September 2025
Print or Digital?
Our collections are a celebration of printing and yet I am communicating to you digitally. The first postage stamps with their beautiful engraving helped drive a low-cost communications revolution around the world in the 1840’s and 1850’s – today’s cheap communications are by e-mail, social media ‘post’ (why is it so called?), ‘like’ or emoji. We scarcely receive a written letter in the physical post anymore and very, very few are handwritten.
Why is that? Primarily it is cost, and the cost of physical mail is perhaps three orders of magnitude greater than digital. Yet surely all collectors still cherish the physical.
I was driven to reflect more on this by my recent visit to Nordia 2025 held in an excellent venue in Malmo and just a few minutes of the train from Copenhagen airport, a tribute to open borders. Jan Berg, our representative in Sweden, organised a ‘Royal’ event on the Friday evening and over 70 members attended in Malmo’s iconic tower. Generously sponsored by the Global Philatelic Network, our sponsors expounded passion for the printed book and outlined some ambitious projects for future books.
Today digital technology allows us to collect and manipulate data to produce censuses that our predecessors would have had to spend decades piecing together and allows us to illustrate such works profusely and in colour. These works are often a wonder to behold and will be treasured by their owners – but they are heavy, shipping has become a disproportionate part of the cost and there are also the ongoing storage costs, perhaps not a monetary one, but in an age of ‘de-cluttering’, smaller houses etc, do we have room on our shelves?
On top of all of this, we now have tariff battles. An increasing number of nations seem to be ignoring their international obligations under UPU treaties. There have even been some mild protests from the UPU itself in its 150th year – perhaps you think they should be more vociferous! It all adds costs and uncertainty when ordering a book or even getting your copy of the London Philatelist delivered.
Anecdotally there are a wide variety of issues with very different experiences even in neighbouring countries. Maybe your LP is just delayed, maybe you have to pay a ‘handling fee’ or some ‘customs duty’ on printed matter. We would be interested in hearing of your experiences, even if yours are one of the postal services that still does what it ought to do. This will help us shape our responses to this fast-changing environment.
President’s Dinner – Stationers Hall
If you do still celebrate the physical – be it the printed word, or meeting your fellow collectors in the flesh for good company and good food, then there is still time to get your tickets for the President’s Dinner on Wednesday 22nd October 2025 at Stationer’s Hall – another institution steeped not just in the history of printing but in helping shape its future. Tickets can be bought on the website https://members.rpsl.org.uk/shop and the physical tickets will be available at the end of the month and can then be collected from the office, or on the door, or if you are in the UK, posted to you.
2025/26 programme
The new season started with a wonderful offering from His Majesty the King’s collection. The 16.00 format for the presentation and vote of thanks seemed to work reasonably well, and the new layout of the American Lounge was a marked improvement.
This week 27 of our German members will be entertaining us on Thursday 18 September. All 54 frames will be filed and there is a very wide selection of topics – material from Columbia, Japan, Australia, Pakistan are all featured in addition to a number of European displays and an intriguingly display on ‘Extracts from the Ferrary Collection’ – so you will have to attend to find out what that entails!
We follow this with both digital and physical events. On Tuesday 7th October our regular 15.00 ‘Zoom’ meeting will feature Daniel Ryterband’s Graf Zeppelin stamps, this is open to all but you do need to register with Eventbrite https://graf_zeppelin_stamps.eventbrite.co.uk
Then on Thursday 9th October we will be treated to a 1.00 display of Joseph Hackmey’s wonderful collection of classic Mexico.
Autumn events at Abchurch Lane
Abchurch Lane will be busy in the last week of September. We are delighted to be hosting the Stuart Rossiter Trust Seminar on the theme of “What is Postal History”. Over 60 people have registered for this free seminar and there is a small waiting list, please check with srtcorr@gmail.com to assist planning, if you have not yet registered.
The Seminar is on 24th September and on the following two days there will be the autumn ABPS competitions. 54 frames of exhibits have been entered, largely traditional and postal history – a fine opportunity to see some new British exhibits. The date has been chosen to meet the entry deadlines for the Boston 2026 show, which closes on 30 September
International Meetings
Full details of these and our regional meetings can be found on the website. Do encourage non-members to attend as your guest. With fewer local Societies these days it is an opportunity for all and an opportunity to recruit new members.
I will be in Paris for the Salon D’Automne in the first week of November and it would be great to restart Royal regional meetings in France next year. A regional meeting is planned for India in December, which I hope to attend. I expect to be at all three FIP shows in the first half of 2026 – Dubai, Boston and Macao.
Yours sincerely,
Simon
Simon Richards RDP FRPSL
President of The Royal Philatelic Society London
