11-13 April 2025 Society Weekend at the Peninsula Hotel Guernsey
7-11 May 2025 Europhilex, NEC, Birmingham
11 May 2025 1.00pm-3.00pm Society Meeting Europhilex
17 May 2025 The 2025 Solent Regional Meeting at Chandlers Ford, Hampshire. Convener: Alan Whittaker
5 July 2025 10.00am MIDPEX, Warwickshire Exhibition Centre, near Leamington Spa (Society Stand)
12 July 2025 75th Annual General Meeting; Room Auction and Members’ displays
13 September 2025 Members’ Meeting – Postcards
29 November 2025 Members’ Meeting – Theme: Letters A, B, and/or C
Unless stated otherwise, all meetings are held at the Royal Philatelic Society London, 15 Abchurch Lane, London EC4N 7BW with meetings commencing at 11.00am. Tea and coffee is available from 10.30am in the Members’ Lounge
Please see the Society’s website at www.ciss.uk for dates of news and other events.
In accordance with our generally held belief that our collections should be dispersed in a manner to preserve them safely for the future and that they end up in the correct hands, we are pleased to advise that Heinrich Koehler, Germany’s leading auction house, will be auctioning Karl-Anton (Tony) Peters Channel Islands collections on Monday 24 March (single lots) and Wednesday 26 (balance of collections). In the course of the following weeks more and more photographs of the collections will be accessible on Heinrich Koehler’s website.
Tony is known to many of us both personally and particularly thanks to the fact that he used to be a very active researcher and publisher of articles. Today Tony lives in a retirement and care home. The link to the lots of the collections are here: 385_ChannelIslands.pdf The items will be offered in a special section of the main catalogue. The catalogue is viewable online at www.heinrich-koehler.de, and the worldwide sale of stamps and postal history will be held from 24 March to 29 March 2025.
Where is time going? So much has gone on since the December 2024 edition of Les Iles Normandes. To start with, there was the CISS’ 75th Anniversary Exhibition that was held at the Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL) on Thursday 9 January. Can I personally express my sincerest thanks to all twenty members who provided 54 frames-worth of high-class material. Feedback received from CISS and RPSL members was very positive, with many comments about the range, depth and quality of material on display.
Moving on a month, we had the 2025 Competition Day, again held at the RPSL on 8 February. On a personal note, can I express my congratulations to David Gurney FRPSL, who was awarded Honorary Life Membership of the CISS in recognition of his long-standing contributions to the Society. Please see the photograph that appears on the previous page and on the News page of the Society’s website.
As to the actual Competition Day, a special thanks needs to go to Julian Bagwell, Competition Secretary, for the smooth running of the competition. Further information about the entries and awards received will appear within the pages of this journal and are also available on the ‘Competitions’ page of the Society’s website. A big thank you also goes to Graham Winters, FRPSL, and Patrick Reid, FRPSL, who judged this year’s entries.
Soon we will be going to Guernsey for the Members’ Weekend Meeting. Still thinking of going? Full details and booking form can be found on the News page of the Society’s website.
9 January 2025 1.00pm – Anniversary Display to the Royal Philatelic Society London
8 February 2025 Members’ Meeting – Annual Competition Day and Room Auction
11-13 April 2025 Society Weekend at the Peninsula Hotel, Guernsey
7-11 May 2025 Europhilex, NEC, Birmingham
11 May 2025 1.00pm-3.00pm – Society Meeting at Europhilex
17 May 2025 The 2025 Solent Regional Meeting at Chandlers Ford, Hampshire. Convener: Alan Whittaker
5 July 2025 10.00am – MIDPEX, Warwickshire Exhibition Centre, near Leamington Spa (Society Stand)
12 July 2025 75th Annual General Meeting; Room Auction and Members’ displays
13 September 2025 Members’ Meeting – Postcards
29 November 2025 Members’ Meeting – Theme: Letters A, B, and/or C
Unless stated otherwise, all meetings are held at the Royal Philatelic Society London, 15 Abchurch Lane, London EC4N 7BW with meetings commencing at 11.00am. Tea and coffee is available from 10.30am in the Members’ Lounge
Well here we are, coming to the end of another year, and with 2025 approaching fast. For those of you who are not aware, 2025 will the Society’s 75th anniversary and to celebrate the event, the President of the Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL) has invited the Channel Islands Specialists’ Society (CISS) to provide one of the major displays at the Royal for 2025. Committee members have been busy behind the scenes putting the 54-frame exhibition together ready for Thursday, 9 January 2025, when the exhibition will be open from 1.00pm for all to view. In all, the material of twenty CISS members will be on display. As a member of the CISS you do not need to be a member of the RPSL to come along to view the material.
By the time you are reading these Secretary’s musings, I am assuming that we will have held the members’ meeting at the RPSL on Saturday 30 November, when will have been entertained by members who will be providing displays prior to the 9 January 2025 Exhibition. Can I thank all who provided exhibits, especially Alan Moorcroft and Gerald Marriner, for entertaining those members present at the Royal, and those members who could join the meeting via Zoom? A special thank you needs to go to Mark Bailey who set up the Zoom session for us.
2025 also sees the Society spreading its wings to Guernsey for its 2025 Members’ Weekend meeting at the Peninsula Hotel (11-13 April). Hopefully you have received the necessary information. It is recommended that you book as soon as you can. If you have any problems with booking your room, please contact me in the first instance.
Our first members’ meeting of 2025 will be the Annual Competition Day (8 February). I’m sure our new Competitions Secretary, Julian Bagwell, would welcome your competition entries. For full details see page 6 below or login to our website (www.ciss.uk) and click on ‘Competitions’.
As part of our anniversary in 2025 the CISS has been invited to provide a full presentation to the Royal Philatelic Society London on 9 February 2025. 54 frames of Channel Islands material will be available to view, and a handout is being produced to mark the event. All members are invited to attend. Please add the date to your diaries. Details will follow in the December Journal.
2025 subscriptions are due by 1 January and a renewal request will be sent out via email or letter in due course.
When you receive a renewal request you will find a link to allow you to pay your subscriptions via the Society website. Please use this method of payment if possible, saving our officers a good deal of admin time! If you prefer, you can pay your subscription using the same method of payment as last year but, if you pay by cheque, please send this to the CISS Treasurer, Bryan Elliston at Ragged Lands, Ranscombe Lane, Glynde, BN8 6RP.
Subscriptions will remain unchanged for 2025:
Paper membership:
UK and CI £15
Rest of World £20
Electronic membership: £10
The Society has been made aware that collections in the estates of some members who have died recently have been sold by executors who had no knowledge of the true worth of the collection. This means that the beneficiaries did not receive the best return when the collection was sold.
There are three main options for disposing of a collection:
- Sell to a private collector. However, they may only be interested in the area they collect or might want to ‘cherry pick’ the items they are interested in.
- Sell to a philatelic dealer.
- Sell via a philatelic auction house or through a specialist society’s auction.
We suggest that members might consider the following points to help in the event of their collection being sold:
- To produce a list which identifies the key or high value items and how much was paid to acquire them. This will help ensure that they are not overlooked by a valuer or dealer.
- Indicate the main sections or groupings of the collection as this will help ensure they do not get bundled together as a ‘job lot’.
- If possible, write up the important sections of your collection. Again, this helps identify the more valuable elements and makes it easier to sell. If you exhibit parts of your collection, keep the exhibit together.
- Let the executors know that they should use a member of the Philatelic Traders Society to value the collection for probate (if necessary and it may be insisted upon by the solicitor handling the execution of the will, if the collection is insured.). They have a good understanding of current market values and trends. They will charge for this, but you may have this refunded if you either sell to the valuer or, if an auction house, you sell the collection through them. Remember, auction houses charge a seller’s fee plus VAT. We suggest that you do not accept an auction house’s suggestion that they ‘Buy In’ the collection.
- If selling to a private collector it may be best to have the collection valued in advance so a fair price can be obtained.
- If the collection is large or valuable and you are a member of a specialist society such as the CISS, then your executors might wish to contact the society’s officers who can help them deal with the collection. Please note that the CISS and its officers are unable to provide valuations.
The Channel Islands Specialists’ Society has helped many spouses to obtain the best value for collections of Channel Islands material through selling it in their regular auctions. The executors should be asked to contact the Society’s Secretary for information on how this would be handled – secretary@ciss.uk.
A weekend meeting has been booked at the Peninsula Hotel, Guernsey from 11 to 13 April 2025. A flyer is enclosed with this journal with more details.
Bookings need to be made directly with the hotel as shown, but the form should be returned to Sue Winnie to help the planning for the weekend.
A form can also be found on our website which can filled in and returned online.
14 September 2024 Room auction. Themed Meeting: Letters W, X, Y and Z.
30 November 2024 Room auction. Preview display of invited members’ material for the CISS 75th Anniversary Display. A Zoom meeting will be held at 14.00 GMT. Login details will be issued in due course.
