This site provides information on the Commission and information relating to Postal History exhibiting, judging and collecting. For those interested in exhibiting postal history at the international level, the rules governing postal history and forthcoming exhibitions is covered.
I am pleased to inform you that after having been confirmed by the 70th FIP Congress in Bucharest, I have taken over the management of the FIP Postal History Commission from the well known Postal Historian Leo De Clercq, RDP, who has served in this Commission for the last 24 years of which the last eight years as Chairman. From 2000-2004 I was the Secretary of this Commission and we have been cooperating since then in order to allow that related non-philatelic material can be included again in future. We felt that it does not make much sense to be very restrictive with most of the qualified postal history exhibitors and on the other hand to allow nearly everything to a few newcomers (Open Class). Therefore, the Postal History Commission tried to compromise and introduced a new experimental sub-class called "Historic, Social and Special Studies". We want to achieve with this sub-class that besides the established postal history exhibits (rates and routes) and the Marcophilie (postmarks) we shall be in a position to offer a new home for collecting areas like the Historical exhibits, Valentines and Pictorial envelopes, Studies of the effect of the postal system on commerce and society, the development of the Telegraph systems and other interesting exhibits. Last not least that these can be shown in a more attractive way so that they are easier to understand and hopefully get better awards.
Furthermore, a new division of Postal History exhibits has been introduced. Instead of a geographical division it will be done by periods:
First Period (Before 1875)
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Second Period (1875-1945)
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Third Period (after 1945)
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Above all we try to maintain the popular collecting and exhibiting of Postal History in such a way that it will neither degenerate to an unpleasant "cheque book competition" nor become a pure academic discipline. Our main aim should be to allow the collectors and exhibitors of Postal History to have more liberty and pleasure in creating their exhibits.
Kurt E. Kimmel
RDP, Chairman of the FIP Postal History Commission
| *This letter was written in Cucuta (Columbia) on January 6, 1859, and dispatched in San Antonio del Tachira where the Real adhesive was cancelled TACHIRA FRANCA being a handstamp from the preadhesive period. ex Zanini now Kimmel Collection: the earliest known use of the 1 Real from Venezuela cancelled by a red handstamp |
**January 4, 1900 sent from SZEMAO via MENGTSZ (b/s Jan 16) and LAOKAY at the Yunnan-Indochinese border where this letter was franked and cancelled Jan 26 and sent via Hanoi (b/s Feb 6) arriving at Mirande, France March 13 1900. ex Colin Jones now Kimmel Collection |
| ***Viet Minh Revolution (September 1845) Kimmel Collection |
