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1999 BVI STAMP SHOW WAS A TERRIFIC
SUCCESS
- On display collections from Italy & Colonies
Study Circle & Liechtenstein Postal Museum -
Inaugural ceremony: (l to r) Mr. Gerard StC. Farara, Q.C. who delivered
welcome remarks, BVI PS President Dr. Giorgio Migliavacca,
and His Excellency Ag. Governor Mr Elton Georges
[ALL PHOTOS OF STAMP SHOW 99 are by Astrid WENZKE]
- The 8th Annual BVI Stamp Show was very successful and has been described
as a truly memorable event.
- Collectors, exhibitors and flea market participants all went home,
or to their hotels, smiling. The transactions at the flea market were boosted
by scores of enthusiastic collectors who bought and swapped phone cards,
stamps and covers. Making the event an even more special occasion was the
presence of a delegation of almost thirty members of the Italy & Colonies
Study Circle from USA, Switzerland and the United Kingdom with their spouses.
They came to Tortola to celebrate the Italy & Colonies Study Circle's
Silver Jubilee and to hold their International Meeting while enjoying a
week-long holiday in these 'treasured islands'. "It surely was a landmark
event," a visitor from the United Kingdom told The Island Sun.
-
- The exhibition itself was wonderful with frame after frame of breathtaking
material of great historic and
- philatelic importance. The inaugural ribbon was cut by His Excellency
Ag. Governor, Mr. Elton Georges who also enjoyed a guided tour of the exhibition
and showed a keen interest in the technical aspects of the hobby.
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His Excellency Ag. Governor Mr Elton Georges cutting
the inaugural
ribbon while Barclays Gen. Mgr. Mr. Charles Crane looks on; in background
at right is Rev. Fr. Peter Brannelly who gave the
invocation. Also in picture
Barclays Dep. Mgr. Nick Clark, and BVI PS vice-president
Roger Downing
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- The annual stamp show is non-competitive, but this year the public
was asked to vote for the most popular
- display. And the winner was our own Ione Cox with her 'Fauna &
Flora on Stamps'. This was not on
- technical ground or intrinsic merit, but it gave a clear indication
of what type of exhibit is deemed most
- attractive by the general public.
-
- Hundreds visited the show both on Saturday and on Sunday and despite
the catalyst effect of the flea market
- most visitors took time out to look at the exhibits. Indeed the Italy
& Colonies Study Circles had displayed
- ten magnificent collections, some of them having won gold medals at
major stamp events in Europe and
- USA. Nevertheless the BVI exhibitors defended themselves very honourably
presenting some equally
- interesting and captivating exhibits.
-
- At the closing ceremony, the raffle drawing was exhilarating and there
was great excitement when some of
- the major prizes were drawn. The winners of the Stamp Popularity Poll
were announced; more about this in
- next weekís edition. A Philatelic Banquet with over seventy
guests went off extremely well on Saturday night at Treasure Isle Hotel.
In attendance were H.E. Ag. Governor and Mrs. Georges, First Lady Mrs.
Edris OíNeal, Attorney General Hon. Dancia Penn, Q.C., House Speaker
Hon. Reuben Vanterpool, and Health, Education &
- Welfare Minister Hon. Eileene Parsons.
-
- There was general consensus that the show was bigger than ever and
that it was a huge success. Overseas
- visitors, including a sizable group from Martinique, St. Martin, Puerto
Rico and St. Thomas, agreed that a
- stamp show of this calibre has all the potential for becoming a major
attraction in the stamp world.
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