Midpex 2001

Held at the Tile Hill centre for the disabled near Coventry England on 30th June from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Midpex, the UK's specialist societies show was attended by the BSRP.

Our display included an extract from "Twilight of Empire 1858-1925" a display by Marcus Sherwood-Jenkins, Russian Railway stations -postmarks and postcards by George Henderson, a Zemstvo display by terry Page and a nice selection of Imperial arms issues. The idea was to produce an eye-catching display that would hold interest both for the newcomer and the seasoned Russian specialist. 
display extract 1 
display extract 2 

The exhibit gave a good indication of the width and breadth of Russian philately, containing rare covers, attractive covers and postcards, errors and varieties, Cinderella material and a whole lot more. We had quite a number of enquiries from members of the public and other societies and those manning the stand were kept busy answering questions and interpreting Russian postal items, it was gratifying to know that we managed to answer all enquiries and send away a lot of satisfied customers, hopefully one or two will be going us soon.

As regards the show itself this was attended by a large number of dealers. Most were for some strange reason GB an Commonwealth dealers, strange when the event was for specialist societies and covered everything from Japan to Hungary and back. However as always a good search of the boxes turned up some interesting covers amongst which were:

• A letter to the Tsarevich's English Tutor (sold simply as a Doplatit mark much to my delight) 
• Three first world war charity label covers (soldiers kopeck, French/Russian ally stamps)
• A couple of 1870's fiscal documents 
• A PB2 cover franked with a mix of Victorian, Edwardian and George V English stamps

Needless to say these were all snapped up by the various members attending.

© 2001 the BSRP