Regular Meetings at 15 Abchurch Lane
Meetings are held at our London premises usually twice per month from September to June.
The Meeting Programme for the 2023-2024 Session
The full meeting programme for the 2023-2024 session, including a programme of online presentations, can be found here.
2024 Subscription Rates
Membership subscriptions are payable on 1st January each year. The subscription rates for 2024 will be as follows:
- U.K. Town members, living within a 40-mile radius of Charing Cross.
£250 (before 31st March 2024); £270 (after 31st March 2024).
- U.K. Country members, living outside the 40-mile radius of Charing Cross,
£175 (before 31st March 2024); £195 (after 31st March 2024).
- Overseas members, £160 (before 31st March 2024); £180 (after 31st March 2024).
Those who pay after 31st March 2024 will be able to request copies of The London Philatelist, that they may have missed, from the Administration Office upon payment of the appropriate postage.
A member whose subscription remains unpaid after 30th June 2024 will be deemed to have left the Society.
Steven Harrison FRPSL, Honorary Secretary.
Collections Events
From time to time informal talks and seminars take place, showing the diversity of philately and how it can provide unexpected insights into social, cultural and local history. Click here for information about these events.
The Society at Stampex 2023
The Society had a stand at Stampex 2023. You can watch a short video about this here.
President’s Newsletter
It's the time of year when I wish you all a very happy festive season, whether it be Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Mawlid al-Nabi, or something personal to you and, for those of you who remember Dave Allen, "May your God go with you".
November has been an interesting month with plenty of auction excitement including the record sale of an "Inverted Jenny" by Siegel Galleries in New York for $2Million. It appears to have been a particularly well-centred example that had been kept in the dark for decades.
Back at home we had two excellent presentations, a 5pm from Howard Hughes who talked on the Maltese Cross and a 1pm by Peter Chadwick, who covered the UK prior to 1840 with a fantastic selection of material, all well written up and fully illustrated in a wonderful bound volume.
The presentation to Howard Hughes after his lecture.
Some people will realise that we had a problem with the sound at this meeting, which has now been fully investigated. It proved to be a Microsoft glitch as a result of an update. This was a problem encountered by other Companies at the time. It has since been rectified. This was an important talk and those who missed it may like to know that Howard and I will be redoing the talk so that it can be posted on YouTube sometime in the Spring. I can only apologise to those affected, but we will do something about it!
The Survey
I have little to add to the position in my last newsletter, other than to say we are up to speed with our timetable. The RPSL Council have received the initial findings and will be briefed in full before the Council meeting on 7th December.
Two pieces of news to precede the discussion. Members regard the most important asset we have is the "London Philatelist", so we must do all we can to preserve and, if possible, improve this resource. Many people mentioned the importance of "Youth", a topic which must be close to the top of our agenda.
It is striking that some individual comments were just plainly incorrect. This has nothing to do with opinion but were factually wrong. We have only concluded that we need to improve communication; some messages need repeating on a regular basis. We intend to answer these individually where the author has declared their identity.
Anyway, more on this in January.
What’s on at the Royal in December?
On Tuesday 5th December at 3pm on Zoom, John Stimson and Brian Hart will present "The Chalon Portrait". You can register to attend for that here.
On Thursday 7th December at 1pm, Richard Berry will present on behalf of Camellia PLC "Classic Afghanistan" - this display contains some of the best Worldwide material on this topic.
Regionally I have only one in the calendar for December:
On 2nd December, Eastern meeting at Chelmsford, contact Andrew Mortlock.
There are two amendments to the programme for next year:
- On 22nd February 2024, it will be Gordon Eubanks who will be presenting a 5pm on "The 1847 Issue of the USA". The presentation originally scheduled for that day has been moved to September 2024.
- The Presidential presentation on 18th April will now be a 5pm on "The Postal History of the Isles of Scilly".
Best wishes,
Mike.
Mike J Y Roberts FRPSL
President
The Royal Philatelic Society London
1st December 2023
Meeting Videos
5pm meetings that have been videoed may be viewed on YouTube, accessible through links on the All Meetings with Documents page.
The full list of meetings can be viewed here.
Meeting Handouts
Our archives hold about 700 handouts provided by displayers at meetings since 1918. These range from single sheets of paper listing the items on display to extensive publications including complex images that can be regarded as significant contributions to the literature. Explanatory notes were at first provided only occasionally but have become normal practice since the 1980s. Many contain material of value to researchers and their production quality has steadily improved. These have been scanned and converted to searchable PDF documents. Click here for a list of the handouts available to view online.
Standing Displays and Regional Meetings
Information about the standing displays and regional meetings, in the United Kingdom and around the world, can be viewed by clicking the menu to the left.