From Zambia To Antarctic And Back.

Hi all,

As Eunice was writing up her collection of Antarctica she came across an air letter which we had sent to Shackleton Base in British Antarctica whilst we were in Zambia.

It was posted in Ndola Zambia 26 Oct 66 10oo AM and addressed to the Officer in Charge, British Antarctic Expedition, Shackleton Base, British Antarctica.

The address was crossed out and a manuscript notation reads
"Base closed please return to sender"
The reverse bears a cds Port Stanley Falkland Islands 2 DE 66 and a receiving cds of Ndola Zambia –1MAR67.10ooAM.

The Ndola address was deleted and it was redirected to Lusaka.

After all this time we cannot recall what we wrote about but presume it was asking for information.

The question is – Do we open it?
It is a neat little cover as is and perhaps slitting it open would detract from the appearance.
What would you do?
Regards
Ron and Eunice.

Please don`t open it.

Please open it

I see no reason not to open it. Can you not do like in all the crime novels and steam it open?

Peter

There is a better way. (One perhaps lost on non-US citizens.)

Hi all,
Thanks for the feedback and opinion is obviously divided.
We usually keep carbon copies of our letters but failed to do so, it being awkward.
Your suggestion is a good one Peter, but aerogrammes are a bit more 'fragile' than the normal envelope and I think it might cause staining.
KGB - over my head I'm afraid, being a Pom/Australian.
The biggest advantage to the NO vote is that it can always be changed later. The YES vote would be a bit harder.
So, it stays as it is for now.
Cheers
Ron and Eunice.

Check with a paper conservator in your area. If tape can be gotten off documents then I think your piece could be opened without damage. Though I don't know what the cost might be.

Thanks for the suggestion John.

As a comment to our letter, you can see that this is evidence that we have been collecting stamps and postal history for more than 50 years, and we are still interested. There cannot be many other hobbies that will last that long.


The other thing is the time that was involved in sourcing the information for our stamps. We posted that letter from Ndola in Zambia 25th October 1966 , it went down to the Antarctic, and was returned to us from there 2 December 1966 and we received it in April 1967. At the end of that time we had no information at all. We could get that same information now (with the aid of a computer) in about two days maybe less. Many of our other letters have the same delay problem, it usually took a fortnight for a reply to come back to us. (The latest edition of STAMP magazine from the UK took about 20 days to arrive here.)


Nowadays… with the aid of such a group as Stamp Community we can be in almost instant contact with a huge number of collectors, with similar interests, prepared to share interest and ideas.

. No way in the world would this have been possible without the invention and growth of the internet.

Regards to all

Eunice and Ron

A few thoughts:

1. Contrary to the title of your posting, this cover never made it to the Antarctic. It got as far as the Falkland Islands which are east of Argentina and since the Antarctic base was already closed for the season it was simply turned around there and sent back to you.

2. The cover is not especially rare so carefully slitting it open would not detract from the value, though I am not sure why you would want to open it since you wrote it and would remember at least the general content of what you wrote?

3. In the photo the cover seems to have been handled in the mail to the point where it is not in mint condition - there seem to be a few rubs and wrinkles and the like so carefully slitting it open should not create any additional negative value such as it is.

Many thanks Kimo.

1. Yes, obvious when you point it out isn't it. They would not bother to send it on if the base was closed. Also explains the Falkland Islands date stamp.

2. Certainly we don't think the cover is rare, nor are we concerned about value. (The original post was intended to be a light hearted query – sorry about that.) As to remembering what we wrote, bear in mind that it was written 50 years ago. Would you be able to remember something you wrote 50 years ago (assuming you have been alive that long<grin>)

3. A used cover cannot be in mint condition and considering where it has been and the amount it was handled I think it is in a remarkably good state.

We appreciate your feedback on this, it is always good to have ideas and views apart from our own.
Ours is a great hobby and in all the decades we have been collecting have not been at all bored.
We find it great fun and do not take it too seriously. Our website would give some indication of this and there is plenty of variety thereon, from stamps and postal history and over a hundred old letters (pre-stamp) illustrated and transcribed.
It is for information only, advert free and not commercial at all. It can be viewed at

-



Regards.
Ron and Eunice.

Hi Ron and Eunice.

I like your website, especially the letters from the past section, though that is a handsome frog also :)

I think you should go ahead and open your letter - it would be a bit like opening a time capsule from 50 years ago.

Best,
Kimo

Hi Kimo
Thanks for the comments and glad you found something of interest on our site.
There are some fascinating letters in that letters from the past section and we really enjoyed them.
The frogs are very friendly here and they come in various sizes, from the size of our thumb nail to that one on my arm.

Perhaps we will try to open the letter, very carefully. As you say, a bit of a time capsule. No doubt we were asking for information.
Regards
Ron and Eunice

Hi all,
We succumbed!
We opened it very carefully and as suspected it was a request for information.

Quote

Ndola Zambia
24/10/66

Dear Sir,
We are interested in the stamps and postmarks of Antarctica and would like to obtain as much in this line as possible and also general information on Antarctica for writing up and illustrating our collection.
If you could help us in any way we would be extremely grateful.
We don't know a great deal about the situation regarding mail from your base, whether you have special stamps or if you use your ordinary postage stamps with the base postmark.
If you do use special stamps we would be obliged if you could let us know how to obtain these stamps both mint and used, and how payment can best be made from Zambia. Also would it be possible to give any information on the work that you do, conditions, etc.?
If you have such a creature as a philatelist amongst your number of course, we would be very pleased to correspond, and exchange items with, him. (If he has any spare time for such things that is)
One thing we do realise is that mail takes a long time both ways and that it will be some months before we can expect a reply.
Anyway, we would be very pleased to hear from anyone who could drop us a line and we thank you advance for any assistance you may be able to give.
Yours faithfully,


Unquote

We did not know very much in those days did we?
I did state earlier that we realise this is not a rare cover, but in fact it is.
It is very rare for me (Ron) to hand write a letter this long, it is usually left to Eunice as I tend to be a very poor writer.
It is actually very easy to read, so there is one for the rarity section (for us, at least)

Regards to all
Ron and Eunice.

And I thought it would have something to do with Vegemite...