In 1949, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the first French postage stamp, a group of British philatelists set up a pioneering specialist philatelic society devoted to the study of the stamps of France and the then French Empire. From small beginnings, the France and Colonies Philatelic Society now unites over 250 collectors in Britain and overseas in the many and varied delights of the stamps and postal history of la Francophonie.
The Society provides an extensive programme of meetings in several locations, holds an annual Philatelic Weekend, publishes a well regarded and authoritative Journal and series of monographs as well as several more extensive specialist philatelic books, operates a magazine circuit, two thriving exchange packets and three postal Auctions a year. It is a friendly and informal group to which non-members are welcome to attend any of our meetings.
FUTURE EVENTS
WINTER AUCTION
Images for the Winter Auction - 25 January 2025 are available to view here.
David writes: This is a mammoth catalogue with surely something to interest every member. There is plenty of interesting material to check during the long nights and the Christmas break. Over 1800 opportunities are available so pool all your resources – aunty’s Christmas postal order, the piggy bank, the gas meter, the kiddies’ trust fund or even borrow from yourself to take advantage of what is on offer. Good hunting
ZOOM MEETINGS
The next meeting will be Mick Bister showing ‘Colonial Exhibitions of France from 1894 to 1931’ on 11 February 2025.
Contact either
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING will be held on the 7 March at 9.20 am.
ANNUAL PHILATELIC WEEKEND 6-8 March 2025. Details can be viewed here. In the interim please contact David Parmley either by telephone on 07464 926250 or
Regrettably THE WESSEX AND LONDON GROUP MEETINGS are in abeyance for the foreseeable future. When information is available for the Northern Meetings it will be promoted on the website and regular members will be personally informed.
JOURNAL 306
The AUGUST Journal and SEPTEMBER Auction Catalogue will be dispatched or sent digitally in the next few days.
Articles include:
Usage of the (1938 - 1941) - Part 1 (Edwin Voerman)
Série Sites et Monuments/Série touristique d’usage courant
Precursors of the French postal card - Part 5: The French balloon cards (Frans Jorissen)
Marianne de Muller Part 7a: the 25 franc issue (YT 1011C) - Sheet Printings, Coils and Booklets of 20 (Mick Bister)
There’s No Business Like...Show Business – Connections on French Stamps - Part 8 (David Parmley) • Due to space constraints the full article on French Cinema Stars is included here.
Postal Mischief Levels 1 and 2 (Michael Round)
The Suez Canal Stamp Forgeries by Saatjian - Part 2: The 1c and 20c Forgeries (Paul Grigg)
Shorter Items - including Questions and Answers
• Se souvenir de la France paysanne (Mick Bister)
• The Ligne de Saigon à Bangkok (Rory Morrisey)
• New Caledonia Whimsy, 1901-style (Michael Round)
• The 25F Colour Proofs of 1959 Marianne à la Nef (Shivshankar Nair / Mick Bister)
• Cancellations on ‘Navigation and Commerce’ issues (Ed Grabowski)
• Somali Coast Antics - postmarks not exempt (Michael Round)
• Cameroun Ecole Supérieure des P&T and Timbres Fictif (Marty Bratzel)
• Two highlights from the Winter Auction: 25 January 2025 (not illustrated in the Auction catalogue).
• End of an era - A lifetime of Postage Stamps (a potted history) (Terry Garcia / David Parmley)
Bookshelf (Reviewed by Michael Round)
• Madagascar, Philatélie Malagache: Tome 1 Les Affranchissements, by Jacques Desnos
Report of the Northern Meeting Group
New-issue listings from : Gibbons Stamp Monthly August - December 2024 (Michael Round)
Books Noted (Maurice Tyler)
List of Recently Published Articles (Maurice Tyler)
Index to 2024 (Jan Gane)
Advertisement for
• EUROPHILEX 2025
• French Territories - Modern Fine Used (Miles Cerny)
• AVA Auctions Limited, Hong Kong
A selection of images from Journal 306 are illustrated above in the slider.
THANK YOU to everyone who has contributed to to Journal WE ARE ALWAYS IN NEED OF ARTICLES, large or small, if you have something of interest please consider sending it for inclusion in a later edition. Type your text in Word or plain text, add any images, scanned at 300dpi as separate jpeg attachments and email them to
The link to our latest Show and Tell Zoom meeting organised by Mick Bister was held on the 12 November and can be viewed here
We had three quite different but very interesting displays
• John West World War 1 tracking labels to the Red Cross
• Loïc Dufresne de Virel World War 1 censored Groupe Type
• Roger Niven Tapestries
All Zoom meetings are available to view on the same easy to access page
Those members interested in joining please advise Chris Hitchen by email to let him know whether you would simply wish to view displays or whether you would be able to give a display as well. Those without a webcam can of course still view the displays but will not be seen by others.
Information on Zoom meetings will only be sent to those who express an interest, however the programme will be advertised on the website. Read more
Subject to sufficient offers we will run another Show and Tell meeting with the participation of anyone who cares to join. Here’s our idea for how it will work:
• 1. Scan a stamp, several stamps, cover or several covers or any other item philatelically related to France or its colonies. Save each item as a separate JPG file. (That is important. PDFs don’t work as well.)
• 2. Prepare a short description that will explain why you like the items you scanned – technical details, design quality, postal rates and routes, markings, social history of the writer or recipient, or anything else you would talk about if you were given five minutes to explain this to a group. Be sure it is obvious which part of your description applies to which JPG file.
• 3 Send that description as a Word document or just put it in an email along with the JPGs to
Mick will then put together a PowerPoint presentation with everyone’s scans and at least a portion of your written description. When we hold the Zoom meeting, you will be able to speak to the group about your “stuff” when it appears in the PowerPoint show.
There will be no indication of ownership in the PowerPoint file, so don’t let that limit you when you make your selection. The more of us who participate, the better it will be, of course.
The website will always have the latest information so members will need to consult that regularly to see what is going on. When things improve then Convenors will arrange meetings as soon as practical. It may well not be feasible to advise these in the Journal in advance. Details of convenors is here. Please consider using the FORUM in the meantime - perhaps share your latest acquisitions or any query or comment you may have. If you have not registered as a member, please contact the
JOIN OUR PHILATELIC FORUM
You can join our Forum without being a member of the Society - just contact the Website Manager with your name and preferred password and you will be supplied with a username - you don't have to be a member!.
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