JOHANNESBURG: The National Stamp Exhibition will be held at Museum Africa in Johannesburg from October 9 to 13. The opening coincides with World Post Day and The Post Office will issue a special circular/round stamp featuring “the Post Office”.
The event is hosted by the Philatelic Society of Johannesburg under the auspices of the Philatelic Federation of South Africa and. The exhibition is known as “Jomapex 2013”.
Highlights of the show include over 7500 album pages with stamps and postal material. Amazing collections from Museum Africa being exhibited for the first time include the Curle Collection Old Transvaal Republic which includes some of the “world’s rarest stamps” – a pair of stamps in which one is printed upside down. This is a world-renowned collection. Another notable inclusion is the Harvey Pirie Collection SA and World War II. It showcases envelopes testifying to wartime events such as military post marks and letters from prisoners of war.
One private collection shows the Border War, including mail from South Africans held prisoner of war in Angola, and the military markings on servicemen’s letters from the border area, such as a rare handstamp “Destroy after reading”.
In addition to the stamp collections of countries and even islands, like stamps of Tristan da Cunha, the world’s loneliest island, there are beautiful collections with stamps on subjects such as butterflies and penguins, and stories from the Bible.
The Junior section has displays by 29 youngsters, as young as 8 years.
There will also be interesting items loaned from the Post Office Museum on display. The SA Post Office, Namibia Post and other Southern African postal administrations will be in attendance, and special exhibition postmarks, including one for the Junior exhibition, will be available at the PO counter so that visitors can make their own souvenir envelopes and post letters right there in the museum.
A number of auction houses and dealers will be on hand for the serious collectors, including internationally renowned Spink and Stanley Gibbons Ltd. A stamp and coin auction of note by Stephan Welz & Co will be hosted over five sessions, starting Wednesday evening October 9 and ending Thursday evening October 10.
Said Clive Carr, chairman of Jomapex organizing committee: “This is the first time that organized philately in South Africa has partnered with one of our leading museums to bring a show of such high caliber to the public.”
Free parking is available on the square in front of museum and entrance is free. The exhibition is open from 10:00 to 17:00 Thursday – Saturday and from 09:00 to 13:00 on Sunday. Visit www. philatelysa.co.za
