| Fred Greene: Royal Mail issue honors submariners 04/07/2001 By Fred Greene / The Dallas Morning News The U.S. Postal Service honored wartime contributions of the U.S. Navy Submarine Service in 1998, when it issued the first prestige booklet of stamps depicting five submarines.
This year, it's Britain's Royal Mail that will pay homage to more than 600 British submarines that make up its "Silent Service." They have patrolled the world over for 100 years.
British submariners have won 14 Victoria Crosses and made vital contributions to the successful outcome of World Wars I and II, along with the long and tense years of the Cold War. During its 100-year span of operations, the British submarine service lost more than 5,000 men.
The new Royal Mail issue, due for release Tuesday, features four boats, each of which represents a key development in the submarine service's history.
They include the recently developed Vanguard, considered a "peace-keeping sentinel" that stays deeply submerged for long periods and carries ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads.
Also shown on stamps are Swiftsure, a typical Cold War submarine; the Unity Class submarine, a small but highly successful design introduced in 1939 and employed mainly in the Mediterranean during World War II; and the Holland Class boat, which, from a naval point of view, was the first wholly successful submarine in history. The Holland Class submarine was adopted in 1901 when the Royal Navy Submarine Service was born.
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Want some more multiple issues to add to your collection?
Coming up in April will be 10 first-class self-adhesive stamps depicting baseball's legendary playing fields. They include with their teams: Ebbets Field (Brooklyn Dodgers), Comiskey Park (Chicago White Sox), Forbes Field (Pittsburgh Pirates), Polo Grounds (New York Giants), Shibe Park (Philadelphia Athletics), Tiger Stadium (Detroit Tigers), Crossley Field (Cincinnati Reds), Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox), Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs), and Yankee Stadium (New York Yankees).
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If you really want to collect a country with a very limited new stamp program, try Greenland. This calendar year will see Greenland issuing only 15 new stamps, and this includes the finale of that country's series commemorating the Arctic Vikings of Greenland.
The third and final Viking issue includes four stamps.
Also available from Greenland Post is a souvenir 24-page brochure with color photos and the story of the Arctic Vikings. Included with the brochure are the 32 stamps and three souvenir sheets that make up the complete series.
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Postal history buffs always like to find the unusual, and a Texas Stamp Dealers Association newsletter found that in a cover with stamps from seven places: the United States, Canal Zone, Ecuador, Australia, Peru, Papua and Samoa.
There also are seven cancel date markings with the earliest being Dec. 2, 1939, and the latest May 27, 1942, a period of 21/2 years.
The owner of the cover is now trying to find out how so many stamps got so many cancels, speculating that maybe the person to whom the cover is addressed (no street address is shown, only the city and state) may have visited each of the countries to get the stamps canceled.
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TEXPEX 2001, a major philatelic event, opened Friday at the Renaissance Dallas North Hotel, Valley View Lane at Midway Road. There is no charge for admission, and parking is free.
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