EVENT CALENDAR

LONDON 2010

 Exhibitors of Scandinavian Interest

For those members who will be visiting London 2010, there will be a considerable amount of material of Scandinavian interest.

A complete listing can be seen below

PERTH MEETING 5TH SEPTEMBER

For Enlarged Image Click Here

Perth Meeting of the "Scottish Vikings" attended the annual meeting at the Dewar Centre in Perth on Saturday 5th September 2009, together with the President of SPS and Alex Walker and the Secretary Brian Hague. The two main speakers gave very contrasting displays, highlighting the wealth of philatelic expertise within the Society. Jeff Stone presented the second part of his display of Finland 1875-1884. Jeff explained that although this only covered 8 denominations, there were in fact 83 printing impressions, 2 printers, 3 perforation varieties and numerous other varieties.

His display was a classic philatelic collection, showing the stamps and varieties from the 20 penni last printing, through the 1mark fifth printing. His display included postally used items, numerous tete-beche pairs, ship mails, mixed franking, registered letters, a letter from the Swedish Consul in Aberdeen and illustrated covers. It included at least one item from the fabled Faberge Collection. John Tomlinson provided a vote of thanks.

The afternoons' contrasting display was given by Albert Megginson, who travelled up from the old Viking territory of Yorkshire. He showed items connected to the Swedish American Line. This included covers connected with the very first ship, philatelic covers generated by passengers, letters from crew letters from the liners used in repatriation in the Second World War and some mouth watering menus from the 1920s and 1930s, including a cruise to commemorate the coronation of George VI. This eclectic mix was presented in Albert's usual style and a vote of thanks was proposed by David Macdonald.

The meeting closed with summons from Keith Robinson the organiser to those Vikings present and others to attend the next meeting on 4th September 2010 in the Dewar Centre in Perth. All Southern Vikings and other are most welcome.  We intend to bring more details and contact information of this event closer to the time

There was a raffle and food to a good standard amidst main displays morning and afternoon followed by 15 displays by members attending:

Article by David Kindley

JUNE 2009

NORDIA 2009

Mike Tuttle

Brian Flack and I attended Nordia at Hafnarfjörður, Iceland for days two and three, i.e 29^th. and 30^th May.

The event, the fifth of its kind in Iceland and the first held outside Reykjavík, was staged in the town's Sports Hall by the sea front. One reason for the choice of Hafnarfjörður as host venue was that it had celebrated the centenary of the township last year, although there has been a commercial community there ever since the middle ages.

The Sports Hall was just the right size for the event, enabling the exhibits and the dealers/Post Offices stands to be accommodated in one large area. This was well lit, compact but not crowded. My only complaint is that it was almost impossible to view the exhibits without meeting old friends or making new ones. This was because being away from Reykjavík, there were no passing visitors, all were there because of their interest in (mainly) Nordic philately.

Our Secretary has been given the awards list for his Honours’ Board, but I must mention here that Chris and Birthe King once again brought distinction to our Society. Various other exhibits which attracted awards at 'Reyksyn '07' were now enhanced by high quality items from the recent Cavendish “Angus Parker: Iceland” auction. For this writer, Árni Gústafsson's “Icelandic shipmail” has now become Mount Everest for the quality and unique items it contains. Brian much admired the entries with postmarking of Crown & Posthorn and Numerals.

On the social side, we were well looked after by Saso Andonov, the Iceland dealer, who met us at the airport at 12.15am, and provided a taxi service on several other occasions. Attending the event was a strong contingent from Sweden headed by our friends, and Society members, Johnny Pernerfors and Leif Nilsson. We have good memories of the Sunday night banquet they organised in the Viking Restaurant, with traditional whale meat on the menu – an acquired taste, I think. At the end of the meal, a clear, Iceland spirit was served in a small glass embedded in a (plastic) Viking Horn. I am sure it was inflammable, because I felt I was being burnt alive from inside, and that was just after two sips. To my surprise, a glass of brandy followed – perhaps to cool us down! Johnny and Leif are now to prepare their group visit to our own National Exhibition next year.

This was a memorable visit with much to admire among the exhibits, and an appreciation of the warmness of the welcome from our Iceland friends, in spite of the somewhat strained financial relationship between our respective politicians ! We look forward to the next Nordia in Iceland. 

MARCH 2009

CHANGES OF OFFICERS

There were a number of changes to the build of our Society at the AGM. Below is a table of who has gone and who is in: