TNAG-0718-FCO40-916-Policy-on-issuing-postage-stamps-1978 — Page 91

(i) First Day of Isque

Orders from abroad direct to the Post Office or to individuals In the country for first-aay-covers (which generate philatelic rather than ordinary postal revenue) may be dealt with in the ordinary post offices by providing hand-cancelling/postmarking equipment and delegating this work to ordinary employees of the post office. A little training is necessary to shew a new man

or woman assigned this task, how to make clear and legible impress- ions on the new stamps on the missives. Any shortcomings are likely to be pointed out to the officer very quickly by the custom- ers concerned! An essential requiremont (sec F.D.C.'s below) is an adequate supply of specially designed envelopes on which to arrange the new stamps.

(ii) Philatelic Bureaui

It is always desirable to set up formally a "Philatelic Bureau" even though, initially, it will not provide a full-time job for one officer. The person in charge should carry on with other duties and only put in such time on philatelic affairs as is actually justified by the amount of business.

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An important part of the work of the bureau is to build up from incoming correspondence a list of names and addresses to the members of which newssheets initially prepared on duplicating_ paper should be sent at intervals of not

more than 3-months informing the recipients not only about current and forthcoming issues, but also about issues about to be terminated. Copies of the news letter should be sent gratis to the editors of philatelic journals, and to the larger stamp dealers, both of which categories may well give the "news" a multiplier effect by referring to the country's issues in their own journals or advertising brochures.

Since timing is of the essence to a profitable philatelic organisation, a philatelic bureau should never be allowed to get behind with its correspondence or with order-filling. Accordingly the rule should be established at the outset that staff from other

departments, or part-timers from outside, should be temporarily transferred to the bureau at rush periods, while keeping the full- time staff to a minimum.

The bureau will from the outset take on the sale of new commemorative issues after they have been sold over the post office counter for a couple of weeks. As mentioned above it is not good business to continue the sale of commemoratives, in effect for ordinary postal purposes, in competition with definitive stamps, but the former should remain available for philatelists at the bureau for a period of up to a year or upon earlier exhaustion of supplies.

(iii) F.D.C.'s

FDCs or "First Day Covers" may be sold in large numbers on the first day of issue of a new stamp series. Apart from those pre-ordered, additional stocks are commonly prepared by hand-can- celling on the first day of issue, though they will be sold at a later date, either through the philatelic bureau or at a philat- elic exhibition.

A large proportion of PDCS is nowadays sent through the post inside another protecting cover, and the issuing agency may itself bear the postage on the outer cover since the *** new stamps enclosed are not being used to prepay postage.

Where an agent is employed for philatelic issues, the agent may also do all the work (for a fee) of preparing the FDCs. It is a field in which the country concerned can take an increasing interest so that in the end all FCs are prepared in the country including those destined for bulk sales abroad. To achieve this the following are necessary

(a) The design of envelopes for FDCs, which must be compat- ible with the design of the stamps themselves, should be put in hand at the same time as the stamp desim;