Sunday, June 30, 2013


The World's most valuable Cinderella?



First Aerial Post Cinderella.


Billy Hughes was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923. In 1919, Hughes and former Prime Minister Joseph Cook travelled to Paris to attend the Versailles peace conference. He remained away for 16 months, and signed the Treaty of Versailles on behalf of Australia – the first time Australia had signed an international treaty.
After meeting the Australian Flying Corps pilots (from World War 1), the idea of an Air Race took hold in  Billy Hughes’ mind as he was keen to promote air travel and air mail delivery to Australia.
The Air Race was announced in March 1919. The rules were simple: British aircraft; Australian pilots; Departure after September 8th and trip to take no longer than 30 days.
Prize money : £10 000 ( Equivalent to about 1.5 to 4.5 million dollars in today’ money; depending how it was spent)
The competitors: Despite the obvious dangers, this air race appealed to some airmen, not yet discharged, who were awaiting repatriation home. There were plenty of war surplus aircraft available and six crews eventually took part. However, only two crews finished.  One within the stipulated 30 days and the other  in 206 days ( they were awarded a consolation prize of  £1000 )
* NOTE: a full account of this race can be found in  a great book:  Australia's Greatest Air Race by Nelson Eustis.


Blue 7c W M Hughes



Australian Prime Ministers Booklet Stamps
· Issued 8th march 1972.
· Recess Printed on paper lithographed off-white
· Issued as booklets.
· Each pane of 5 stamps and 1 descriptive tab.
· Designed by J. Santry

The Flight

In a Vickers Vimy bomber;  Captain Ross Smith, his brother Lieutenant Keith  Smith  (as assistant pilot and navigator) and two mechanics  Sergeants W. H. Shiers and J. M. Bennett, took off from Hounslow, England, on 12 November 1919 bound for Australia.
Flying conditions were extremely poor and most hazardous from the start!  They were caught up in a blizzard  and almost froze to death just flying from England to France; from then on things seemed to get worse!
They were hounded by bad weather, poor visibility, poor landing and taking off conditions at almost every stop. They almost had head on crashes with mountains hidden in mist or rain on at least two occasions. A poor landing-area at Singora and torrential rain almost brought disaster. Disaster again almost came at Sourabaya where the aircraft was bogged and had to take off from an improvised airstrip made of 350 yards bamboo mats, laid down by 200 natives!
In Singapore, the only place that they could land was in a race course, which was much too short. Sergeant Bennett had to climb out of the cockpit and slide down to the tail so that it would sink in on landing and act as a brake! 
Nevertheless on 10 December they landed in Darwin, Australia. The distance  they had covered was 11 340 miles It took just under 28 days with an actual flying time of 135 hours at an average speed of 85 m/h Both Ross and Keith were  knighted; Sergeants W. H. Shiers and J. M. Bennett, were commissioned and awarded Bars to their Air Force Medals,.
The £10 000 prize money was divided into four equal shares


 Aviation Feats.
· Issued 29th August 1994.
· Intaglio by C. Slania
· Set of 4: 45c x2; $1.35 and $ 1.80
· 45c Ross and Keith Smith and Vickers Vimy bomber


The wrong 'stamp' & the Cinderella

Now come the series of events and misunderstanding that led to the issuance of the “ most valuable Cinderella in the world”:
10th December 1919 - Ross Smith speaks to Prime Minister Billy Hughes and tells him that they had flown in special mail for the occasion and would it be possible to issue a special stamp?
13th December 1919 - sends a special telegram to his office: “ CAPTAIN ROSS SMITH BEARING LETTERS STOP DESIRES ARRANGE FOR SPECIAL STAMP STOP COMMUNICATE WITH RIGHT AUTHORITIES AND ARRANGE STOP”
17th December 1919 -  The Secretary of the Post Master’s General wrote to the Prime Minister Department: “ I am to inform you that a suitable date stamp… herewith is a specimen ...please inform me when the stamp is ready”
 31st December - Prime Minister Dept. was advised date Stamp was ready  (they worked right through the holidays!!)
12th January 1920 -  Cpt. Ross Smith  sent a telegram to Billy Hughes:

“SHALL I FORWARD  YOU ALL THE LETTERS I HOLD OR HOLD THEM PENDING THE ISSUE OF SPECIAL STAMP?”

This caused the ‘penny to drop ‘in Hughes mind: Ross wanted a postage stamp not a date stamp! He was reluctant to refuse his hero anything. He immediately telegrammed back that Ross was to hold the letter till his arrival in Melbourne. He also asked how many letters were involved (to know how many stamps to print). Ross answered that he had 200 letters.
15th January 1920 -  Steps were taken to issue a Cinderella for the occasion (at the time UPU rules prohibited the use of commemorative stamps of limited postal validity.) The design of the stamp was prepared by Lt.  George Benson an official war artist  at Gallipoli.  It was printed  by lithography in deep blue from a copper half-tone block onto watermarked paper as a miniature sheet format.
27th January 1920 -  eight proofs were submitted to Prime Minister department for approval.
20th February 1920 -  576  stamps were delivered to the Prime Minister’s  department.

Just how valuable*?

The Australian Air Mail Catalogue lists the Cinderella with a CV of up to $20 000 as MNH and from $9 000 on cover.

* - Beware: Many cheap reprints of this ‘stamp’ are available on auction sites