Collect Southern Africa

South West Africa
Revenue Stamps by Francis Kiddle
2011 Leamington Spa Philatelic Weekend
A Report by Otto Peetoom
The display commences with scarce German overprints, only two values saw use.
Prior to WWI a supply of 25pf, 5 & 10 Mark revenues was received but not used, during the War the stock was looted and Francis has managed to obtain a mint 5 mark value for his collection.

In 1925 the inscriptions were changed from Dutch to Afrikaans.
By the mid 1930’s the S.W.A. Postal authorities resorted to overprinting obsolete postage stamps for use as revenues which includes Cigarette Tax, Cigarette Tobacco Tax and Entertainment Tax. Native Tax stamps include overprints for Tribal Trust Funds, Tribal Tax stamps, Monthly Pass Fee.

An article on these Native taxes appeared in the August 2011 SA Philatelist.
 
The first issue to be overprinted were the remains of the 1935 Silver Jubilee stamps and I pointed out that it was the wish of King George V that the issue should be withdrawn on the 31 December 1935 and that all remainders should be destroyed.
It seems that S.W.A. decided to ignore the Monarch’s wish. After the 1931 Definitives were withdrawn these stamps were all overprinted with bi-lingual text and the residue of the 1949 UPU & Voortrekker Monument, 1952 Van Riebeeck & 1953 Coronation issues received similar treatment. Transposed overprints are known and on the archival sheets the overprinted 1931 20/- definitive is known with a double overprint.
Francis pointed out that the various overprints make for a complicated subject and the best guide to them appears in a catalogue
ALNIS GUIDE No 10 to S.W.A. Revenues & other non-postal stamps by L. Jacobson published by Glass Slipper, York (1990)
A quote from The South African Philatelist May 1936 on page 66 S.W.A. ‘JUBILEES’

Having heard that the remainder of at least one of the values of the Jubilee stamps was being used up fiscally on cigarette packets, we made enquiry of the Director of Post and Telegraphs if this statement was correct and at the same time asked if official information could be supplied as to the number of stamps printed and used.

We have been informed “that all surplus S.W.A. Jubilee issue of stamps have been overprinted for Inland Revenue purposes.”
As regards numbers printed and used, a change seems to have come over the Administration. In the old days of busy overprinting of Union stamps for use in S.W.A. we used to be able to get such information readily.
To-day the reply we have received is: It is regretted that statistical data in connection with the use made of the issue cannot be supplied, as such information is not made available for public information.“And that” said John, “is that.”
31 May 2014 Leamington Spa Philatelic Weekend
S.W.A. Essays and Proofs from the Archives
By Otto Peetoom

 

In 2001 Stephan Welz in Johannesburg Auctioned 193 lots that comprised the Pre-Independence archive of Namibia Post including original artwork and Proof material. The coverage was essentially from the period 1972/1990 with some earlier oddments. Beside the stamp issues it included Booklets,
1972 Postage Dues, Postal Stationery, Maximum cards and Revenues.

I made a specific appointment and viewed all these lots on Thursday 11 October 2001, the estimates for this material varied from R300 to R100,000 and to put the prices into prospective the exchange rate was £1 = R13.88.
The highest estimate was for lot 16 being the 1971 Definitives, sixteen values from 1c to R1 in imperforate proof sheets of 100 and Estimated at R80,000 - R100,000.

Danny Swart assisted me with the viewing and I recall that the overall quantity was somewhat overwhelming and the thought occurred ‘How in heavens name does one dispose of all this stuff.’
I made several notes in my catalogue that varied from Possible, Big Lot, No, Expensive, Don’t like. To Thematic Interest, Interesting, OK, Quite like, Quite large pieces, Nice but large, Large but attractive and on a more positive note: Not bad, Average, Nice, Pretty and Very pretty.

After viewing I had almost two weeks to make up my mind, by necessity I think the estimates were a stab in the dark and to buy or not to do so would depend on the prices on the day.
I arranged to bid on the telephone and sat in on the sale for all 193 lots. My pre-sale review of the archive was that the Essays, for the various issues, are all unique and that I intended to concentrate my efforts on such lots. I also decided not to buy any of the designs that did not appeal to me.


At 11am, on Wednesday 24 October 2001, lot 1 kicked off with me on the telephone. I had set myself an average value per essay and found that the first few lots I had an interest in sold for higher prices than my initial bench mark. Once I raised my ceiling I bought every lot I fancied and after lot 86 was knocked down to me another 21 lots followed.

Besides the hand painted essays I wanted the imperforate proof sheets of 200 of the 1972 1c & 8c postage dues estimated at R25,000 - 30,000. After fierce competition it was knocked down to me at R130,000 excluding buyer’s premium. Today, in hindsight, I wish I had not bought this lot and should have spent the money on more of the essays. The final lot I bought was No 188, the proof material for the 1954 6d Ostrich Air Letter sheet and is probably the most interesting item of the twenty two lots purchased.

The 1972 Postage Due proof sheets have been cut up and some of the essays are arranged on album pages, but the vast majority remained in their auction envelopes and have occupied a shelf in my office for over twelve years.
Having offered to include this proof material in a display at the South African Collectors Society at their Leamington Spa weekend conference in May 2014, the time has arrived to do some justice to this wonderful material.
Besides the display I have put together a power point presentation and hope the audience enjoys it.

The Essays are individual paintings each with an acetate overlay with the Country name and value on them. Any essay that might look a bit grubby or damaged is fine as such faults occur only on the overlay.

  
View the Entire Display on the Next Page
S.W.A. Essays and Proofs from the Archives

Aerogramme Essays

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