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ABOVE & LEFT: The front
and back covers of the 1938 |
booklet. This is the only booklet in the
kiddle collection with an advert |
For some reason unknown to us, the Christmas Seal for 1951 was issued both with, and without, the one penny value in the design. Perhaps this was an attempt to 'try out the market' - what would people give as a donation with the receipt being a stamp with no value? Perhaps, a reader can provide us with the answer to that one?
The use of se-tenant pairs continued throughout the series. However, a new variant appeared in 1935, tete-beche pairs. From 1934, seals were issued in booklet form, as well as in sheet form. These booklets became very popular, and the postal authorities decided to print special booklet sheets where stamps would occur both se-tenant and tete-beche - we illustrate a typical block of four for 1942. These sheets were also sold intact at post offices and, obviously, many stamp collectors would want to purchase all the variants that could occur.
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ABOVE: The three values from the 1951 booklet
series. The seal that year was issued with and
without the 1d value - perhaps to test how much
people might be prepared to donate to the charity
for seals without values. |
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The booklets themselves are attractive and can certainly be collected, although we are not aware of a full listing of all the types and values that were issued. We illustrate both the front and the back cover of the 2s 6d booklet (30 stamps) for 1938. Unusually, the back cover carries an advertisement for the Vacuum Oil Company of South Africa Ltd. - the only booklet with a commercial advert we have in our collections. We assume the Vacuum Oil Company contributed to either the printing costs or sponsorship for children's TB sanitoria. Various editions were issued each year and we illustrate three different value booklets for 1951- 6d (six stamps), 1 s (12 stamps) and 2s 6d (30 stamps).
Nowadays TB is no longer such a deadly disease and, in general, there is no longer the need to build sanitoria or special homes for TB suffers. However, Christmas Seals continue to be sold throughout the world, although the charities that they support are much different and indeed, still do achieve much funding for the many different health charities. | 
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