Recently, I bought some material from the estate of
a collector who had won Gold Medals in international stamp exhibitions. It
surprised me that much of the postal history I had acquired was of below
average quality. It was obvious that some of this was the fault of the
collector: he had opened out envelopes, re-folded entire letters, trimmed
roughly opened envelopes, scribbled on his material as if it was scrap paper.
How do you get to win Gold Medals if you do that, I wondered?
I took a look at the FIP (Federation Internationale
de Philatelie) rules for exhibits in the Traditional Philately and Postal
History classes. They say that exhibits should aim to show material of the
“highest available quality”. But when it comes to the allocation of Points by
juries, only 10 points out of 100 are awarded for “Condition”.
I therefore propose a very simple rule change:
FIP
wishes to encourage recognition of the
fact that stamps and covers are autonomous, historically interesting
artefacts which deserve careful treatment, handling and conservation in a state
as close as possible to that in which they originally existed. In order to discourage
dealer, expert and collector damage to items, FIP will increase the points
allocated to the category “Condition” from 10 to 30, reducing other categories
as indicated in the revised schedule.
Specifically,
FIP Juries will regard all of the following as things which reduce the
Condition of a particular item and make it ineligible for the award of Maximum
points:
Stamps: hinges on mint stamps; absence of
gum on stamps which were originally gummed; ownership, dealer or expert
handstamps; ink and pencilled notes of any kind. Exhibits should be mounted in
such a way as to enable Jurors to examine the backs of stamps.
Postal
History:
opening out of covers, trimming, re-folding; owner, dealer or expert handstamps;
all ink and pencil markings including dealer prices and expert signatures
(especially when in close proximity to stamps); evidence of the use of an
eraser to remove pencilled markings. Exhibits should be mounted in such a way
as to enable Jurors to examine the backs of covers and cards.
Where
a photographic Expert certificate is held, it should be mounted on the back of
the relevant page of the exhibit. No other form of Expertising (handstamps, signatures) will be accepted.
Exhibitors
are advised that in some cases it may cause further damage to an item to erase
a pencilled note and they should use their judgment in deciding whether or not
to erase. In some instances, they may wish to indicate on their Exhibit why
they have decided not to erase such graffiti.
Er, that’s it.
