The new “Marianne” in common use at the Autumn Philatelic Fair

The new commonly used stamp “Marianne”, unveiled by the President of the Republic on Tuesday October 7 at the Boulazac Postage Stamp and Fiduciary Values ??Printing Office, near Périgueux (Dordogne), will be put on sale ahead of time. premiered at the Autumn Philatelic Fair, organized by the Chambre syndicale des négociants et experts en philatélie (CNEP) from November 8 to 11 at Espace Champerret, in Paris. An event which should mobilize collectors in France… well, those who can free themselves from their professional obligations, since this show closes its doors on Friday at the end of the afternoon…

Especially since there is no shortage of distinctive variations of this “Marianne”:

– 13.92 euros, booklet of twelve “Marianne de l’avenir” stamps (3.5 million copies);

– 1.16 euros, roulette stamp (not vertically serrated), from a roulette of 300 stamps (348 euros per entire roulette);

– 11.60 euros, distributor book of ten stamps (100,000);

– 2.95 euros, gummed “Service plus” stamp (sheets of forty);

– 2.95 euros, self-adhesive “Service plus” stamp (sheets of forty);

– 17.70 euros, book of six “Service plus” stamps;

– 2.95 euros, gummed “Service plus” roulette stamp;

– 2.95 euros, self-adhesive “Service plus” roulette stamp;

– 1.80 euros, gummed “International Letter” stamp (sheets of fifty);

– 1.80 euros, self-adhesive “International Letter” stamp (sheets of fifty);

– 10.80 euros, booklet of six “International Letter” stamps;

– 0.05 euro, brown stamp (mintage: 100,000);

– 1 euro, timbre orange (100 000) ;

– 5 euros, indivisible sheet of one hundred self-adhesive stamps at 0.05 euros (mintage: 100,000);

– 100 euros, indivisible sheet of one hundred 1-euro self-adhesive stamps (mintage: 100,000);

– 6.96 euros, “Marianne of the Future” block containing the five values ??(150,000 copies);

– 5 euros, pre-stamped card (5,500 copies), “not sold on the Laposte.fr website”;

– 10 euros, philatelic souvenir containing two blocks (mintage: 25,000).

– 13.92 euros, booklet of twelve stamps, “Salon philatelique d’Automne” cover (100,000);

– 5.28 euros, pack of three distributor stamps at 1.16 euros, 1.80 euros and 2.32 euros (7,500, sold on site, not available for sale on Laposte.fr).

For the rest, entry to the Philatelic Fair may well be free!…It’s hard not to think of La Fontaine’s fable about The Goose That Lays the Golden Eggs…

Indeed, this 76th show is an opportunity for La Poste to put on sale a “preview” of stamps for 415.47 euros, not counting the variations of the new “Marianne”!… This total certainly includes three booklets of common use “Marianne” with original covers, as well as productions which are aimed at the most discerning collectors, such as these stamp sheets of the old model of “Marianne” of common use “Letter verte” and “ International Letter” presented as “the last sheets printed in 2023 and 2022” (for 206 euros all the same), after the arrival of the new “Marianne”…

Here are the details of these shows (whose aesthetic goes in all directions) on pre-sale at the Show from this Wednesday, November 8, on general sale on Monday, November 13. The more modest editions of the philatelic diary and the commonly used “Marianne” notebooks will attract the attention of the most speculators.

– Stamped poster showing a block of four stamps from the XII Congress of the Universal Postal Union of 1947, designed and engraved by Pierre Gandon (1899-1990): 28 euros (7 euros x 4). Circulation: 14,000 copies.

– “Victory of Samothrace” block, reprint of the stamp published in 1937: 4 euros x 6 (24 euros). Circulation: 40,000 copies.

– “Philagenda 2024”, diary containing a special stamped block, numbered, containing four stamps published in 1952, with a new value (1.16 euros x 4): 17.90 euros. Circulation: 10,000 copies. A way of making something new out of something old for these last three “products”.

– “Marianne l’engagee” sheets, one hundred copies of the green “Letter Verte” permanently valid stamp (116 euros) and fifty copies of the purple “Letter Internationale” stamp (90 euros), drawing by Yseult Digan (YZ), engraving by Elsa Catelin. The last ones printed for this model… We don’t know the edition…

– Sports block case, containing the five blocks of “Sport color passion” stamps issued from 2019 to 2023. the four blocks issued from 2019 to 2022 are already canceled on November 8, 2023, only the one from 2023 is new: 17 euros . Circulation: 10,000 copies.

– “Maria Callas 1923-1977”, 1.80 euro stamp. Graphic design: Florence Gendre based on a photo by Jerry Tiffany. Circulation: 480,000 copies. Issued in sheets of fifteen, illustrated margins.

– “Robert Nanteuil (1623-1678)”, 1.16 euros. Magnificent portrait drawn by Sarah Lazarevic, engraved by Pierre Albuisson, printed in intaglio in sheets of twelve with illustrated margins. Circulation: 495,000.

– “Commander René Mouchotte (1914-1943)”, 8.75 euros, airmail stamp designed by Pierre-André Cousin, engraved by Elsa Catelin, printed in offset/intaglio in sheets of twelve with illustrated margins. Circulation: 408,000.

– “The great hours of French history. The Battle of Castillon (1453)” (“decisive victory for the French, which marks the end of the Hundred Years’ War”), 3.70 euros x 2 (7.40 euros), souvenir sheet drawn and engraved by Louis Stock marketer. Intaglio printing. Mintage: 320,000. Block available in the form of a philatelic souvenir in the form of a sheet sold for 8.50 euros and printed in 25,000 copies. The two stamps bear the effigy of King Charles VII (1403-1461) and the grand master of artillery Jean Bureau (1390-1463).

– “Old toys”, booklet of twelve stamps, 13.92 euros (price of the “Green Letter”). Graphic design: Christelle Guénot. Circulation: 200,000 copies. This notebook was produced in collaboration with the toy museum of Poissy (Yvelines) and Moirans-en-Montagne (Jura). The twelve objects represented illustrate children’s toys in vogue at the beginning of the 20th and during the 19th centuries, such as puppets, porcelain dolls, cup and ball, teddy bears, etc.

– “Marianne l’engagee” notebooks in everyday use, with new covers “Autumn Philatelic Fair”, “The first NFT stamp of France” and “Book of stamps 2023”, i.e. 13.92 euros x 3. Edition of each of the three notebooks: 25,000 copies.

– “Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899)”, philatelic souvenir of the “most beautiful stamp of the year 2022”, 6.50 euros, graphic design: Bruno Ghiringhelli. Circulation: 25,000.

– Collector “En route pour Paris 2024”, 9.50 euros (four stamps at the “International Letter” rate). The Phryges, official mascots of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, illustrate this collector’s edition of 40,000 copies.

– “76th Autumn Philatelic Fair. French Polynesia”, distributor stamp (LISA), 5.28 euros (pack of three stickers at 1.16, 1.80, 2.32 euros). Drawing by André Lavergne. Circulation: 7,500.

– “Personalized” stamped blocks published by the CNEP, on the themes of the Bastille station from 1859 to 1969 (creation by Aurélie Baras) and on Paul Gauguin and French Polynesia (creation by Evrard Chaussoy, artist living in Polynesia ). The stamps are at the “Green Letter” rate. Recommended retail price: 9 euros for each block. Edition: 7,000 series.

This profusion of sales makes up for the low print runs.

There, for example, where stamps at the current rate were printed in millions of copies – in 2001, 6,883,497 for “Val-de-Reuil”, 10,748,348 for “L’écureuil”, or 1 .5 million for “Saintes”, only ten years ago… –, today a “collector’s” stamp at 1.16 euros like “Robert Nanteuil” is printed in 495,000 copies.

Note that the latter is the only one at this price sold at the Autumn Philatelic Fair, La Poste preferring to market more expensive “pure collector” products.

Alain Reboulot (La Poste du village, in Rennes) explains that he recommends to his customers to no longer buy stamps from La Poste, which will be difficult to find buyers in the context of an inheritance. “Semi-moderns are bought back by traders at a quarter of the face value. »

Philatelists did not wait: of the print run of 100,000 copies of the NFT stamp launched on September 18, only a little over 25,000 were sold.

Concerning the NFT stamp, we can make a few remarks which undoubtedly have a more general scope:

– Didn’t the sale come at the wrong time? NFTs were fashionable two or three years ago, as evidenced by the success of emissions in Switzerland or Austria…

– Shouldn’t it be better to aim for a sale in October? Give the specialized press time to take up the subject? Timbres magazine, for example, did its cover on NFTimbres after their release (issue dated October).

– Was the illustration, for a first, up to par? Wasn’t the “international” vocation of the NFT stamp worth La Poste “investing” in a renowned artist (Othoniel, Combas, Di Rosa, Martial Raysse, Jérôme Mesnager, Ben, Garouste, Boisrond, etc. to whom, for some , La Poste has already appealed in the past)…

– 8 euros? Funny postal rate…

– Draw? Too important ? Shouldn’t we rather play the card of caution, with a risk of “shortage”, and with the possibility of a reprint, or a “catch-up” session for the second NFT stamp…

Communication, let’s come back to it.

This is why the editor-in-chief of L’Echo de la timbrologie for November, Sophie Bastide-Bernardin, is surprised, rather unhappy: “But where are the new covers of “Marianne”, the special notebooks (…) . None of these collectibles appear in the communication file that Philaposte circulated, very late, about the 2023 edition of this event! »

And in fact, in the pages of L’Echo de la timbrologie supposed to announce in detail the program of the Autumn Philatelic Fair, there is nothing on the stamped poster which shows the stamp of the XIIth Congress of the Universal Postal Union in Paris in 1947 , nothing about the “last sheets of “Marianne l’engagee””, the new covers of current notebooks or the “sports block cases”… And let’s not talk about the new “Marianne of the future”!

For his part, the editor-in-chief of November’s Timbres magazine, Michel Melot, faced with the same communication problem, moves forward a little quickly: “Exit the poster, hello the agenda”!… And no, it will be the two !

Before “paying” for the “Sport block case”, “case containing the five blocks of SPORT Couleur Passion stamps issued from 2019 to 2023, according to the Philaposte press release that it recalls. The four blocks issued from 2019 to 2022 will be canceled on November 8, 2023, the 2023 block will not be canceled.”

Michel Melot notes that the “case” “is sold for 17 euros for a print run of 10,000 copies. If we add up the face value represented by the stamps constituting the blocks, we arrive at 45.90 euros! Would the Post Office sell at a loss? Of course not. She can sell the postmarks at whatever price she wants. The stamps in the block (which are not canceled) represent 1.80 euros x 6 = 10.80 euros and are to be subtracted from the total price of the case. The four canceled blocks are then worth 6.20 euros [at the price of paper since they have no postage value]. And if we continue with the same reasoning, the canceled blocks are each only worth 6.20 euros: 4 = 1.55 euros, which is a pittance. Catalog publishers like Yvert and Tellier price canceled blocks at 15 to 19 euros… That’s ten times more than their postal “price”! Are the catalogs “going to be obliged to add a line for each block from 2019 to 2022 like: with postmark of November 8, 2023… 1.55 euros? », rightly observes Mr. Melot.

A way to sell stocks that are low! “We didn’t know La Poste wanted to annihilate the value of a philatelic product, whether new or canceled,” he concludes.

A word finally to point out the activities offered by the Autumn Philatelic Fair: visitors will be able to purchase the latest novelties from the postal administrations – French Polynesia, Monaco, Switzerland, United Nations French Southern and Antarctic Lands, Wallis and Futuna, Saint -Pierre-et-Miquelon –, and find the nuggets they are missing from the forty or so specialized traders.

In addition to exhibition panels devoted to French Polynesia, the postal history of Tahiti, military airmail and opera singers around the world, collector and “postman” Luc Mangin will present his collection dedicated to cryptostamps – nearly three hundred coins, issued by twenty-six posts around the world.

Members of the Academy of Philately will speak on November 10 in conferences which may interest a wide audience on the French posts on the island of Rhodes (Jean-Bernard Parenti), the catapulted mail from the Ile-de- France (Bertrand Sinais), the origin of notebooks (Gérard Gomez), etc.

Finally, stamp artists will be present for signing sessions of their works.