Something to Think About
THINKING ABOUT COMPETITIONS?
Here are a few ideas and guidelines for anyone considering entering a competition for the first time.
Why bother?
Do not shy away from competitions. Enjoy the challenge. Competitions provide an opportunity to show off your treasured collection to people who would not normally see it at local society meetings (Federation competitions are usually judged out-of-area), get an outside assessment of your efforts/material, and possibly receive an attractive trophy to grace your mantlepiece for a year. Kudos for you, and the society which you represent.
Where do I start?
Subject. Choose a subject which you will enjoy working on. Decide how you want to treat it and from that, how much space you need to do it effectively. (Single sheet, 8 sheets or 16 sheets)
Make a preliminary plan. Your entry should tell a story (of an issue, subject, area etc.). Your first plan will be a ‘rough idea’; your actual introductory page will probably be the last thing you write, as your ideas may change. Be aware that just selecting 1/8/16 sheets from your collection is highly unlikely to create an effective entry.
What next?
Lay out your material and sort it into ‘must use’ (items essential to your subject/story), ‘could/might use’ (Items which could develop and illustrate aspects of your subject), and ‘won’t use’ (items which don’t move the story on, or which duplicate others or are very tatty – we all have them!) n.b. it is very unlikely that you will use all your material.
Creating the entry: aspects to consider.
Clarity. There are two strands to this, the look and the content.
Choose suitable paper, white or cream (there are lots of shades available). Avoid very bright white which can be overpowering especially with older postal history material. Never use black or very dark paper for competitions as it is not allowed at National level.
Use a font and size which will make your top row (where your all-important plan will be – more of that later) easy for someone of average height to read. (I am assuming that you are not hand writing the entry.)
Be succinct – don’t fill the pages with extraneous waffle or state the visually obvious just to fill space. Restrict highly technical information to the essentials.
Guide your reader/judge through the exhibit. Consider using running headers for clarification.
Accuracy. Check your facts. References, if used, should be part of your introductory page.
Proof read your text, then do it again! It is an acknowledged fact that we often read what we expect to see and miss simple errors of spelling and punctuation.
Make sure that mounted items are straight – obvious, but sometimes overlooked, making the pages look careless.
Layout. Try to make the individual pages look balanced, though not necessarily identical in layout.
Lay out the whole entry. Does it look balanced? Do parts look thin/crowded/lopsided. Stand back and consider whether the overall look would attract you to examine it further.
Be aware that closed exhibition frames can occasionally obscure the extreme top or bottom of your top and bottom rows, so give reasonable margins. This is not usually a problem with modern GB National frames.
The introductory page – your opportunity to inform and impress judges and readers.
Every entry, with the obvious exception of the one-sheet competition, must have an introductory page*. Having a good one not only inspires your readers to read on but also tells the judges what you want them to know. It is an opportunity to draw attention to your star items and point out why your topic is important and appealing. You love your material, here you aim to make your audience love it too!
*A one-sheet entry should have a paragraph or box giving a short ‘mission statement’ and outline.
Essential ingredients: An actual plan, outlining the topics covered on particular pages or sections,(not just a single-word index).
An introductory statement of the purpose of the display.
Define your parameters, e.g. say why you start and end where you do. What is the scope of the display?
Mention the key items e.g. earliest/latest dates known, rare or ‘difficult’ items (n.b. there can be an item which you know to be very scarce although you were lucky enough to find it in a dealer’s cheap box. Scarcity does not always equate to price.) It is a good idea to highlight your best items, either by giving them a coloured border, or other distinguishing sign.
A bibliography or source list showing where you found your facts. Judges may want to check up on you! Judging, by the way, can be both taxing and time-consuming as the judge(s) may have to research a subject unfamiliar to them in order to assess your offering. Your references/bibliography will facilitate this. At club/federation level, you will not have specialist judges for every discipline. Two or possibly three people will have to cover everything from pre-stamp material to obscure thematic subjects.
Finally, one or two “DON’TS”:
DON’T mount covers diagonally or sideways. If size is an issue, consider using double-width pages. This not only solves the problem but gives you extra space. (Consider: you can mount four postcards on two single sheets but you can usually mount five or six on a double sheet. Large size Registration envelopes need bigger sheets too.)
DON’T label an item ‘unique’ or worse, ‘very unique’. – Unless, of course, you can prove it…
Absolutely finally:
DON’T be intimidated or put off by any of the above. Enjoy your collection and get ready to show it off!
Postal Inflation since 1840 by Neil Ritchie
The price of sending a letter (August 2025) is £1.70 for a 1st Class letter and 87p for a 2nd Class. Let us compare what that means in terms of the cost of sending a letter today against that of our Victorian forebears.
The cost of sending a letter on the 5th May 1840, after the introduction of the Universal Penny Post, was standardized at one old penny and the proof of this payment was confirmed by the application of a penny black stamp onto the letter. Before this date the postage cost depended on the weight of the letter and the distance travelled – it was expensive; London to Sheffield at that time was 10 old pennies1. It is difficult to accurately compare these costs with modern day prices as there are a number of things that have to be take into account. The current method of calculating inflation uses an equation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI). This is easy when the start and end dates both have known CPIs, for example £1 in 1975 will need to be £2.51 in 1985 in order to buy the same commodity. As 1840 doesn’t have a CPI we would have to calculate a reasonable CPI for that date which is by no means straight forward as commodities, mortgages and other items in the basket of life are worth either relatively more or less or don’t exist. To keep things simple I use the Bank of England’s own inflation calculator2 and this indicates that £1 in 1840 has a purchasing power equivalent to £88.27 today. One old penny (a 1/240th of a pound) is 0.41p in today’s money and has therefore a present day value of 37p. So the cost of sending a 2nd class letter today is 87p and this compared to 37p in 1840 would suggest that postal inflation exceeds actual inflation. This is not surprising as the postal costs in 1840 were based on low wages, no social security and no pensions for the average postal worker. But nothing is straight forward, in 1840 the Universal Penny Post was set deliberately low so as to encourage more people to use the post for the first time, and as demand rose exponentially the Post Office’s income rose rapidly with it. However, if we compare the postal cost before May 1840 for a letter sent from London to Sheffield, costing 10 old pennies, this is now equivalent to £3.70 – so maybe there is a reasonable comparison to be made to the current postal charges? The use of sending letters through Royal Mail is currently declining so will the cost of sending a letter soon be comparable with pre-1840?
1 For those interested the pre-1840 London to Sheffield postage rate is shown in “A List of Post-Towns and Principal Places; with the Postage of a Single Letter to or from London, According to the Actual Routes of the Post” published in March 1830 by Francis Freeling, the Post Office Secretary. 2 www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator
This article has been brought to you by Sheffield Philatelic Society if you wish to know more about us and our meetings please visit our website on www.sheffieldps.org.uk or email me at spspresident25.27@gmail.com