You would think after over 100 years, that the main Dies of the Kangaroo stamps would be clear cut in all minds.  Not so.  Nearly EVERY copy of the 3d green I see offered these days as the scarce “Die 2” quite clearly are NOT.

On ebay, about 90% of those offered are wrong, and I often see real dealers who SHOULD know a lot better, offering the normal issue very common Die 1, as the scarce and pricey “Die 2” in their auctions and pricelists.

The 1913 First Watermark Die 1 (SG 5/5a) is retail $15 fine used, and the scarcer Die 2 (SG 5e/5ea) is retail $A250 in FU.  The later Third Watermark Die 2s, SG 37 and 37d are very slightly cheaper, but still rather expensive stamps in true Die 2.

That watermark also has a common Die 2B, SG 37e, but outside many ebay sellers, that one is pretty easy to sort using the top outer frame break above “ST” and the rounded NE corner.  Mint Die 2s in either watermark are valued at several times the used prices above of course.

So, very fertile fodder for the perpetual “dreamers” who always exist in the stamp world, to grossly misidentify these stamps.  Most do it deliberately to part the Bunnies from their money, but often sellers simply are clueless, and do not know how to ID them.

Show near every novice (and many dealers) a used 3d Roo stamp, and tell them it is EITHER a $15 stamp, or a $250 stamp if they squint hard enough, and long enough, - and they’ll come up with the latter identification in near all cases!

Human nature.  They are mostly wrong of course. “Fool’s Gold”.  To be fair, the difference between the two is miniscule.  And in used stamps, the area you need to look at, is often obscured by cancel ink, making it an ever tougher guess.

On ebay it will be often offered with the standard gibberish like this following, with a fuzzy, grainy, tiny photo -  “Grannie lef me hur stemps and this Dye 2 wus en itt. Deeler pryce $250 - by itt noe fur jest $100.” 

Don’t laugh. This pidgin English nonsense on ebay generally attracts higher bids than describing stamps normally!  And yet another clueless Bunny pays 10 times retail for misdescribed junk, off spiv sellers.  And it will end in tears - as always.

During my 40 years in dealing, the accepted way to pick them apart was the inner left frame break to the top left of “T”.  An unbroken frame line was Die 2, and broken frame line was Die 1.  In THEORY that is the simple path.

Sadly, over-inking often meant the inner frame line on Die 1 stamps is in-filled, hence often looking like the many times scarcer Die 2.  And of course all the common Die 2B have complete inner lines, creating another layer of confusion for Third Watermark 3d stamps.

There was never an accepted and easy alternative way to sort these apart.  Neither SG or ACSC offers any assistance there really, and for a novice sorting these is a real minefield, as VERY easy to mess them up. 

In his later years, the late Simon Dunkerley posted a most helpful new “test” on stampboards.com  Simon pointed out a very simple quick visual test, that sorted the “wheat from the chaff” in most cases.

Simon’s new test relates to the top loop or “blob” of the numeral 3.  On Die 1 this loop is a fat nearly perfect round circle, as can clearly be seen in the close up nearby.  On the scarce Die 2, this top loop is noticeably less wide, having the effect of a “tear-drop” hanging off the top of the 3.

This is a fast and ABSOLUTE test.  You can see it readily with the naked eye once you keep it in mind.  Tear out this page perhaps!  As Simon posted at the time - “The size and shape of the top circle on the '3' has proven to be a watertight test.”Look at the fairly fuzzy Monogram stamp scans nearby from a Prestige Auction.  The top blobs on the 3s can be easily picked apart. The “CA” monogram stamp is a Die 2, and the “JBC” stamp is Die 1.  Easily seen - agree?

Another crazy anomaly with this stamp is the number of “Die 1 + Die 2” horizontal pairs that one sees offered.  Again often on ebay.  There is NO such thing possible.  You can have horizontal pairs of:  Die 2+1, Die 2+2 or Die 1+1. 

But Die 1+2 is totally impossible to own, due to the occurrence of the Die positions on the pane, which are well documented.  Sadly the ACSC lists and prices these non-existent “Die 1+2 pairs”, and even Gibbons lists pairs, so folks with vivid imaginations go out and offer them for sale, when they just cannot exist.  

I love my job - EVERY day is different!  After 40 years being a dealer, one still gets excited by something new or unusual turning up in collections or offerings. This little gem shown nearby turned up recently, after never being seen before for 90 years.

A newly discovered Design Competition Essay of the 1927 1½d Canberra Parliament House stamp.  After 90 years you’d imagine nothing new in this field would turn up - wrong!  I was mailed this handsome Essay from an overseas seller. The Australia Post Office back then called for public submissions for the design of this new stamp.

A big deal back then, as this was our FIRST ever Commemorative stamp, in this then very new Nation. There were 1,055 submissions, including 87 from overseas countries. Very few entrants asked for them to be returned. Hence VERY few Essays are in public hands.

The ACSC, and Kellow’s excellent 2011 “The 1927 Canberra Commemorative” handbook shows the few known survivors in private hands.  Artistic merit is vastly lacking in some, and some exist only as photographs. The few known examples are listed and illustrated in the ACSC. 

I’ve submitted this new find for next “KGV” ACSC Edition being worked on now, and suggested it be numbered ACSC 132ES(18) - Cat $5,000.  Editor Dr. Kellow kindly added it to the front cover of the September edition of the ”Australian Commonwealth Collector Club” (ACCC) journal that he is also Editor of.

As it was a public competition, the artwork standard ranged from top end grade standard - from professional designers and trained artists, to primary school level!  The really crude Essay shown nearby on the left in Kellow handbook, looks like it was created by a 10 year old - and most likely WAS!

However, it is listed in ACSC as 132ES(11) at $A3,000 - the other 2 are listed at $A2,500 each.  (Actually I bought both of those 2 on right at the Arthur Gray Sale, and they are now lost on my desk/garbage dump, among the other 100 cubic yards of stamp rubble here!)

Many overlook the fact this stamp was the very FIRST Commemorative stamp from this new nation. (Indeed even Britain had never issued Commems until the 1925/25 Wembley Exhibition issue.)  All we had were Roos and KGV heads before this, so it was a VERY big deal at the time, in the Ozzie stamp world.

The ACSC values of the very few buyable Essays are from $2,500 to $5,000 apiece, despite some being of appalling artistic ‘merit’, and copies in the Arthur Gray collection got strong 4 figure sums.  Indeed this is larger and more attractive than the Gray essay ACSC 132ES(6) which invoiced $A2,825

An artistically skilled entry, stamp sized, (22 x 33mm) with watercolour fine brush detail painted on card in black and burgundy.  Artist has cut that out, added zig-zag simulated perforations with a razor blade, and then affixed it to hand painted card, (184 x 107mm) and inscribed it with the non-de-plume “Ivanhoe”.

The ACSC and detailed Kellow handbook records that only 4 of the 11 x 1927 Design Essays in private hands, have the artist ‘non-de-plume’ recorded - however all entries to the global design competition needed to supply one, when submitted.

Blue crayon “94” was added on reverse by PO.  The small number of artworks requested returned, were accompanied by a PMG letter dated on issue date (see image nearby) enclosing a Mint and FDI CTO example of the issued stamp - the “Ivanhoe” artist has neatly affixed them to either side of his artwork!

I posted this on stampboards - tinyurl.com/Ivanhoes - and had a mini stampede of interest from leading dealers, auctions, and serious collectors on 3 continents, and it sold in a day. Great to see quality, and interesting, and unique material still gets the red blood cells coursing in the hobby!

On there, I nominated a fair asking price for $A1,500, and very clearly that was literally 4 figures too low in this case, as some offered me far MORE than I asked.  As my dealer Mentor Ken Baker would often repeat - “Son, you can’t go broke by making a fast profit” and that has always been my business mantra.

The find had extra relevance to me, as Walter Burley Griffin, who laid out and designed our new Capital City Canberra from total rural farmland, took all his huge fees and profits from that, and purchased another wild tract of total bush in Sydney, that he named Castlecrag.

Where I have lived and worked for near 30 years.  As has Kevin Duffy who many readers will know from his Seven Seas Stamps ownership etc, who has lived here a lot longer than that.  Castlecrag is a high bushy Harbour Peninsula, very “Village Like” and (so far) totally free of Units/Flats and high-rise development etc.

Before the Sydney Harbour Bridge opened in 1932, getting here by land was basically impossible from the Sydney CBD, despite it only being a few Kms out of town.  Griffin was of course an American - a protégé of Frank Lloyd Wright.

I’ve never understood why an AMERICAN would choose to name all streets in his new suburb after parts of Edinburgh Castle!  I live in The Tor Walk, and we have Edinburgh Road as the main drag.  And heaps of weird street names like - The Scarp, The Rampart, The Bastion, The Bulwark, The High Tor, and The Battlement etc, etc.

Anyway, Burley Griffin is a huge deal locally, and when a pair of 5d Walter Burley Griffin stamps errors, imperf one side were auctioned for $A33,000, the “North Shore Times” got very interested.  They ran a large piece on these on pages 1 and 3.  The largest suburban newspaper in NSW, probably Australia.

They sent out a photographer to get some shots of “rare stamps” and the resultant publicity for stamps was a nice change from their usual fodder!  I literally got calls a year later from folks who had torn out the pages to act on “later”.  More detail here - tinyurl.com/WalterBG

The page 3 of that piece I illustrate nearby.  Readers will smile wryly to notice that a “North Shore Times” sub-editor had decided to take the photo of the ERROR scan I sent them - and chopped off all the wide imperf margins off the scan, so it looked like a normal mint pair - value 20¢!

This market is strange at times.  No gum on most Twentieth Century issues is very bad news for the sale price.  For early classics the market is far more forgiving on that, but no gum is bad news for 1901 onwards - usually.

It often means the stamp had toning or rust and the gum was washed/bleached off to visually arrest that etc, and buyers do NOT want it.  So I noticed with interest this week when a copy of the New Zealand 1906 1d Claret was involved by mossgreen Auctions in Melbourne, for over $A12,000 - on an estimate of just $5,000.

The last no gum example I sold had a BPA Certificate, and deep colour, and I sold it for $4,500, so $5,000 looked around the mark to me, and I would not have been surprised to see it get about that figure.  So $12,000+ was a big surprise for a stamp that was not wildly facially attractive - to put it mildly! 

I’d speculate that the stamp was pretty VERY noticeably colour faded, but that might just be the scan - hard to say for certain, as I have never inspected it, but these are a very DEEP Claret usually.  SG 371a cat for mint is £8,000, so this copy with no gum went for near full SG for gummed!

Anyway, some vendor was darn happy with that very bullish price I can bet!  The story of the origin of these 1d Claret stamps is worth re-telling.  As all collectors know, the stamp was issued and sold in vermillion orange red, and is fairly common - SG 371 is cat £16 for mint.

The Secretary of the Christchurch Exhibition, Mr E. Righton basically purloined the sheet of “1d Clarets” that were to have been displayed there at the Exhibition.  He used many of them on covers addressed to himself, or in his hand, and kept others mint it seems. I know of three covers addressed to him each bearing 3 stamps (3d) despite domestic post being just 1d.

The sheet given to the Organising Committee should have stayed in their archive etc, just as the PO Archive sheet stayed put. These stamps were NEVER sold to the public, were NEVER sold at any PO,  and should NEVER thus have attained full catalogue status anywhere.

Sadly it is one of those ‘inside jobs’ that Gibbons was suckered into listing a century back, and it has stayed there ever since.  The SG listing criteria today totally precludes such an insider listing.  Dr. Alan S. Craig wrote a most revealing and detailed article on these in the Campbell Paterson newsletter a couple of years back.

This Dr. Craig is a senior and highly respected NZ collector and NZ specialist, and has been on the scène there for many decades.  He was pointing out the absurdity to Warwick Patterson, that these 1d Clarets were fully listed and priced in the CP cat, despite none ever being on sale at any Post Office, at any time.

Dr. Craig was then pointing out that the 2006 “Kapa Haka” Maori Performing Arts set was oddly NOT listed in CP.  This Maori Dancer set of 5, and FDC, and Plate Blocks 6, and coils, and booklets, were indeed advertised for sale, and sold, and all credit cards charged by NZ Post, and mailed out to a number of NZ Post standing order clients.

Some were used on normal mail - one collector Bernard sent a $2 value to Scotland with an order.  Edinburgh kiloware dealer Robert Murray had all his charity snippers on the lookout for it, as not much NZ current material was in their inwards mail. The letter rate 45c are also known on commercial mail pieces.

At the very last moment, whines from a few politically correct New Zealanders that the new stamps were “cartoonish” in nature and “insulting”, oddly saw the PO pull back on the full release as planned. The Maori Museum and Cultural Centre “Te Papa” had of course been fully consulted, and approved the designs in advance.

A “old school” New Zealand stamp dealer Donald Ion was about as Maori as me I suspect, but all the same, placed a Maori Evil Curse on me at the time, for ‘disrespectfully’ stocking these items.  I am still in perfect health 11 years on - Don sadly passed away in 2015.

John Mowbray had a Public Auction in Wellington soon after issue date, where a set of 5 mint realised $NZ14,025, and a single self-adhesive sold for $NZ2,570.  Mowbray needed to hire burly security staff, and alerted local police to the potential disruption of this auction.

I understand dealer Donald Ion (mentioned above) had threatened to organise a noisy Maori protest against the sale of these "offensive" stamps. There was of course, no protest there.  I am advised Police spoke to Don Ion about this matter, and he soon after resigned from the NZSDA dealer body.

The late Warwick Patterson declined to add these Kapa Haka to his respected Campbell Paterson NZ catalogue, as he had been unable to secure any “cheaply” for sale to his best clients!  Clearly no owners of them were happy to sell for a “song”, when Public Auctions were getting $14,000+ a set, so he missed out.

That is weirdly how things often work over in New Zealand - a rather closed shop. Thank goodness the very widely sold Len Jury catalogue was more even-handed and sensible and unbiased, and now lists them at $17,500 a set 5, FDC at $25,000, and $2,500 apiece for the letter rate 45c coil and booklet stamps, of which about 100 each of those were sold.

I spoke to David Holmes at Melbourne EXPO this year who owns Auckland City Stamps and now also owns Campbell Paterson, so things may now be re-visited under the new ownership for CP listing - we shall see. Other leading NZ dealers I spoke to in Melbourne like Don White of Dunedin Stamps agree this Kapa Haka is a 100% legitimate stamp issue.  

Stanley Gibbons recently added these into the “New Zealand” sectional catalogue, and more and more collectors and dealers now accept this was in fact a Post Office issued set.  Largely withdrawn at the Eleventh Hour no doubt, but a good number were mailed and charged to those who ordered them specifically. New Zealand Post has always agreed on this.

Indeed the New Zealand Philatelic Bureau politely contacted all those to whom they had mailed the Kapa Haka stamp sets, and offered buyers a full refund of price paid, AND a free NZ Annual Album as a gesture to compensate for the “inconvenience” of returning them, if they chose to do that. 

The Year Book is only worth $100 or so, and a set of 5 was getting $14,000, yet some of these folks cheerfully mailed back their stamps that were quite legally theirs!  NZPO has admitted in writing that this occurred, and all I can think is WHY would anyone comply??!!

I bought some sets of 5, pairs, and coil pairs and a booklet of 10 early in the piece from some over there who were lucky to get these as New Issues, and I still have one of each left.  Some clients who bought them early on, 11 years back have now passed, and they mostly come back through my hands via Estates.

The coil roll singles, or stamp booklet singles I sell for $A1,500 each, and given their great scarcity do feel in the fullness of time they will prove very astute buys.  Would I rather have EIGHT of those in 10 years superb Mint, or a faded no gum 1d Claret for the same money - total no brainer to me!

It is odd how some things get into mainstream catalogues like the “1d Claret” that clearly should never have been regarded as anything other than purloined stamps. Yet things sold and shipped and charged by NZPO are ignored in some quarters, due to naked financial blackmail in essence - that backfired!

John Mowbray Auctions in NZ had a truly battered and gruesome looking cover with 3 “Claret” singles on it, in his October 14 auction, that looked like it had been residing on Highway 1 for a few weeks, and a mint single.

The cover as you can see from the photo nearby, has large CHUNKS missing from the central stamp which is also creased, and all are terribly affected by foxing and toning etc. Horrible perfs and centering too.  In typical NZ cavalier style - the Auction estimate was $80,000!

Mowbray’s basically non-functioning website was not working at all when I went to look today if they sold - or not.  I keep goading John about his joke of a website, and assuring him he’d make TEN times the cost of upgrading to a functioning one in just a year in extra sales, but he ALWAYS smiles and says: ‘he is working on it’.

I understand that 3 such covers, each with 3 stamps are recorded addressed to Righton by Righton, that never left the Exhibition, and several other used singles from same source exist I believe.  Some claim the exhibition had actually closed by the date he cancelled them.  

For me the “event” of this month was the arrival of an air freight copy of the new 2018 Stanley Gibbons “Commonwealth & British Empire Stamps 1840-1970” catalogue.  The 120th Edition in fact.  I get a tad jaded with many things in this business, but am NOT jaded about receiving this monster each year! 

This volume is universally known to old-timers and the trade as the “Gibbons Part One” - as once, the other Volumes were numbered sequentially, and were “Americas” and “Asia” etc.  It is the absolute “Bible” globally for British Commonwealth stamps.  Forget Scott etc - they are meaningless for Commonwealth stamps.            

Lots of constant plate flaws, and booklets are now listed.  And lots of inverted watermarks - for the UK all inverted and sideways watermarks are now fully listed.  Find just a really medium one from a country like Australia or UK, and the entire book will be readily paid for MANY times!  Often stamps cat 10p each used are cat many £1,000s each with inverted watermark. 

Throughout the book there are new and improved illustrations, helpful new notes on subjects as diverse as the early lithographs of British Guiana, and the 1962 Emancipation overprints of Tonga.  There are several new watermark varieties, newly listed plate flaws and ‘used abroads’ and many stamps, previously listed without a price, are now given a valuation, for the first time.

Major plate flaws are being added and priced all the time, as is shown in the page close up nearby.  New plate varieties appear each year, some of which I suggested, such as the 1929 Australia 3d Airmail “Long Wing To Plane”.  At £275 mint and £160 used, find just one of EITHER, in a junk lot or club circuit book, and this catalogue is easily paid for - INSTANTLY!

Did you know the “Top Hat” flaw on the 6d Kookaburra is now cat £1,400 mint - up from £550 only 3 years before?  A scarce and very popular flaw, and very seldom offered.  Buy off someone foolishly using last year’s cat, or better still, 2 years before, and YOU win by £850!

Or the “Man with Tail” on 1937 2d NSW is now £700 mint, and £140 used. I found 2 used copies in a kid's collection - those 2 alone will literally pay for this catalogue.  A very, very, popular variety, as it is VERY easy to spot with the naked eye - see photo nearby.

Were you aware a ½d Orange Kangaroo Coil Block of 4 is now Cat in SG at £950 mint?  Or the “Green Mist Retouch” on the 1/- Lyrebird SG 230da is £4,250 mint and £3000 used etc. “Knowledge Is Power” - as I have probably typed here 1,000 times!

There are some increases in the new book which can only be described as spectacular, such as the 1942 4d Koala stamp of Australia with inverted watermark - SG 188w, more than doubling from £4,000 to £10,000 used. Without this book you’d have no idea.

Did you know the 1941 1/- Lyrebird, also with inverted watermark SG 192w is Cat £5,000 mint, and £4,000 used - but just 10p in normal used etc?  This is up by £1,000 mint and £2,000 used over last edition. Check your duplicates!  Many are still out there to be found.

The 1962 Inland Mission 5d with red omitted has been deleted this year, and a note added that these are now considered to have been faked.  In Papua there are illustrations for the ‘POSTAGIE’ and ‘C’ for ‘O’ varieties on the popular Lakatoi series.

Material from other Commonwealth countries is where this huge book comes into its own.  Where else would you look up prices for KGVI Ceylon, or a 1940 Pitcairn stamp booklet?  They are ALL very valuable, as I will show you below, and all might be easily overlooked if you do not own this new book.

The Ceylon 3¢ KGVI MUH pair shown nearby, I found in a junk lot, not noted as being other than a $5 pair of the lowest value of a definitive set, as it appeared to be.  I listed it on my Rarity Page for $A350, and it sold fast, as it is cat £550.  If you looked this up in the "Stamps Of The World" you'd only see 2 cheap stamps.

It does not have a plate variety, design flaw, or printing flaw of any kind, or a watermark error or omission etc, or any kind of shade variety.  So WHY it is listed in SG at £550 you may be asking yourself?  Well unless you own this new "2018 Part 1" catalogue you will never know!

Again I point out the screamingly obvious, that a single find of just ONE stamp like this, just ONCE in your lifetime, pays for this catalogue several times over.  It is as simple as that.  They VERY often are catalogued at £100s, if not £1,000s apiece, and many are overlooked by owners.

Then there are the things that you see at times that look a bit interesting, but you have no idea of value.  The Pitcairn Island stamp booklet illustrated nearby is a case in point.  If you found one of these in an old lot, it is self-evident it has some good value - but WHAT value?  WHERE do you look these weird things up - in the SG “Part 1” of course!

For many years in the early 1980s, I ran facing full page ads in “Stamp News” and headed them as “The Pitcairn King”.  I had more Pitcairn Island stamp material than anyone on earth. I handled all the rarities - but NEVER this booklet, of which only a few exist globally.

I bought my first one in 35 years of dealing in recent times, and sold it in weeks.  It is Pitcairn Island 1940 KGVI 4/8d, SG #SB1, with black on deep green cover. Original 17mm staple intact, containing the original 1940 KGVI Definitive set of 8 to 2/6d (SG #1-8) with waxed interleaving between each stamp ‘pane’. 

The Pitcairn Island Postmaster Roy Clark offered these to the 2 or 3 times a year cruise boats that would anchor in deep water offshore, as souvenirs to bored tourists - so most were lost over time as they were very fragile, and later tossed away in the ensuing 77 years.  Issued during WW2, they got no philatelic publicity, only 500 were made, and totally sold out before WW2 ended.

Remote Pitcairn Island (pop 60!) had no harbour, so a longboat was rowed out selling souvenirs - mostly large, hand painted soap tree leaves etc, or stamp FDC.  These 2 books sold for $A6,500 apiece 9 years back at Spink USA – tinyurl.com/PitBks  In the new cat, it is SG SB1, Cat £3,250 so a nice book to stumble across!

Collectors are famously tight fisted with catalogues, but a strong and profitable SG catalogue division is ESSENTIAL for a robust and healthy world stamp market.  Many totally forget that, so do your bit, and add to their sales volume.  I have a “Free Global Freight” special promo on these catalogues this month to assist!

Recent research by Richard Watkins, now published in Bermuda Post, has shown that the original 1873 3d. of Bermuda was in the orange shade, with the yellow-buff coming from a subsequent printing. The revised listing reflects this important new information.

In Cyprus, there is a new listing of the 17mm hand-stamped ‘HALF-PENNY’ surcharge of 1881 - currently only known used. This scarce new variety is clearly illustrated in this 2018 Edition.

The stamps issued during the British Occupation of the Faroe Islands during World War II are now listed for the first time - all are overprints on the stamps of Denmark, which was under German occupation at the time.  I was lucky to visit there a few months back.

In Malaysia there are expanded notes in Straits Settlements concerning the 1880 10c on 30c. (SG 33/9) and in Johore on the 1884-6 overprints, and there is helpful guidance on the compound perforations of certain Federation period definitives.

New Zealand sees two new plate flaws on the ‘Second Sidefaces’ and one on the 3d Christchurch Exhibition stamp of 1906, and there is a new note on telegraphic use of the ‘long’ fiscal stamps with postal cancellations provided by David Smitham in NZ.

India continues to see a significant number of price increases, with the Convention and Feudatory States also moving up.  Australian States stamps are also on the rise once again, especially for Mint material

In Great Britain the popular 1840 Mulready envelopes and letter sheets with advertisements printed on the inside are now included in this catalogue, and there have been some additions to the British Post Offices Abroad section.

For Aden, where there is a new listing of Indian stamps used there. In Sudan the Official and Army Service perfins are now illustrated and the Military telegraph stamps, hitherto only listed when used in Bechuanaland are now also included with distinctive Sudan cancellations.

The ever-popular ‘Badge’ set of St. Helena now includes the distinctive ‘Storm over rock’ variety, as well as the startling new discovery of the 1d stamp with sideways watermark. This new discovery on an otherwise pretty ratty looking low value worth $1 normally, is offered for 26,500 Swiss Francs ($A35,000) by a Swiss dealer.

A great effort from editor Hugh Jefferies MBE, and his Catalogue team - how they get the vast swag of SG Catalogues out each year, sure beats me!  A never ending process, and juggling, logging, and tracking all the New Issues etc, must be an absolute nightmare.

DO secure one -  a strong SG Catalogue division is essential for the ongoing health of this hobby. Many collectors have VERY narrow or non-existent “Big Picture” vision sadly - and I can only repeat - DO support these fine works - without them each year, we’d be in a terrible mess.  Do YOUR bit.