Sometime during the late 1970s I became friends with the owner of a bookstore at the corner of North Market and Second Streets in Frederick. He dealt not only in books but also interesting bits and pieces of philatelic material. One time his son who lived in Australia sent a collection of very interesting British covers and other pieces for his father to sell as a favor to a friend. I decided they would add to my Great Britain collection without being too expensive, so I purchased the lot. At the same time I bought a copy of Section 7 (Gabon to Guinea) of the 1967 First Edition of the Higgins & Gage Postal Stationery of the World from my friend.

I am glad I invested in the H&G reference because I was able to identify the British material as well as a collection of Hitler era postal cards of Germany that I had acquired from one of our Club members.

The envelope on the cover of this issue of "The Stockbook" is found in Part B–Envelopes–and is #10. It was issued in 1890 to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of uniform British postal rates. A mint copy was valued at $1.50 with a mint copy meaning a "clean" mint copy.

Along with the catalog information was this sentence, "Note: There are also caricatures of this envelope." One can understand why.

Most of the pieces involved a Doctor Charles Hoar's practice. A good portion of his practice was giving vaccinations which meant there were official mailings and many "Certificates of Vaccination". Dr. Hoar must have been a romantic because he had sent a postal card to his wife, who was probably on a visit, with a message beginning, "Over the fields, my love, over the fields..."