Monday, October 29, 2007

Bulletins part 2

There is a second format of bulletins that I have been collecting. I call these "W Bulletins", where the W stands for White. These are single page bulletins printed on plain pieces of white paper.

The early ones are available in both English and Hebrew. This same format was used from Bulletin #1 to Bulletin #151. I have seen several varieties of paper used, from a thin, almost transparent paper to normal typing paper, to a thicker more glossy paper. For these bulletins, I am missing only a handful of the English ones, including #1, 2, 4, 6, 11, 14, 20, 23, and 31. For the Hebrew version, I am missing more, a total of 92 of the issues. If you have extras for trade, let me know. I do know that #11 is the Negev camel stamp, #14 is the UPU issue, #20 is the New Years issue of 1950, and #23 is the official stamps. These bulletins cover many more issues than the bulletins in part 1 of this blog, since there are bulletins for several Tete-Beche issues separate from the general stamps, as well as bulletins for both the Flag envelope and the Camel envelope.

Starting with bulletin #152, the format changed. A single bulletin now was printed in 4 languages, and a colored background was added to the central portion of the bulletin. The bulletin orientation also changed from portrait to landscape. This design was used through bulletin #286. One thing to note, however, is that the numbers are no longer strictly integers, as several a and b suffixes were added over the years.

Bulletin #287 started the use of a new format. The paper was cut approximately in half, and the bulletin was now printed on both sides, with the front having only a picture of the stamps, and the information being printed on the back. This format was discontinued after only a brief usage, with bulletin #308 being the last one printed in this format.

The next format, shown here on the right, is the last one I have seen used. Once again, these were single sided bulletins, with the color now restricted to the title. The stamps and descriptions are printed in a single color, but it is no longer limited to just the black ink used previously. I believe each bulletin was printed in only a single color, since I have yet to see multiple color versions of a single bulletin, but there are ones printed in black, brown, blue, and green. This last format was printed in strips of 3 consecutively numbered bulletins, I have several uncut strips of 3 in my collection. I have shown one below. Of these, I am once again missing a few, #401, 437, 442, and 460. The last bulletin I have is number #498, the 40th anniversary souvenir sheet issued in 1988. If anyone knows of ones issued later, please let me know.

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