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| Seals of Hope |
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ABOVE: The billingual
1929 Christmas seal from
South Africa in its two
variations. This was the
first year of the seals in
that country |
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It is a sobering thought that in September we are considering the Cinderella Corner content for the Christmas (December) issue of STAMP MAGAZINE. One subject to do with Christmas is the Christmas Seals that have been issued by many countries and organisations within them. It is a very large collecting area within Cinderella philately, and perhaps has more collectable items than any other field.
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ABOVE: The 1930 seal
had its design roots in the
previous year, with the
addition of the year, but
again printed by John
Singleton-Williams |
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What are Christmas Seals? We need to go back to 1904. At that time, tuberculosis (or TB) was the major killer - in Britain 40% of cows were infected, and 12% of mankind died from TB or allied diseases. In Denmark, Einar Holboell - a Danish post office official - came up with the idea of issuing a non-postal charity stamp, to be sold by the post office at Christmas, and all proceeds would go to fight TB. He produced the first ever Christmas Seal in 1904, and the concept for raising money was so successful that many other countries followed the Danish example, initially other Scandinavian countries, but also USA, Canada, France etc. The handbook that lists Christmas Seals of the World is Green's I Catalogue 'Tuberculosis Seals of the World, Part I, US National Seals, Part II US Local Seals, Part III Foreign Seals'. This catalogue was published in 1960, with a supplement published in 1963. In all I there are over 400 pages detailing the substantial numbers of seals, as well as over 100 countries listed that have issued examples. The money raised in the USA best reflects the success of the Christmas Seal market. The first I US National Christmas Seal was issued in 1907, and $3,000 was raised. In the following years, the amount raised increased steadily: in 1908, $135,000; 1909, $250,000; 1910, $300,000; 1916, $1,040,810; and by 1926 the sum raised was more than $5 million. As recently as 1955 US National Christmas Seals raised over $25 million, a phenomenal sum of money at that time. |
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| A fighting fund |
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ABOVE: The 1931 seal
didn't include the name
of the country but was
bilingual |
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One of the later countries to issue Christmas Seals was South Africa in 1929, and we will deal with these in this article. Mrs. Maja Christiansen was responsible for introducing Christmas Seals into South Africa in 1929. Each seal was sold for one penny and the proceeds went to the 'Christmas Stamp Fund' for the erection and maintenance of Children's Tuberculosis Sanatoria. Three things are unusual about South African Christmas Seals - and makes them very similar to postage stamps:
- They were handled officially; their distribution, sale and accounting was undertaken by the Union of South Africa Postal authorities.
- Since 1932 they were printed by the Government Printer (Pretoria), using the same process as for postage stamps.
- Several issues have been printed on postage stamp paper with the 'Springbok's Head' watermark.
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ABOVE: The 1932
seal was printed by the
Government Printer
(Pretoria) |
The 1929 stamp was bilingual, but came in two variants se-tenant. It was printed by John Singleton-Williams Ltd., Durban, using lithography. The stamp did not include the words 'South Africa'. The experiment was very successful, and a new stamp was designed for issue at Christmas 1930, this time including the words 'South Africa - Suidafrika' se-tenant on stamps, again printed by John Singleton-Williams Ltd. For 1931 the printing con-tract was won by Robinson & Co. Ltd., Durban, and a single stamp was printed in screened photogravure. Unusually, the stamp was bilingual, and therefore is only collected as a single, and this time it did not include the name of the country.
The Government Printer (Pretoria) undertook the design and printing of the 1932 issue, which was printed in screened rotogravure, and the same printers have been responsible for the printing of all subsequent Christmas Seals. |
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