Royal Reels: Gambling

Mining

A BEVY OF AUSTRALIAN POSTAL CURIOSITIES

The first cover I suspect may have been philatelically contrived by the unidentified sender. It is addressed to Mr. Walter George Rendall, Artist, Goulburn and Goulburn is crossed out probably by the sender and G. P.O., Sydney has been added. A vertically joined pair of two partial blue Two Pence 100 Years of N.S.W. stamps have been cancelled with a SYDNEY/ JU 15/ 6 30 P.M/ 91/ 27, N.S.W duplex,

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YALOGINDA GOLD to SMITH & WESSON, SPRINGFIELD, MASS. [USA]

This 1d imprinted Western Australian postcard has a halfpenny green W.A. stamp (ASC #18) attached, for the 2-line postcard’s directions clearly state that the 1 penny rate applies for the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth of Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. The card is printed on buff stock and when used for any other place an additional halfpenny stamp is required. The postcard is addressed to Messrs. Smith & Wesson, 33

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WILLIAM MEIRION EVANS, WELSH WESLYAN MINISTER, EDITOR & MINER

The first cover was addressed To the Revd W.M. Evans, The Welsh Church, Latrobe St Melbourne and the lilac ‘TWO PENCE’ stamp of Victoria was postmarked with the first duplex WARRNAMBOOL/ JA 8/ 76/ VICTORIA, and the stamp was obliterated with the barred numeral ‘10′ . The addressee wrote up the L.H.S. the date of its reception by ‘Jenkin Jenkins 10/1/76′ . The reverse was not seen (Figure 1). The second

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TIRRIKIBA N.S.W. to CERRO de PASCO COPPER CORP, PERU

This common registered First Day Cover has particular interest on account of the address as well as the fine documentation of its routing on the reverse. It has a blue Tirrikiba registration label plus the crossed red crayon marking, and the pairs of the 1d green Queen Elizabeth and 2d red KGVI stamps are faintly postmarked 10 MY 37. The address is given in detail as P.S.K. Hodgson, Cerro de

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STANLEY WYMAN & VICTORIAN GOLD

Occasionally, the finding of one interesting cover leads to the discovery of related covers. This paper involves a Stanley Wyman and the Victorian Goldfields between the years of 1854 and 1856. The first cover seen at an auction site was addressed to Stanley Wyman Esq, Gold Office Camp, Creswick’s Creek and in the same manuscript, “Stamped” was written in the top left corner. The description accompanying the cover was as

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ROBERT BLINMAN, SHEPHERD, HISTORIC COPPER TOWN, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

The orange ‘TWO PENCE’ stamp of South Australia has a near perfect ‘socked-on-the-nose’ ‘Squared Circle’ (Type 2) postmark of BLINMAN/ SE 30/ 95/ S-A, which introduces another history of the mining industry in Australia (Figure 1). Martin Walker’s book on Post , Telegraph and Telephone Offices of South Australia and the Northern Territory, 2004, page 37 describes the type of post offices at Blinman, from its opening date on 1/9/1862

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BOYD’S CITY EXPRESS MESSENGER COMPANY PTY LTD. [USA]

Three examples of this company have appeared at one Melbourne stamp auction company over several years. The messenger company was first established in New York in 1830 by John Boyd, initially as a service for tradesmen to deliver hand-bills. In 1844 it became a local post competing with Governmental postal services and it continued in this form until it was suppressed in 1883. After the service was closed by the

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BENJAMIN KANE, INSPECTOR of NATIONAL SCHOOLS, MELBOURNE (1834-72)

This stampless entire was addressed to Benjamin Kane Esquire, Acting Inspector of National School Board, Melbourne on 28 April 1853. It was sent from Lake Colac, as shown by the framed red ‘PAID/ LAKE COLAC’, and was rated by a manuscript red ‘2′ (2d being the inland letter rate)as well as the manuscript ‘Free’. The reverse (not shown) had back-stamps of Colac and Melbourne (Figure 1). Benjamin Francis Kane was

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BARRACLUFF’S OSTRICH FARM, DIAMOND BAY, SOUTH HEAD, SYDNEY

Every now and then a postcard speaks to our family personally. It was late1950’s and we bought our first home. One of our 3 sons was born whilst we lived there. It was a bungalow built on rock with 8 inches of sandy topsoil. Its address was 8 Marne Street, Vaucluse, but the locals called it Diamond Bay. It was perched high on a massive rock formation with glorious views

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AUSTRALIAN BANK to CALCUTTA BANK with FRENCH CONNECTION, 1899

This 1891 1½d overprint on the 2d Victorian postcard with the red ‘UNIVERSAL P0STAL UNION’ overprint, deletion of the ‘FOR THE UNITED KINGDOM’ and ‘by the long sea route’ came about when Victoria joined the U.P.U.  As a result cards could be sent for 1½d to any member country of the Union, which by then comprised most of the rest of the world.  It is addressed to the Manager, Comptoir

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