The South African Collectors’ Society
David Feldman “Swakopmund” Collection
Geneva-based David Feldman has an amazing range of southern African stamps and postal history in its Spring Auction 26 May – 1st June 2025. To access their catalogue and preview some of their wonderful offerings, click here.
Auction 62 is now Open
Auction 62 is open for bidding. There is a wide range of material including some interesting items from the Anglo-Boer / South African War. Take a look! There’s much to enjoy and learn from even if you are not bidding. Click here to view the Auction.
SACS Meeting: Letchworth 12/04/2025
Three stellar displays, two from Nick Harris on the Mafeking / Ladysmith Sieges and British Overseas POW camps and Danna Strydom’s great strength in pre-war ZAR overprints and other items, revealed some glorious philatelic treasures. Click here to read more.
Ladysmith Siege Postcards
A wonderful Zoom meeting of the new SA Postcard Interest Group treated us to the subject of Siege of Ladysmith Postcards. This resulted in two unique and long unseen examples being revealed to us by Nick Harris of the Anglo-Boer War Philatelic Society. Click here to read more.
New Zoom Activities for Collectors
SACS member Adél Bulpitt has started ‘Philately South Africa’ and invites you to go ‘Stamping with Adél’. André du Plessis RDPSA of the PFSA has started a SA Postcard Interest Group and welcomes the participation of deltiologists (postcard collectors). Click here to read more.
Auction 61 is now closed
Auction 61 closed on 10th March 2025. Strong on Union stamps showing uncommon flaws and varieties, (see Flying Saucer, right), it included King’s Heads, Postage Dues, Revenues, Cigarette Labels and Postal History with unusual old and modern Bisects, also Empire Exhibition labels. Click here to view it with Realised Prices.
WW2 War Effort Bantams
Tony Howgrave-Graham, President of SACS, provides one of the best collections of Union of SA WW2 Small War Effort (aka ‘Bantams’) ever to be assembled. This comprehensive display of colour shades, perforations, slogans, printings, retouching, flaws, errors and varieties makes a most useful free philatelic reference work for this popular collecting area. Click here to view it.
Paleophilately: Letter from Richard Owen, London, to Sir Henry Barkly, Cape Town, 1876
Given the dearth of contributions from SACS members, this excellent article from Michael Kogan breathes welcome, if prehistoric, fresh air into our website. Its blend of science, history and philately provides a new direction for stamp collecting and postal history. Read more.
Auction 60 is now closed
Our first Auction of 2025 contained a strong range of South African Union stamps, including examples of the scarce Darmstadt Trials, left. A pre-occupation letter from General Sir David Baird, the 1806 British conqueror of the Batavian Cape, is ex-Robson Lowe. Click here to view it with Realised Prices.
Anglo-Boer War Society Meeting
The last Anglo-Boer War Philatelic Society meeting in London was an unexpected treat, an enoyable and convivial time that began with an excellent lunch followed by a discussion in which remarkable postal history was passed around for members to examine. Viewing postal history seldom gets more intimate than this. Read more.
Stampex London 2024: Well worth a visit!
Stampex, the UK’s premier philatelic exhibition in past years, has suffered criticism ever since Covid saw visitor numbers decline. It has now downsized and changed. Steve Hannath met up with Simon Peetoom, right, at Stampex and came away full of enthusiasm for an event that has rediscoverd its mojo as an unpretentious stamp fair. Read more.
SACS Meeting: Letchworth 28/09/2024
This was an upbeat meeting. Keith Perrow (Postage Dues) and new member Danna Strydom (1885 ZAR Vurtheim issue) provided an excellent start. Ian Shapiro’s Open Class display on the 1947 Royal Visit was based largely on a trove of “wonderful things” found in South Africa. Ian is seen here holding his favourite item, a letter written by Princess Elizabeth (later QE2) to her headmaster while on the White Train in SA. Read more.
PFSA President Gawie Hugo goes stamping in London
Steve Hannath took the opportunity to join Gawie and his daughter Ilse in London to enjoy some Saturday stamping while polishing up his Afrikaans and strengthening relationships between South Africa’s PFSA and the UK’s South African Collectors’ Society. Read more.
Zoom Meeting 14/09/2024 – A report on what you missed!
Tony Johnson, Editor of The Springbok and SACS Zoom Master, co-ordinated this well-attended meeting across three continents. Any distance between Hugh Amoore RDPSA in South Africa, Keith Klugman RDPSA in the USA, and Rob Lester in the UK evaporated as we joined together in Zoom time and space to celebrate SACS as the ‘Home for our Hobby’. Read more.
Our first SACS meeting in the new Kenilworth venue
Our most recent Society two-day meeting was held at the Holiday Inn, Kenilworth, on the 30th June – 1st July 2024. It was an enjoyable philatelic occassion attended by some 20 members. Most displayed material and or entered nine pages into the Abell Trophy One Frame Competition. A full report on the weekend’s proceedings with links to displays is available here.
The Union-Castle Line’s Kenilworth Castle
As befitted the new venue, Tony Howgrave-Graham, above, provided a short display on the Union-Castle mailboat, the Kenilworth Castle, (1904 – 1936). After she collided with a destroyer during WW1 some passengers and seamen took to a lifeboat that overturned in rough seas. A harrowing letter from a stoic nurse describes her terrifying ordeal in the water at night. Read more.
Ka Boom! An Exhibition Mystery Solved!
Endorsed by ZAR State President Paul Kruger, the ‘International Industrial Exhibition’ of 1896 was planned to take place in Johannesburg. Its doors never opened. The reason for its cancellation has long mystified Rob Lester, Chairman of SACS. He now has a plausible explanation for why this event never took place. Read more.
How to Quickly Detect Fake Cape Triangles
Fake Cape Triangles were largely produced as ‘space-fillers’ for old-time collectors who could not afford the real thing. Oneglia’s 1/- green ‘triangle’ shown here is one of the better examples of the forger’s craft. Fortunately, there is a quick and easy way to identify it as an obvious fake. Read more.
Affordable South African Philatelic Study Booklets
South African stamp collectors can choose from range of 42 Study Booklets, many of which are based on award-winning philatelic displays and collections compiled over many years by leading experts in their field. They are a source of expert advice and reference published by Rob and Lyn Lester on behalf of SACS. Read more.
Journal > Archive: A Great Leap Forward
Old copies of The Springbok contain a wealth of knowledge. To make this accessible we have converted scans of the earliest issues (1953 – 1961) into to a search-friendly format that allows you to find information by using search terms like ‘Bantams’ or ‘interprovincials’, etc. The philatelic wisdom of yore is now yours. Read more.
