp with a stamp trader, who told me that the sheets with this stamp have only been printed in strips of 5, to make the hanging envelops. Thus there are no sheets of 15 different stamps. And still I keep on looking for at least an image of the complete sheet with 3x the strip of 5.

Hans de Kloet

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