SEPAC-group

This morning the Faroese Philatelic News 1/2007 (Danish Edition) landed in
my mailbox with the news announcing the formation of the SEPAC-group --
Small European Postal Administrations Cooperation -- and the group's first
common stamp issue on 1 Oct 2007. The group consists of the following postal
administrations:

- Aland Post
- Postverk Foroya
- Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau
- Post Greenland
- Guernsey Post Ltd
- Iceland Post
- Isle of Man Post
- Jersey Post ltd
- Liechtenstein Post Corp.
- Maltapost plc
- Monaco Post
- San Marino Post.

The purpose of the SEPAC-group's efforts is to further youth philately in
relation to promoting general knowledge about the history, nature,
landscapes and cultures of the European countries that are members of the
group, and through this work to introduce a new thematic collecting area.

The first common stamp issue of the SEPAC-group, is "landscapes". Each of
the participating countries may interpret the given thematic issuances their
own The group's first common issue will be released on 1 Oct, 2007, with
the participation of 11 of the 12 member countries. Only San Marino will not
participate this first year. Further common SEPAC-issues are planned for
2009 and 2011, when also San Marino (and eventual new members of the group)
is expected to participate.

The official launch of the new group and it's purpose will take place on 3
May 2007 at the International Stamp Fair in Essen, Germany, and the folder
"Beautiful Corners of Europe", containing a stamp from each of the 11
participating countries with the group's logo, attractive photographs and
informative texts, will be offered for sale.
---
My personal comment to this is that it seems a good initiative to attract
youth collectors to our hobby in this informal ay. Without knowledge of the
historical background of a particular stamp, it is nothing more than a
graphically designed price-tag with no other information or general interest
than its actual cost and possible tupos, which will hardly generate wide
interest except to philatelists who make a "science" out of their
collections, whereas "visual entertainment and information" will appeal also
to youth collectors of all ages. Times simply change :-)

So, my personal very best wishes to the new group :-)

Mette

On Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:37:11 +0200, "Mette"
wrote:

In a sense, this is almost creating a small British Commonwealth type
of thing where omnibus type issues can be designed, printed and sold.
Look out Ralph! Your "joint issue" club has just expanded!

Many of these places are almost remnants of a past time, but it is
good to see that some "legitimacy" has been tagged onto their purpose.
Where's Andorra?

This may bring some people into the fold, much like the older colonial
issues brought me in, with pictures of faraway places and topics
unheard of in the states. Since then, the Internet has helped make
the world a smaller place, therefore reducing some of that "mystery"
by other pieces of data.

Not so much that the dream or mystery that philately brings, but
besides informing people this may also be great advertising!

I have heard from many people that some of these places are
questionable for postal releases in sizes they print them, but at
least the people may be getting back a littler more than a piece of
printed paper and some gum or S/A sticky stuff.

I hope this does help out bringing new collectors into the fold. For
those who already collect these areas, this may be a bright spot in
their future.

This morning the Faroese Philatelic News 1/2007 (Danish Edition) landed in
my mailbox with the news announcing the formation of the SEPAC-group --
Small European Postal Administrations Cooperation -- and the group's first
common stamp issue on 1 Oct 2007. The group consists of the following postal
administrations:

- Aland Post
- Postverk Foroya
- Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau
- Post Greenland
- Guernsey Post Ltd
- Iceland Post
- Isle of Man Post
- Jersey Post ltd
- Liechtenstein Post Corp.
- Maltapost plc
- Monaco Post
- San Marino Post.

The purpose of the SEPAC-group's efforts is to further youth philately in
relation to promoting general knowledge about the history, nature,
landscapes and cultures of the European countries that are members of the
group, and through this work to introduce a new thematic collecting area.

The first common stamp issue of the SEPAC-group, is "landscapes". Each of
the participating countries may interpret the given thematic issuances their
own The group's first common issue will be released on 1 Oct, 2007, with
the participation of 11 of the 12 member countries. Only San Marino will not
participate this first year. Further common SEPAC-issues are planned for
2009 and 2011, when also San Marino (and eventual new members of the group)
is expected to participate.

The official launch of the new group and it's purpose will take place on 3
May 2007 at the International Stamp Fair in Essen, Germany, and the folder
"Beautiful Corners of Europe", containing a stamp from each of the 11
participating countries with the group's logo, attractive photographs and
informative texts, will be offered for sale.
---
My personal comment to this is that it seems a good initiative to attract
youth collectors to our hobby in this informal ay. Without knowledge of the
historical background of a particular stamp, it is nothing more than a
graphically designed price-tag with no other information or general interest
than its actual cost and possible tupos, which will hardly generate wide
interest except to philatelists who make a "science" out of their
collections, whereas "visual entertainment and information" will appeal also
to youth collectors of all ages. Times simply change :-)

So, my personal very best wishes to the new group :-)

Mette

Mette wrote:
This morning the Faroese Philatelic News 1/2007 (Danish
Edition) landed in my mailbox with the news announcing
the formation of the SEPAC-group -- Small European Postal
Administrations Cooperation -- and the group's first
common stamp issue on 1 Oct 2007. The group consists of
the following postal administrations:
- Aland Post
- Postverk Foroya
- Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau
- Post Greenland
- Guernsey Post Ltd
- Iceland Post
- Isle of Man Post
- Jersey Post ltd
- Liechtenstein Post Corp.
- Maltapost plc
- Monaco Post
- San Marino Post.

The purpose of the SEPAC-group's efforts is to further
youth philately in relation to promoting general
knowledge about the history, nature, landscapes and
cultures of the European countries that are members of
the group, and through this work to introduce a new
thematic collecting area.

Hi,
Luxemburg has joined in, I believe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_E...on_Cooperation

- I am surprised that a criteria for entering SEPAC is "a
small market with more than 50% of its philatelic customers
living outside the country"

- I am surprised that full EU member states (Luxemburg and
Malta) are in it.

I lack full information, but obviously this could be just a
gimmick to sell more stamps.
I don't quite get the "postal" side of this association,
apart from boosting stamps selling. Are there side
agreements regarding mail activities ?

--
Best regards,
Bruno

skrev i en meddelelse
...
On Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:37:11 +0200, "Mette"
wrote:

In a sense, this is almost creating a small British Commonwealth type
of thing where omnibus type issues can be designed, printed and sold.
Look out Ralph! Your "joint issue" club has just expanded!

Many of these places are almost remnants of a past time, but it is
good to see that some "legitimacy" has been tagged onto their purpose.
Where's Andorra?

A small place in the Pyrenees, between France and Spain, not so far away
from the Mediterrenean.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andorra
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications...k/geos/an.html


This may bring some people into the fold, much like the older colonial
issues brought me in, with pictures of faraway places and topics
unheard of in the states. Since then, the Internet has helped make
the world a smaller place, therefore reducing some of that "mystery"
by other pieces of data.

Not so much that the dream or mystery that philately brings, but
besides informing people this may also be great advertising!

Yes, and promoting tourism

I have heard from many people that some of these places are
questionable for postal releases in sizes they print them,

It may well be so, but their stamps are fully legitimate.

but at
least the people may be getting back a littler more than a piece of
printed paper and some gum or S/A sticky stuff.

"bc92" skrev i en meddelelse
...
Mette wrote:
This morning the Faroese Philatelic News 1/2007 (Danish
Edition) landed in my mailbox with the news announcing
the formation of the SEPAC-group -- Small European Postal
Administrations Cooperation -- and the group's first
common stamp issue on 1 Oct 2007. The group consists of
the following postal administrations:
- Aland Post
- Postverk Foroya
- Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau
- Post Greenland
- Guernsey Post Ltd
- Iceland Post
- Isle of Man Post
- Jersey Post ltd
- Liechtenstein Post Corp.
- Maltapost plc
- Monaco Post
- San Marino Post.

The purpose of the SEPAC-group's efforts is to further
youth philately in relation to promoting general
knowledge about the history, nature, landscapes and
cultures of the European countries that are members of
the group, and through this work to introduce a new
thematic collecting area.

Hi,
Luxemburg has joined in, I believe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_E...on_Cooperation

It could well be, but is not mentioned in the philatelic bulletin quoted.


- I am surprised that a criteria for entering SEPAC is "a small market
with more than 50% of its philatelic customers living outside the country"

- I am surprised that full EU member states (Luxemburg and Malta) are in
it.

Why? There are other postal associations with both EU-members and
non-members, e.g. the Nordic Postal Association (Denmark, Sweden, Norway,
Iceland, Faeroes, Finland).

The criteria for joining seems to be that it should be a small European
state. At present I could think of Cyprus.


I lack full information, but obviously this could be just a gimmick to
sell more stamps.

Earlier the postal administrations were 100% stately owned, with focus on
keeping costs down. Now they are privatized, with focus on making money to
the shareholders. Seems fair enough.

I don't quite get the "postal" side of this association, apart from
boosting stamps selling. Are there side agreements regarding mail
activities ?

Not that I know of so far. As said in my post, I have quote what is
mentioned in the Faeroese Bulletin. The Official launch will be early May in
Essen.

Mette

dear Bruno,

I think you hit the point! There's no postal sense in that. Postally
Liechtenstein relies on Switzerland, Andorra wasn't in the list as
postally it's divided between France and Spain, and so on.

In the Netherlands we have quite a lot of nice islands, some of them may
join their German and Danish neighbouring islands to form a philatelic
brotherhood that can pleasure us with their of postal and cultural
traditions...

groetjes, Rein

PS

Sorry, Mette, but I won't get foo..ooled again...

Op Sat, 21 Apr 2007 17:52:16 +0200 schreef bc92
:


Hi,
Luxemburg has joined in, I believe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_E...on_Cooperation

- I am surprised that a criteria for entering SEPAC is "a small market
with more than 50% of its philatelic customers living outside the
country"

- I am surprised that full EU member states (Luxemburg and Malta) are in
it.

I lack full information, but obviously this could be just a gimmick to
sell more stamps.
I don't quite get the "postal" side of this association, apart from
boosting stamps selling. Are there side agreements regarding mail
activities ?




--
Gemaakt met Opera's revolutionaire e-mailprogramma:
http://www.opera.com/mail/

skrev i en meddelelse
...
On Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:37:11 +0200, "Mette"
wrote:

In a sense, this is almost creating a small British Commonwealth type
of thing where omnibus type issues can be designed, printed and sold.
Look out Ralph! Your "joint issue" club has just expanded!

Many of these places are almost remnants of a past time, but it is
good to see that some "legitimacy" has been tagged onto their purpose.
Where's Andorra?

Reading Rein's post, I can just say "silly me" !!! I simply misunderstood
your question. Please forget that I ever answered :-)

On Sat, 21 Apr 2007 19:23:49 +0200, "Mette"
wrote:


skrev i en meddelelse
.. .
On Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:37:11 +0200, "Mette"
wrote:

In a sense, this is almost creating a small British Commonwealth type
of thing where omnibus type issues can be designed, printed and sold.
Look out Ralph! Your "joint issue" club has just expanded!

Many of these places are almost remnants of a past time, but it is
good to see that some "legitimacy" has been tagged onto their purpose.
Where's Andorra?

A small place in the Pyrenees, between France and Spain, not so far away
from the Mediterrenean.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andorra
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications...k/geos/an.html

I gnu dat!

It was a "rhetorical" question, like "Why hasn't Andorra joined up?"

- :^P

This may bring some people into the fold, much like the older colonial
issues brought me in, with pictures of faraway places and topics
unheard of in the states. Since then, the Internet has helped make
the world a smaller place, therefore reducing some of that "mystery"
by other pieces of data.

Not so much that the dream or mystery that philately brings, but
besides informing people this may also be great advertising!

Yes, and promoting tourism

Absolutement!

I have heard from many people that some of these places are
questionable for postal releases in sizes they print them,

It may well be so, but their stamps are fully legitimate.

Yes, that may be true, but when your GNP is 80% stamps, what does that
say? I read in an article that when Liechtenstein needs capital, they
print stamps.

but at
least the people may be getting back a littler more than a piece of
printed paper and some gum or S/A sticky stuff.

On Sat, 21 Apr 2007 21:17:12 +0200, "Mette"
wrote:


skrev i en meddelelse
.. .
On Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:37:11 +0200, "Mette"
wrote:

In a sense, this is almost creating a small British Commonwealth type
of thing where omnibus type issues can be designed, printed and sold.
Look out Ralph! Your "joint issue" club has just expanded!

Many of these places are almost remnants of a past time, but it is
good to see that some "legitimacy" has been tagged onto their purpose.
Where's Andorra?

Reading Rein's post, I can just say "silly me" !!! I simply misunderstood
your question. Please forget that I ever answered :-)

Aha! Caught red-handed. That's quite OK, we all do it from time to
time.

On Apr 21, 11:29�am, wrote:
On Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:37:11 +0200, "Mette"
wrote:

In a sense, this is almost creating a small British Commonwealth type
of thing where omnibus type issues can be designed, printed and sold.
Look out Ralph! *Your "joint issue" club has just expanded!

Many of these places are almost remnants of a past time, but it is
good to see that some "legitimacy" has been tagged onto their purpose.
Where's Andorra?

This may bring some people into the fold, much like the older colonial
issues brought me in, with pictures of faraway places and topics
unheard of in the states. *Since then, the Internet has helped make
the world a smaller place, therefore reducing some of that "mystery"
by other pieces of data.

Not so much that the dream or mystery that philately brings, but
besides informing people this may also be great advertising!

I have heard from many people that some of these places are
questionable for postal releases in sizes they print them, but at
least the people may be getting back a littler more than a piece of
printed paper and some gum or S/A sticky stuff.

I hope this does help out bringing new collectors into the fold. *For
those who already collect these areas, this may be a bright spot in
their future.



This morning the Faroese Philatelic News 1/2007 (Danish Edition) landed in
my mailbox with the news announcing the formation of the SEPAC-group --
Small European Postal Administrations Cooperation -- and the group's first
common stamp issue on 1 Oct 2007. The group consists of the following postal
administrations:

- Aland Post
- Postverk Foroya
- Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau
- Post Greenland
- Guernsey Post Ltd
- Iceland Post
- Isle of Man Post
- Jersey Post ltd
- Liechtenstein Post Corp.
- Maltapost plc
- Monaco Post
- San Marino Post.

The purpose of the SEPAC-group's efforts is to further youth philately in
relation to promoting general knowledge about the history, nature,
landscapes and cultures of the European countries that are members of the
group, and through this work to introduce a new thematic collecting area.

The first common stamp issue of the SEPAC-group, is "landscapes". Each of
the participating countries may interpret the given thematic issuances their
own *The group's first common issue will be released on 1 Oct, 2007, with
the participation of 11 of the 12 member countries. Only San Marino will not
participate this first year. Further common SEPAC-issues are planned for
2009 and 2011, when also San Marino (and eventual new members of the group)
is expected to participate.

The official launch of the new group and it's purpose will take place on 3
May 2007 at the International Stamp Fair in Essen, Germany, and the folder
"Beautiful Corners of Europe", containing a stamp from each of the 11
participating countries with the group's logo, attractive photographs and
informative texts, will be offered for sale.
---
My personal comment to this is that it seems a good initiative to attract
youth collectors to our hobby in this informal ay. Without knowledge of the
historical background of a particular stamp, it is nothing more than a
graphically designed price-tag with no other information or general interest
than its actual cost and possible tupos, which will hardly generate wide
interest except to philatelists who make a "science" out of their
collections, whereas "visual entertainment and information" will appeal also
to youth collectors of all ages. Times simply change :-)

So, my personal very best wishes to the new group :-)

Mette- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Well, since my cage has been rattled I must insert my three cents.
(Inflation you know!)
I was not aware of the SEAPAC issue. AFAIK this issue does not meet
the criteria to classify it as a joint issue.
This year Canada, Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Iceland Norway, Sweden
and the USA have a joint issue called the International Polar Year.
These are not of a common design so I will not collect them.
Also this year Faroes, Greenland and Iceland have the 10th anniversary
of the West Nordic Cooperation. Unsure about this one, I haven't seen
it yet.

Ralphael, trhe OLD one