South Africa – Willem's Planet

March 31, 2025

Monday/ railway parcel stamps

Railway parcel stamps were used in South Africa for many decades: in the four colonies before they became the Union of South Africa in 1910, and all the way through to the early 1980s. (By the mid-1980s, commercial courier services had stepped into the parcel delivery market).

These stamps were used to record the cost of the conveyance of a letter or parcel by rail. They are only documented in specialized stamp catalogues and information about them is hard to find online. I thought I should see what the AI chatbot from Chat GPT could help me with.

The results were interesting, and shows that one should not just accept results presented by Chat GPT as fact.

Let’s start with a scan of a railway parcel stamp that I submitted to Chat GPT, and go from there.

Impressive, all of the information provided by the AI chat bot, just by looking at the scan of the stamp. So far so good.

So now! I thought: let’s explicitly ask about the abbreviations overprinted onto the stamps— abbreviations for the railway station name*, at which the package was accepted and paid for.
Chat GPT does come up with the railway station names (above) for the abbreviations that I had submitted, **but there is a problem ..**
*This was a test for Chat GPT, or for confirming what knew for most of the abbreviations already. It took a lot of legwork to arrive at the railway station names for the abbreviations. For example, one can look at railway station maps and name lists, or look at the cancellation marks on the stamp (which could be extremely faint, and offer only tantalizing clues as to the railway station name since only a few letters or parts of letters would be visible on the stamp).

Here I am chiding the Chat GPT bot, and providing the information that I had arrived at. The chatbot is eating a little humble pie, apologizing for presenting the first run of results with such confidence and not indicating that some of the first results were pure speculation on its part.

I also attempted to have Chat GPT read and list all the station names from this high-resolution scan of a 1900s hand-drawn map of railway lines and station names, but it could not do it. (Said the text was too small and not legible).

Part of another map of the railway station infrastructure in South Africa (in the 1920s).

Even modern maps and diagrams of the South African railway network are hard to come by, but I did find schematics like these. The problem is that many of the smaller railway stations from the 1970s and 1980s had been closed down, and do not even appear on these newer maps.

This is a railway parcel stamp with the abbreviation BO that took me several hours to decipher.
The key is the upside down cancellation in purple ink, offering clues to the railway station name at the very edges of the stamp. I am sure the letters stand for BRANDFORT, a railway station for a tiny little town in the Free State. The train station is no longer in use.

Here is my collection of South African railway parcel stamps, so far.

March 30, 2025

Sunday/ a printing plate flaw

Can you spot the Cape gannet (sea bird) that looks a little different from the other seven, in the block of stamps below?
There was a flaw in the printing plate for this sheet of 5c stamps from 1974.
On one of the stamps, some of the gray and blue ink is missing.

From the Second Definitive Issue set of stamps (Birds, Fish and Flowers) for the Republic of South Africa
Issued Nov. 11, 1974
Design: Ernst de Jong |Perf. 12½ |Engraving & Photolitho. |Phosphorized paper |No wmk
SA Color Catalogue #363 |5c |Multicolored |Cape gannet (Morus capensis)

March 29, 2025April 1, 2025

Saturday/ †Johann de Lange (1959-2025)

I learned today that South African Afrikaans poet, short story writer, and critic Johann de Lange had passed away on Thursday.

I made an attempt below to translate a poem from his debut collection of poetry that appeared in 1982. It was titled ‘Akwarelle van die Dors’ (‘Watercolors of the Thirst’) and he was awarded the Ingrid Jonker prize in 1983, the first of many prizes awarded for his writing.

Aardlief
Eendag word ek wel weer joune, oerbeminde:
word my hande en my oë jòù hande en jòù oë,
gee ek die handvol geleende stof aan jou terug,
ou selfsugtig, word ek joune van kop tot tone.
– Johann de Lange, uit sy debuutbundel ‘Akwarelle van Die Dors’ (1982)

Earthly love
Surely one day, will I become yours again, primal beloved:
will my hands and my eyes become your hands and your eyes,
return the handful of borrowed dust to you,
old selfish one, becoming yours from head to toe.
– A rough translation into English

March 23, 2025March 23, 2025

Sunday/ more revenue stamps

Here are the three sets of South African revenue stamps that followed on to the two sets that I had posted about earlier in March.

The last of South Africa’s revenue stamps were issued in 2008.
The use of revenue stamps on contracts and other legal documents was discontinued in March of 2009.

March 11, 2025March 12, 2025

Tuesday/ revenue stamps

Revenue stamps are stamps used to designate collected taxes and fees. They are issued by governments, national and local, and by official bodies of various kinds. They take many forms and may be gummed and ungummed, perforated or imperforate, printed or embossed, and of any size.
[From Wikipedia]

A little background first:
South Africa was officially the Union of South Africa until May 31, 1961, when it gained independence from the United Kingdom and became the Republic of South Africa. The currency system for the Union of South Africa was changed a few months prior, on Feb. 14, 1961.
On this day, the South African pound was replaced by the rand at a rate of one £SA = two Rand.

My sets of revenue stamps from South Africa for the periods 1954-60 (when it was still the Union of South Africa) and 1961-68 (the Republic of South Africa) are almost complete.
(Several other sets of revenue stamps were issued, but South Africa stopped using revenue stamps altogether in 2009).

Revenue stamps are similar to the postage stamps issued in South Africa during this time: printed on watermarked and gummed paper sheets, perforated and with increasing denominations in the set.

A big difference:
the highest denomination for a postage stamp issued for the time was
10 shillings (1954-60) or
R1 (1961-68),
while the highest denomination of a revenue stamp issued for the same period was
£100 (1954-60)— 200 times more, or
R200 (1961-68)— also 200 times more !

Revenue stamps with denominations in pennies (d), shillings (‘-) and pounds (£).
A reminder: in the old British currency system (and in South Africa’s), there were 12 pennies to a shilling, and 20 shillings to a pound.

Strange, I thought at first, that there is a R1.25, R1.50 and R4 denomination in this series and not say, a R5.
Then I realized they are conversions of the penny, shilling and SA pound denominations from the 1954-60 set of revenue stamps into Rand:
R 1.25 for 12 shillings 6 pence,
R 1.50 for 15 shillings,
R2 for 1 pound, and
R4 for 2 pounds.

Let’s put the 3 penny revenue stamp from the Union of South Africa under the magnifying glass. There is the coat of arms of the Union of South Africa, with symbols for the four colonies (Cape Colony, Natal Colony, and the Boer republics of the Transvaal Colony and Orange River Colony) represented on the badge in the center.
At the bottom is the Latin phrase EX UNITATE VIRES, formerly used as the national motto of South Africa. It was originally translated as “Union is Strength” but was later revised in 1961 to mean “Unity is Strength”.
Finally, right below the UNITATE is a tiny 57 printed in green, the year of issue of this particular stamp (1957).

March 3, 2025March 4, 2025

Monday/ the eighth definitive issue

Here they are, the control blocks of South Africa’s eighth definitive issue of postage stamps.

It turned out that my blank album pages outfitted with three vertical pockets, were the right size to the millimeter for the height of the blocks.
So I went with a layout that tiled the smaller blocks sideways onto the page.
(I am still deciding if I like it).

The full sheet of 5c stamps is a reprint of the original 2010.10.27 issue (dated 2011.09.01). Reprints of the other original prints exist, which I don’t have— and that’s O.K.

March 2, 2025March 3, 2025

Sunday/ control blocks

The FedEx envelope that contained my shipment of stamps from South Africa was marked ‘Extremely Urgent’.
Well, it wasn’t really (extremely urgent), I thought, and it’s amazing that modern logistics can make land to my porch in a matter of days, that what I had bought online from a location 10,000 miles away.

These are called control blocks: blocks of four or six stamps in the corner of the sheet, with the sheet margins intact. If you are lucky, the margins contain the date the sheet was printed, and other details.

The downside is that these take up an enormous amount of space in an album that is made of them. For now, I am collecting only the blocks of the so-called definitive issues of stamps. Unlike commemorative stamps, which are issued for brief periods in limited quantities, are usually issued in larger quantities and used over many years.

From 1961 to 2020, the South African Post Office issued eight definitive series of postal stamps.

Control blocks from—
South Africa’s Fifth Definitive Series (Succulents), issued 1988-93;
South Africa’s First Definitive Series (the ‘Pouring Gold’ 2c stamp), issued 1961-74;
South Africa’s Seventh Definitive Series (Colorful South Africa), issued 2000-’07.

Control blocks from—
South Africa’s Sixth Definitive Series (Threatened Fauna), issued 1993-96;
South Africa’s Seventh Definitive Series (Colorful South Africa), issued 2000-’07.

Control blocks from—
South Africa’s Second Definitive Series (Flowers, Birds & Fish), issued 1974-77;
South Africa’s First Definitive Series (the ‘Groot Constantia Wine Estate’ 2½c stamp), issued 1961-74.

Control blocks from—
South Africa’s Eighth Definitive Series (South African Beadwork), issued 2010-18;
South Africa’s Seventh Definitive Series (Colorful South Africa), issued 2000-’07;
South Africa’s Sixth Definitive Series (Threatened Fauna), issued 1993-96.

February 15, 2025February 15, 2025

Saturday/ all the proteas

Check them out— the lineup of proteas that adorned the third definitive issue of postage stamps in the Republic of South Africa.

The 6-pocket blank pages from Leuchtturm stamp album series allow me to select, arrange and annotate the stamps in almost any way.
Some philatelists prefer to use completely blank pages, and create individual slide-in pockets (mounts) for the stamps on the page, but for now, I think that is too much work for me.

February 14, 2025

Friday/ proteas

Happy Friday and Happy belated Valentine’s Day (the day is done).

Here is what I am working on: a complete set of the 1977 Third Definitive Issue of South Africa. All the stamps in the series depict proteas*, and there will be a second and a third page as well.

*Protea is a genus of South African flowering plants, also called sugarbushes (Afrikaans: suikerbos). It is the type genus of the Proteaceae family.
About 92% of the species occur only in the Cape Floristic Region, a narrow belt of mountainous coastal land from Clanwilliam to Grahamstown, South Africa. [Wikipedia]

In 1977, the standard postage rate was all of 5c, and that is why there are four versions of the 5c stamp. The have different perforations, and were printed on different types of paper. I will explain all of it when I post the completed set!

February 8, 2025February 9, 2025

Saturday/ any conflict of interest?

Cartoon from today’s edition of South African newspaper Die Burger (“The Citizen”).
Yes, there is such a thing as a ‘special government employee’ (18 U.S.C. § 202) ..
but is it OK to be a special government employee and CEO of SpaceX, CEO of Tesla and CEO of X (formerly Twitter)*— all at the same time?

*Over the past 16 years, Elon Musk’s business deals with the government total nearly $20 billion, according to federal contracting data.
– Rachel Barber reporting for USA Today on Nov. 15, 2024

**“Boys, I am trying to hijack a democracy. Any tips?”**
(On speakerphone: Ajay, Atul, and Rajesh “Tony” Gupta, brothers famous for their vast corruption of South Africa’s government and theft of billions of South African rand from the state coffers and state-owned companies. The portrait on the wall behind them is of disgraced South African president Jacob Zuma that was in office 2009-2018 and played a central role in enabling the crimes of the Guptas— now widely known as ‘state capture’.)
Side comment from the angry hippopotamus: “Seems to me tariffs do not apply to state capture as export product”.

February 7, 2025February 7, 2025

Friday/ a collection of succulents

Happy Friday.
Welcome to today’s South African stamp project.

I culled the set of stamps on this page from a thousand or so that I had removed from envelope paper clippings.
(A lot of work, done earlier this week: dunk them in water, carefully separate the stamp from the paper, dry on paper towel, and press under a stack of books).

My Scott stamp catalogue confirmed that these stamps are all worth hardly-anything.
One exception: there is a Standardised Mail stamp (the first one on the page), with the fine black text double-printed, that is listed for US$136. (I found no such stamp in the ones I had).

Postmarks and shades of South Africa’s fifth definitive issue.
These are all multicolored, and my catalog does not list any shaded varieties, even though it seems to me it could: say—
7c bright colors and 7c dull colors;
21c olive-green and 21c blue-green;
35c blue-gray and 35c gray;
R1 brownish-green and R1 green.

**1988-1993 Fifth Definitive Issue (Succulents), South Africa**
Issued Sept. 1, 1988
Perf. 14×14¼ |Design: Hein Botha |Phosphorized paper| Lithography |No Watermark
903 Standardised Mail (45c) (’93) Multicolored Stapelia grandiflora
782 1c Multicolored Huernia zebrina
783 2c Multicolored Euphorbia symmetrica
784 5c Multicolored Lithops dorotheae
785 7c Multicolored Gibbaeum nebrownii
786 10c Multicolored Didymaotus lapidiformis
787 16c Multicolored Vanheerdea divergens
809 18c (’89) Multicolored Faucaria tigrine
788 20c Multicolored Conophytum mundum
833 21c (’90) Multicolored Gasteria armstrongii
789 25c Multicolored Cheiridopsis peculiaris
790 30c Multicolored Tavaresia barklyi
791 35c Multicolored Dinteranthus wilmotianus
792 40c Multicolored Frithia pulchra
793 50c Multicolored Lapidaria margaretae
794 90c Multicolored Dioscorea elephantipes
795 R1 Multicolored Trichocaulon cactiforme
796 R2 Multicolored Crassula columnaris
832 R5 (’90) Multicolored Anacampseros albissima
Note: this set includes a 1c, 2c, 5c and 10c coil stamp, which is not listed above. Interestingly, of all the hundreds of mail pieces I had, none had a coil stamp on. (Coil stamps are sold in a long strip that is rolled into a coil).
[Source: Stampworld.com]

January 26, 2025January 31, 2025

Sunday/ postmarks from S.W.A.

I sifted through a shoebox of envelope clippings to put together this set of postmarks from South West Africa*.

Windhoek is the capital, and the postmarks also show Keetmanshoop, Outjo, Koes, Maltahöhe, Okahandja, Oranjemund, Walvis Bay, Okaukuejo, Tsumeb, Kalkrand, Mariental, Swakopmund, Grootfontein, Karibib, Leonardville, Lüderitz, Omaruru, Otjiwarongo, Usakos, Aus and Stampriet.

*South West Africa became Namibia after its independence from South Africa in March 1990.

January 22, 2025January 31, 2025

Wednesday/ additions to my album

Is a stamp collection— any collection— ever complete?
One can always add objects that are ever-so-slightly different than the ones already in there.

Check out these additions to my South African stamp album, which is already a complete collection of all the issues by the South African post office*.

*The years 1910 to 2020, when the last postage stamps were issued.
Iceland stopped producing postage stamps in 2020 as well, and Finland has indicated it may soon follow suit.

I don’t carry whole stamp booklets in my stamp album, but these cute “razor blade” booklets with the art deco-ish fonts on their covers fit into the narrow plastic pockets that normally carry stamps, and voila! they are now part of my collection.
“Post your letters during the lunch hour” instructs the booklet on the back. Cute— but in 2025 we don’t really have lunch hours and definitely no letters to put in the mail anymore; a time now long gone

I modeled this page on a preprinted page I found online, of German stamp album producer Leuchtturm (hence the German descriptions for the colors, which I kept as-is, just for fun).

For an unknown reason, this is the only stamp in the series with a “hatched up” version of the text on the stamp (the “RSA 4c”, made up of stripes that go up from left to right), as well as a “hatched down” version.
Are they really different stamps? Of course they are.

One more example of a slight variation in one of the issues.
The 30c stamp in this series was printed on phosphorescent as well as non-phosphorescent paper, and therefore the two versions are also different stamps!
(I only had a pair of these stamps— no singles— and I don’t break up pairs, so the pair goes into the album as-is).
All other stamps in the series were printed on phosphorescent paper only.
One needs a UV-light to see the difference.

January 18, 2025January 31, 2025

Saturday/ from South Africa to Seattle

The mailman delivered all my mail that they had held while I was gone, today.
There were the usual pieces of junk mail, and a few items I had purchased on Ebay just before I left.

Check out this envelope that was sent from South Africa to Seattle in 1929.
As a rule, I don’t collect envelopes— just stamps— but this one was too interesting to pass up.

The sender from South Africa put a single 1927 one-penny stamp on the envelope that was bound for Seattle. We can make out that the mail was sent in 1929, but the postage due stamps hide from where in South Africa the envelope was mailed.
Upon its arrival on U.S. shores in New York City, US Postal Services levied 4c of additional postage on the piece of mail (the two red stamps on the left).
I imagine that Mrs. Nightingale received her mail in Seattle some time later, after paying the 4c postage that was due.

P.S. As of today, the cost of a standard “First-Class Mail” letter (up to 1 ounce) is $0.73 with a Forever stamp. **The 73c is almost exactly what 4c from 1929 would came to, with inflation figured into it.**

And here is the destination of that piece of mail: the University National Bank building located in the University District at 4502 University Way NE.
This neo-classical building was completed in 1912. Wells Fargo used to occupy the building, but closed its branch there in 2018.
The building was sold to Hunters Capital in fall of 2020.
The main space inside the building has since been turned into a gym dedicated to indoor climbing (a so-called bouldering gym).
[Photo from seattle.gov, and taken around 1925]

January 13, 2025January 14, 2025

Monday morning/ Munich bound

It was time on Monday morning to squeeze everything into my suitcases and backpack, and head for Cape Town International Airport to catch the Lufthansa flight to Munich.

Two views from my hotel room window: from sunset Sunday night, and from early Monday morning.
In the distance, the mountains are from left to right: Table Mountain, Lion’s Head and Signal Hill.

January 13, 2025January 14, 2025

Sunday/ in Stellenbosch

My brother and I ran out to Stellenbosch University (our alma mater) on Sunday.
We stopped at the Faculty of Engineering, at Dagbreek Men’s Residence and at the Neelsie Student Centre.

A major remodeling of the main wing of the Faculty of Engineering is underway.

The buildings for the individual departments of the Faculty of Engineering look a little different from 40 years ago, with lettering and new windows. The engineering library is now called the ‘knowledge center’ (Afr. kennissentrum). Hmm.

A little house remodeled into offices, across from the Faculty of Engineering.

Here’s Victoria Street in summer time, with the trees a neon green, and the sky azure blue. The historic dormitories of Stellenbosch University as well as administrative buildings are found here.

The tennis courts where I had spent countless hours playing on as a student, are still there, as is **Helshoogte Men’s Residence**, and **Simonsberg mountain** in the distance.

The **Neelsie Student Centre** is quiet now, but will be abuzz with students come February when the new academic year gets underway.

**Red Square*** (Afr. Rooiplein) with its sun dial.
*Officially, it is the Jan Marais Square. A long time ago, though, students jokingly started calling the Administration Building nearby the ‘Kremlin’ because the notice boards (where exam results and class marks were pinned up) would declare their fate as a students. So this is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the main city square in Moscow that is the real Red Square.

January 12, 2025January 12, 2025

Saturday/ around Mossel Bay

It was time to drive back from Plettenberg Bay to Cape Town on Saturday.
I stopped at my uncle and aunt in Mossel Bay, and took a few pictures around downtown and the beaches.

The town of **Mossel Bay** lies on a outcrop called The Point, about 2 hours’ drive west from Plettenberg Bay. This is where Portuguese mariner and becoming the first European navigator to round the southern tip of Africa.
In recent years it has become a very popular destination for retirees and for younger people moving from South Africa’s northern provinces to the Western Cape province.

Here’s the sands and calm waters of **Santos Beach** that has just a hint of surf.

The boat and water sport enthusiasts hang out on the other end of the beach, where there is a **launch ramp** for fishing boats and other craft.

The ‘**Stone Church**‘ (Afr. Klipkerk) of the Dutch Reformed Church on Church St in downtown.
The cornerstone was laid in 1878 and the church was consecrated in 1880.

Further down on **Church Street** the blue water of the bay come into view.

The **Prince Vintcent Building** on Bland Street dates back to 1901. It hosts architects offices, cafes, bakeries and studios.

The St Blaize Terrace building from 1909 is on Marsh Street near The Point.

Nearby is this beautiful building for **the old The Point High School** (which now houses **Milkwood Primary School**).
Keating & Co did the construction, also in 1909. The stones were quarried in the hills and transported with cocopans on the rails to the school. Different stones were used: dark pink stones contrasts with the sandstone around the windows.

This tide pool is across from **The Point Caravan Park**.

January 10, 2025January 10, 2025

Friday/ Jukani wildlife sanctuary

These pictures are from our visit to Jukani wildlife sanctuary this morning.

The encampments are reasonably large, and in almost all cases the animals are from zoos or from situations where they will no longer survive in the wild.

Animals in the pictures: Burchell’s zebra, springbok, lion, mountain lion, Siberian tiger, caracal, brown hyena.