Australia KGV Addiction Starting

The Beginning:
(Beginnings are such delicate times.)

I have just bid on my first Australia KGV heads stamps, mixed in with some Canada, perhaps one with a nice cancel, and others but it was the KGV heads that grabbed my interest and decided me. Hope I win it and start my study of them.

I want to thank KGV and his family for sharing all their knowledge and time while allowing us the opportunity to explore a fascinating area of Australia stamp collecting. It certainly got me hooked and interested.

Knowing what to hunt for whilst hunting is an important thing that makes the hunt all the more exciting. Hmmm, that sounded a bit on the too exciting side maybe.

I haven't won the auction yet but I think this will be the start of a great (as in interesting and captivating) collection. If I don't win this one there will be others.

PUZZLER
I find the collecting of Australian KGV stamps most fascinating. and frustrating. There are so many facets involved that I have many hours of fun and interesting studying and collecting. For example shades of ONE PENNY KGV's. There are so many of them. Anyway the subject has certainly caught my interest and will give me a lot of fascinating and interesting times. When I get the time which I hope will be soon.

Thanks for the very kind words Puzzler!

In Aussie it is very hard to talk about KGVs on-line a common comment is not another dreaded KGV collector. It is so nice to travel half way around the world and not be in fear to share the information on the stamps I love to collect. I hope very much that you win your bid Puzzler, I still get very excited with all our KGV win at auction, one just never knows what treasures are to be found within. There are so many rarities and different ways to collect KGVs. It is just so beautifully never ending! Happy KGV collecting. John and Family

King Conn did you ever let us know how you made out with your World War 2 collection on ebay ??? phil

i have a glassine of 50 or so of these guys if they would help any one..i am sure as collectors we could work something out..now on the Great Britain George 5 difinitives..i have a LOT more !!

philb I have not put it up for bid yet. Two things happened (1) I keep trying to improve the WWII collection and (2) I got hung up in interest and fascination with the Australian KGV addiction. You just gave me a good reminder to finish the WWII project so I can get on with the KGV fascination.

That string by KGV Collector is my manual on the subject.

Conn

Thats ok King ! nothing wrong with that..if you still have some feeling for the collection why ebay it ????

Philb,
I will pass for now (unfortunately) as I have spent way too much on Canada stamps lately and broke the bank, so to speak. However, if KGV or King Conn (or someone else) does not grab those I will be back and email you about them at a later time, if that is OK?
Thanks for the open offer of them!
Doug

KGV,
I think I know how it is talking about certain Canada stamps that have been collected by many people here in Canada. I have a collection of the new personalized stamps of Canada and one of the biggest collectors of them I know of is in California across the continent. There are many others of course.
It is also nice to have discovered this forum which is run so well and has such nice people on it, to share collecting with.

King Conn,
I have been reading about the shades on SCF here with some anxiety but my main interest will be just accumlating a basic collection plus a side one of cancels plus perfs and watermarks.

I have watermark fluid but have hardly used it since I got it. I need practice at it. I tried detecting some on a new Canada stamp (usually there are no watermarks but I wanted to try anyway) and stained a work table with a spill. I think you must have to put down a paper on top of a plastic sheet or tray to protect whatever is underneath. Experimentation is needed.

Yes Puzzler this truly is a very polite, friendly and forgiving family forum! It seems to be a rarity as the general fabric of our society collapses around us! Hopefully this bad mannered approach to life will reverse as the trend has been in the past but I am not going to hold my breath! I like to focus on our SCF oasis of good manners and friendly people, it really does stand out!

When it comes to watermarks and fluid I use a glazed black saucer with no problems!

Puzzler, I will give you first dibs..i do not need them so they will not be expensive..i have so much I could distribute..only need to find the right homes !!

OMG quickly before the baldy shakes in his grave I must start the thread. where is Tony

Thanks Phil! I will surely keep you in mind, especially if I win this first auction.
Doug

Puzzler! Did you have any luck with your auction bid! John

Hi John, yes I did win the auction, small group though it is.

Some other interesting cancels from Canada and New Zealand also in the group. I have been slow at stamps lately.

I have the four Australia KGV stamps ready to be scanned (and studied and compared to all your pages of fine work) but keep getting distracted somehow. Little jobs here and there and concerns. Maybe I should get a tape or CD on concentration or some such.


Her Majesty The Queen (QEII) and Prince Philip are in town (Halifax) soonish and the NATO fleet is in the harbour and basin now I believe (sailors downtown, oh no ) I'd like to have a look at the GB Ark Royal aircraft carrier. Probably dwarf out ships here. Her Majesty will lead the fleet review on Tuesday according to the paper.

I remember years and years ago when I was younger and had a beard down to there and was walking up a street downtown (hilly area that Halifax is) and thinking about what I could do for a job and noticing that some people here and there were standing on the side of the street and wondered if the RCMP were in town with their horses and there down the 4-lane street in the middle come the Queen and Prince Philip in an open touring car, totally unexpected by me. I am ashamed to say my mouth dropped to the ground and I almost stumbled and fell into the street. Hopefully I will present myself better this time if I am lucky enough to get down there.

It is great to hear from you Puzzler! Nice to hear that you won your bid it sounds like an interesting group of stamps! Looking forward to a scan or two!

The group of ships sounds like a rarity and a must see. We have had our share at times but nothing like your description! I hope you find the time for a close look!

Pardon an Aussies ignorance! But Halifax is in Canada and has a harbour and all the ships are there because of the G20 conference? If so the hilly surrounds to the harbour sounds a bit like what Sydney harbour looks like, totally spectacular and worth a few pictures. Hope you get there. Thanks for sharing! John

A quick morning scan:


My big start. Haven't checked them yet or soaked off the old hinges.

Not spectacular I suppose but quite satisfying to me personally as a start. From a Great Britain seller, a small group of Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

I am sorry to say that I tend to look at the cancels first now and miss the bad centering or perf damage until I have had a second look. Not that these have fantastic cancels. It's just that I look at those first. A bit of a reversal since I started long years ago collecting everything, stopped, and just started again slowly. Quite the nice size to work with also I find.

Regards Halifax as compared to Sydney, well, Halifax does have one of the deepest ocean harbours in the world (so we have had a naval base here since 1747) but as for beauty I think Sydney is the winner. Very much busier also from my memories. The Sydney opera house, the beautiful bridge and the trees. I like trees. Of course I was just there for a week about 20 years ago and as I wasn't sick like my mate whilst there I had a good time. He tried to stay up and call his wife to be back home every night and he wore himself out.

Halifax is only a small population (300,000) compared to Sydney's millions. I think the climate is a big colder here also.
Not being a water person at all I usually stay on land as much as I can. Once in a while I talk myself into a sea voyage of sorts which usually starts out great but ends up with me staggering off the ship or boat looking and feeling greenish. The ferry across the harbour is about all I can manage.

The G20 is actually in Toronto, larger and a ways inland but on a beautiful lake.

I thought the people here at home were pretty laid back and relaxed but Australian people are usually more laid back. Quite a future shock to travel from here to Toronto and then Los Angeles (crazy busy people) and then a big relief to land in Sydney in the morning and have a nice coffee with the birds hopping around and a big rancher fellow in a back bush hat strolling by smoking a big cigar. I remember we got bumped up to first class on our way around from Cairns to Darwin too.

The ships are here for the big NATO exercise off shore and the Queen's fleet review. Kind of touristy here now with big cruise ships (Queen Mary II(?)) popping in off and on. I say a beautiful ship from Norway I think once. Icelandic folk holiday here also at times. (I should ask them to trade stamps sometime!)



An older picture of Halifax.
The ships will assemble in the Bedford Basin (the large bit in the upper half of the photo) where incidentally convoys in WWI and WWII assembled before crossing the Atlantic. Then they will cruise down the harbour under the two bridges and out past the islands (not in photo) to the ocean.

As the harbour narrows down to enter the Bedford Basin the narrow part is, naturally, called the Narrows and is where a munitions ship blew up during WWI (1917) and laid waste to Halifax on the left and Dartmouth on the right (now all one happy family). Perhaps akin to the Darwin cyclone disaster I heard about.

A convoy in the basin looking out towards the harbour and ocean.