There were many covers in the stamps both my husband and I inherited. Although we never got to sort them or really look at them, after we got married in 1972 we decided to collect South African and homeland covers. The reason for this was that the South African Post Office had an arrangement whereby you could pay money into your account and they then automatically sent the Covers when they were issued. Although there were covers from many countries, our supply of South African and African covers increased during the years after 1972.
My grandfather Marco Giordano was born in Italy in 1896. He was an avid cyclist and completed many Tours de France and in his early 40’s became a director of the RAI (Radio Audizioni Italiane), today known as Radiotelevisione italiana. From 1954 until 1965 when he died, he and my grandmother lived in South Africa in our summer and in Italy for the other months. When I left home and subsequently got married, my brothers suggested that I take over the collection as they were not interested. This was quite surprising to my husband who moved to SA from the Netherlands in 1965 as he had brought with him his father’s stamp collection because his siblings had also shown no interest in stamps.
There are two Italian covers from 1953 addressed to my grandfather. For me these two covers are very special. My most lasting memory is of his lounge (in the flat my Dad built on to the house for my grandparents), full of tables, full of stamps which he had soaked off the paper. While he was doing this, he was listening to Opera on full volume because he was rather deaf. We walked home from school in those days and when we were still about 500m from our house we could also listen to Opera. Needless to say I have never became a fan of Opera music.
It has only been since about 2015 when we joined the local Philatelic Society that we have been adding to our collection of covers. We have added many old covers, but obviously there will also be some more modern ones.
There are many types of covers, the main ones being –
Event Covers which cover a specific event (e.g. the Olympics)
Philatelic Covers which are covers with a stamp sent through the mail
The postmark is very important. This shows that the stamp has been used and cannot be used again. Since the 1970’s it has become possible to sponsor a postmark and as a result there are often pictures and/or logo’s on the postmark. Once covers became more popular, the postmark featured the theme of the stamp (this was called a cachet). This is not actually a postmark but rather a rubber stamp. The cachet helps to tell the story of the stamp. I think that is why collecting First Day and other covers has become so popular. The cover actually tells you a story.
I am going to list the countries where we have covers below and hope that you enjoy looking at our covers:
| Africa | Asia | Europe | ||
| Basutoland | Aden | Albania | ||
| Bechuanaland | Iran | Austria | ||
| Bophutatswana | China | Belgium | ||
| Botswana | Hong Kong | Czech Republic | ||
| Ciskei | India | France | ||
| Congo Kinshasa | Indonesia | Finland | ||
| Egypt | Israel | German Fed. Rep. | ||
| Ethiopia | Japan | German Dem. Rep. | ||
| Kenya, Uganda, Tang. | Laos | Germany W. Berlin | ||
| Lesotho | Malaysia | Gibraltar | ||
| Malagasy Republic | Nepal | Great Britain | ||
| Malawi | New Guinea | Greece | ||
| Mauritius | Papua New Guinea | Guernsey | ||
| Mozambique | Philippines | Hungary | ||
| Namibia | Qatar | Isle of Man | ||
| Nigeria | Singapore | Italian Colonies | ||
| Rhodesia | Taiwan | Italy | ||
| Rhodesia & Nyasaland | Thailand | Jersey | ||
| Seychelles | Vietnam | Liechtenstein | ||
| South Africa | Lithuania | |||
| South West Africa | South America | Monacp | ||
| Southern Rhodesia | Argentina | Netherlands | ||
| Swaziland | Brazil | Norway | ||
| Transkei | Colombia | Portugal | ||
| Venda | Netherlands Antilles | Poland | ||
| Zambia | San Marino | |||
| Zanzibar | Islands in the Oceans | Slovenia | ||
| Zimbabwe | Ascension | Spain | ||
| Br. Antarctic Terr. | Sweden | |||
| Central & N. America | Br. Indian Ocean Terr. | Switzerland | ||
| Cocos Islands | Trieste | |||
| Antigua | Kiribati | Turkey | ||
| Grenadines of St. V | Tristan da Cunha | United Nations | ||
| Montserrat | Vatican | |||
| St Vincent | ||||
| USA | Australia | New Zealand | ||
| Virgin Islands | ||||
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