The March 2024 Journal (Issue 109) contains interesting new articles for Cape, Zululand and CGH. As has been the practice for some time, the Cape and Natal receive much of the attention, but Zululand, despite having a much shorter duration of stamp issuing than the major Colonies, still frequently provides surprising new finds. For Natal, A Royal Letter from Natal via Bloemfontein and a Double Rate Letter from UK via Marseilles, Suez and Mauritius to Natal in 1865. Overprinted Private Postal Wrappers of the Cape of Good Hope and Natal Region, highlighting the scarcity of this subclass.

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The December 2023 Journal (Issue 108) contains interesting new articles for Cape, Zululand and CGH. Keith Klugman’s astonishing curating of 28 Windham/Maclean covers and fronts, which together with three others previously found, must represent one of the largest sets of correspondence in Natal, and possibly Southern African, Colonial history. Provisioned with images contributed by several individuals and organisations, and aided by the work of several authors, Simon Solomon was able to investigate the lives of Juliet Maclean and Her Contemporaries with the aim of reanimating them.

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The September 2023 Journal (Issue 107) contains interesting new articles for Cape, Zululand and CGH. Natal: Unique Victorian Stamps and Covers from the Stanley Gibbons July 2023 Auction, which provides commentary on the truly extraordinary items which re-emerged into the philatelic world, … CGH: Two detailed articles have been prepared including: (1) an authoritative study that examines Telegraphs and the 9th War of Dispossession of 1877/78 in the Eastern Cape. (2) The Mafeking Blues, the Broken Plate and Other Errors covering the fascinating story of how this provisional, local issue came about and also present the results of a personal project which has taken over 25 years to complete. 

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The June 2023 Journal (Issue 106) leads down some familiar, but not fully explored paths, including the origins of two Natal stamps and one from Zululand, which have received little if any coverage in the past. Natal: Keith Klugman has followed up his previous examination of Standard Bank and Natal Bank postal cards with a presentation of a third card prepared by the Bank of Africa. Zululand: The coverage of the 1891 overprinted 1d flows on naturally from the 1887 Natal stamp, both of which include the detached triangle in their portfolios, something which is unique to the Southern African Colonies. CGH: The Cape is presented in two articles, the first being a continuation of the study of the Telegraph Companies of the two southernmost colonies, although the Transvaal also gets a mention.

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The March 2023 Journal (Issue 105) includes two articles, replete with illustrations of the British Bechuanaland Police Force and associated material together with a trail of twenty covers addressed to one of the members of the Force, which stretches from East London to Macloutsie in British Bechuanaland between 1891 and 1893. I strongly commend you to follow the trail and examine the detective work that was used in in its construction. The Cape receives further attention, Natal provides a continual source of new material and there is a detailed article on Zululand.

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The December 2022 Journal (Issue 104) was inspired by the series of Corinphila Auctions occurring since 2019, offering the magnificent Besançon collections of Australia, Ceylon, East Africa, Great Britain, Southern Africa and the West Indies, have inspired me to extend the gamut of articles included in this Journal, and consider how the Cape, Natal and Zululand were regarded by printers such as De La Rue, not just as stand-alone colonies, but rather as parts of their broader approach to stamp production.

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The September 2022 Journal (Issue 103) includes for the Cape, Christopher Dorn has prepared an in-depth article on the Cape of Good Hope Triangles, focusing on the 4d Blue De La Rue printings, and providing some very practical ways to distinguish these from the printings of Perkins Bacon. Natal is the subject of two very comprehensive studies,

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The June 2022 Journal (Issue 102) includes for the Cape, an article entitled “The Inland Postage Reduction from 4d to 3d – Further Information” throws some additional light on a series of stamps which all had the same purpose, namely to ensure that there were sufficient numbers of an interim 3d postage stamp in 1879 and 1880, until eventually a large supply of this denomination was printed in January 1880., …

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The March 2022 Journal (Issue 101) includes for the Cape, The 1882-83 Seated Hope Issue looks at available proofs, essays and stamps, while the 1883 De La Rue Appendices A,B and C and two Bradbury Wilkinson Hope Essays, present some of the very scarce items which have emanated in recent times from the printers’ archives, and much more …

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The December 2021 Journal (Issue 100) includes the Cape in two articles, both of which are designed to bring the past back to life. More on the Itinerant Pastor of Murraysberg is a follow-up by Manfred Mittelbach and myself, revealing that there were two pastors who lived in different parts of the Cape and who could have been twin brothers, so similar were their achievements (in fact they were cousins although separated by 8 years), and much more …

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The September 2021 Journal includes five Cape articles, including “An Unusual Way to Win a Tender”, where De La Rue had to submit a tender for the 1889 issue, using an embossed head of the King of Italy. An article on ‘Found Open’ and ‘Officially Closed’ labels spans both the Cape and Natal, while another, on ‘The Overprinted Two Pence ‘Hope’ stamp, is about an essay which never made it to the starting blocks.

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The June 2021 Journal includes a focus on the Cape Edwardians, The Mail Cart, Parcel and Luggage Labels, Forgeries and an update on the Table Mountain Issue. For Natal, the emphasis has swung around to the Postal Stationery Wrappers and their occurrence on the internet. …

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