This decades old method for checking watermarks on stamps, now seems to have a valuable extra use!  This fluid is available worldwide and is quite inexpensive. The Ronsonol can shown nearby, will be familiar to readers in most countries.  I am advised the “ZIPPO” brand has the same chemical content.

Far more economical, the Diggers “Shellite” brand is widely available in Australia for less than $A6 per Litre bottle in hardware stores like Bunnings etc.  Larger 4 litre containers are sold for about $A20 if you have some serious self-adhesive stamp soaking to do!

All of these of course are flammable, and should be used in a ventilated area etc, as per usage instructions on their packaging.  If you are fond of having a cigarette whilst sorting stamps, do NOT use this stuff while you are doing that!

The good news is that both seem to work extremely well with assisting in removing these self-stick stamps - even the USA ones that otherwise do not soak off at all in water, and are famously tenacious to separate from backing paper.

Stampboards.com has a long discussion on these removal methods, with 50,000 page views - tinyurl.com/StampSoak is the direct link, for those interested in reading more on this, and the personal experiences of many collectors globally

In some cases, they come away cleanly from the envelope paper.  In other instances, a little effort and technique is needed, as outlined with photos on the stampboards thread.  A final rinse in warm water, whatever method you choose, and you are done.

Kangaroo Monogram stamps have gone nuts in price in the past year or so.  None of them are common - even on the lowly ½d and 1d values, they are $100s, and the higher values are really hard to source.  Hinged Monogram SINGLES of the £2 have fetched  $A180,000 at Auction. 

There were 2 different printer Monograms on the lower selvedge of each PO pane of 120 for a couple of years - “JBC” for J.B.Cooke, the Government Stamp Printer, and “CA” which of course stood for the Commonwealth Of Australia.

There is a photo of me nearby holding this hinged stamp, (which had a crease!) and which thankfully was not dropped into my nearby coffee, ensuring a very interesing discussion with some hostile Insurance Assessor.  Near all that $A180,000 price was for the tiny piece of selvedge at the base!

Several new collectors have emerged in recent times, seeking these Kangaroo Monograms, and they all appear to have very deep pockets, and the scarcer pieces when offered, can see Bidding Wars ensue.  Such was the case with the Phoenix Auction on November 15, in Melbourne.

They offered an ususually large range of these Monograms, and VERY bullish prices were obtained, often for material that did not look that attractive to me, but hey it is the nature of these issues.  The 2/- Brown Third watermark hinged Monogram shown nearby was invoiced for around $A20,000 - despite full ACSC Cat being $15,000 etc. 

Arthurs Gray’s “CA” monogram 2/- single was hammered for $US5,250, so there has been nice upside on these, in that interim period.  Many of the high values are recorded in only a few copies in collector hands, so these strong prices will stay solid I’d suggest.

Monograms of course only occurred on the first 3 watermarks of Roos, and were soon replaced with Printer Imprints.  Many of the middle value Monograms - 3d, 6d, 9d and 1/-, can still be secured for far more affordable prices to most pockets. 

I have both Monograms on hand now of the 9d Violet Kangaroo, for just on 4 figures each, and I see such things once each decade or two in stock.  There are probably 20 each of such values in collector hands globally, so current prices are pretty silly. 

Many collectors look for new challenges, and seeking Australia Kangaroo Monograms is a solid area to chase.  One chap I know has set his target on all issues to 1/-, so he dodges all the 5 figure prices then, for the 2/- and up values!

Soon after you read this, the big national of 2019 will be taking place in Adelaide on December 6th-8th.  I’ll fly down and pop in on the Sunday - that Torrens Parade Ground Drill Hall location in Adelaide City is a really great location - free parking right at the door!

The focus of course is the 100th Anniversary of the epic First Flight from the UK to Australia by Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith - both Adelaide born.  Charles Leski has planned at big Aero related Auction sale to tie in with this on Dec 11.  I heard a rumour a new AAMC catalogue will also be issued soon.

Australia Post issued some very pretty product in October - the $3.20 stamp for the heavily used overseas airmail rate is shown nearby, and I urge all those reading this to buy a few, and keep them in your stamp den - superb design to use on foreign letters for years to come!

The foreign letter rate was only just increased from $3, so hopefully this $3.20 will be the rate for a few years to come, and a nicer “stamp on stamp” design I can’t imagine.  Spread the word - buy some today!

This was an epic flight of almost 18,000 kilometres.  There was widespread concern that the route had not been properly surveyed beyond Calcutta, and in many parts of Asia, airfields were simply non‑existent.  Some cities they landed at, had never seen ANY kind of plane!

The aircraft of the era were incredibly basic by modern standards, open top cockpits (!) and constructed from wire, fabric and wood, and had short flying ranges. They landed their Vickers Vimy twin-engine bi-plane at Fannie Bay “airfield”, Darwin, on 10 December 1919, and the event was met with national and international excitement and acclaim.

The Australian “Local” item most collectors think of first, is the pioneering and heroic 1919 Ross Smith First Flight, England to Australia stamp "Vignette".  This is technically more a semi-official stamp issue, than a “Local” or “Cinderella” as some incorrectly regard it as.

It was ordered by the Prime Minister's Department (by no less than PM 'Billy' Hughes personally!) via the Treasury Department.  Printed in great haste by T. S. Harrison, and the Commonwealth Note Printing Branch on watermarked paper - the identical CrownA paper we find on 1914 KGV heads, or the "Second" Watermark Kangaroos.

This crew were MEGA-SUPERSTARS in this era!  Ross Smith enlisted in 1914 in the 3rd Light Horse Regiment, landing at Gallipoli 13 May 1915.  In 1917, he volunteered for the Australian Flying Corps.  He was later twice awarded the Military Cross and the Distinguished Flying Cross three times, becoming an Air Ace with 11 confirmed aerial victories.

Ross Smith (KBE, MC and Bar, DFC and Two Bars, AFC) was pilot for T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and fought in aerial combat missions in the Middle East.  He is mentioned several times in Lawrence's book, “Seven Pillars of Wisdom”.  The legendary Australian cricketer Keith Ross Miller was named after Smith and his flying brother Keith.

For the dozen or so hopeful folks who phone or email me each year to ask if their "rare" 1919 Vignette they cleverly bought on eBay etc, as a super “BAAAAHRGIN” is really a super valuable gem, my very simple and accurate answer is - “just hold it up to the light”.

If there is NO watermark, you clearly have one of the many types of fakes/reprints done over the years.  Not that such minor detail bothers the 100s of dreamers who cheerfully list their fakes up on eBay each year as “Grandpappys treasjure gaurinteed genueen RAYAR” !

Some of them are really crude, and some were far better productions.  Endless 1000s seem to have been produced over the decades.  Edgar Lewy, long term ”Philatelic Exporter” columnist, did some quite decent high grade reproductions via Philart in the UK in the 1970s.  Edgar’s were by FAR the best “fakes” done.  He offered me a large carton of 10,000s of these 30 years ago.

Well after he died, I asked wife Lily if she still had them, and said she tossed them into the garbage bin in London - a shame, as they were nice efforts, and are seldom seen.  Some reprints are so roughly printed virtually none of the perf holes are punched out.  And in ALL cases, the colour is quite wrong, not being the deep steel blue of the genuine, as you can see in the photo of my copy nearby.

It is not a “Local” or a “Cinderella” strictly speaking, but in my view is an officially sanctioned and printed label, and should be more correctly termed a “semi-official stamp” production.  Major catalogues like Yvert list and price it as an Australian postage stamp issue.  Major album makers like Seven Seas Stamps have made spaces for it in printed albums.   

Many still exist as genuine mint or used stamps, or even used on original covers.  A fine MUH sheetlet generally sells for about $A20,000 these days. The fresh MUH one illustrated nearby I sold for $15,000 recently.  I do not charge that for most MUH £2 Roos!

A really striking looking Ross Smith flight cover was once auctioned and invoiced in the region of $A50,000. There are still quite a small number of these Ross Smith Vignettes existing, either as mint sheetlets as illustrated nearby, or on covers with the outer margins removed, in all such cases.

The last time I was up in Darwin, I drove down Ross Smith Avenue, and sought out the little known but impressive stone cairn marking his arrival in Australia in Dec 1919!  Planes were near unheard of back then, and the soon to be Qantas founders, were engaged to organise an oil drum lit runway for them to use.

It then took near 3 more months for the mail to arrive in Melbourne, where the "26 February, 1920" date-stamps were all applied to the hastily affixed Vignette "stamps", and all handed over personally to Prime Minister Hughes, and then delivered via normal mail, under separate Post Office outer cover.

ABC News just reported Business owners and residents were dismayed about the length of time parcels are taking to be delivered, with widespread reports of many items going backwards and forwards between states. 

The new Australia Post facility at Redbank Brisbane is equipped with technology that includes parcel pickers, automated guided vehicles, and robotics they proudly tell us.  But it simply does NOT work.             

I had a clearly addressed Registered parcel go between Sydney to Redbank Brisbane FIVE times last month - so much for their new high technology, that AP are denying to ABC News, has any issues.  The clearly addressed parcel took TWO WEEKS.  I could drive it there in a day.
As can be seen from the PO tracking website fiasco journey nearby, even when it got there for the FIFTH time to Redbank Queensland on a Thursday, it did not move anywhere locally until the next Monday, as can be seen. 

HOPELESS.  Zimbabwe level technology.  And they just had the cheek to crank up Parcel Post rates heavily October 1, to pay for all these White Elephant machines that clearly do not work.  Much more discussion here - tinyurl.com/APMailMess