Stamp Collector

92 MAY 2020 www.allaboutstamps.co.uk Many stamp issues can be really interesting if time is spent to study the circumstances surrounding them, writes Christer Brunström. One such set is a quartet of Peruvian stamps released in 1948 in connection with the 14th Olympic Games in London Peru’s Olympics controversy STAMP MISCELLANY WORLD STAMPS P eru sent an all-male team of 41 competitors to London. They competed in seven different sports. In the fifty-metre free pistol event, Edwin Vásquez garnered a gold medal for Peru. To publicise the Olympics participation, the country’s postal service issued a set of four airmail stamps on 29 July 1948. They were printed by Waterlow & Sons, Ltd. The one-sol value depicts a map of South America and the British Isles. The design includes the word ‘AEREO’ or Air Mail in English. Basketball players are shown on the 2s value, a discus thrower on the 5s stamp and finally rifle shooting on the 10s top value which was printed in yellow, a choice of colour which was far from successful. These three values were then overprinted AEREO in red. The stamps were valid for just four days as the last day they could be used was 1 August 1948. Only 12,920 copies were sold of the 10s top value and not that many more of the other three denominations. As 30,000 sets had been printed there were substantial remainders. The four values were also released as a souvenir sheet selling for 20 soles with the surcharge of 2 soles going to a children’s hospital. 8,297 sheets were sold. Once again 30,000 sheets had been printed and sales were thus rather disappointing. Possibly many collectors found the issue highly speculative and hence refrained from adding it to their collections. A closer scrutiny of the designs reveals an error as the interlinked rings of the Olympic Games symbol are shown as a straight line when, in fact, their authorised format is quite different. The Peruvian postal officials decided to put the remainders into storage and very possibly forgot about them. In 1956 the Olympic Games were held in Melbourne, Australia. Peru had sent eight athletes to the shooting competition but they returned home without any medals. Once again it had been an all-men team. It now seems that post office officials realised that they had large quantities of Olympic stamps in storage and someone came up with the brilliant idea of commemorating the Melbourne Olympics. The remaining stamps and souvenir sheets were overprinted MELBOURNE 1956. They went on sale on 19 November 1956 at all post offices in the country as ‘voluntary’ stamps with no postal validity. The plan was to help finance Peru’s participation. This of course was a somewhat curious arrangement but the best was still to come. On 14 April 1957, the Peruvian postal authorities announced that the MELBOURNE 1956 stamps and souvenir sheet would be postally valid on the following day and on that day only! Thus the ‘voluntary’ stamps became bona fide airmail stamps if only for 24 hours. The scheme seems to have worked as it appears that all remainders were sold off to collectors and the trade. The Melbourne overprints still turn up at stamp dealers from time to time and they certainly are a nice addition to a collection of sports on stamps. Many catalogue editors took a dim view of the 1956 overprints just mentioning them in a footnote. Others have awarded them a complete listing stating that they were just valid on 15 April 1957 leaving to collectors to decide whether they want to include them or not. asas Note the single line of Olympic Rings, rather than the correct pattern of the official symbol