BUFFALO THE A PHILATELIC ZODIAC INSIDE THIS ISSUE $1 00

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1 Back in 1997 Canada Post began issuing a series of stamps to mark the beginning of the Lunar New Year. So far we have seen six of the stamps in the series: 1997: Year of the Ox 1998: Year of the Tiger 1999: Year of the Rabbit 2000: Year of the Dragon 2001: Year of the Snake 2002: Year of the Horse This month we see the Ram. I am sure you have all seen the chart of the Zodiac, telling you what sign you were born under, and I am A PHILATELIC ZODIAC BY ALF BROOKS (with thanks for inspiration for the idea to Bert Brady) will recognize many collectors from the following. Rats are perfectionists who live in a state of perpetual discontent. Rat can be successful by managing to master this discontent and insistence on living for the present moment. Rats constantly search for flyspeck varieties in new issues, eternally hoping not to find them. Favourite country: Canada Oxen are persistent and idealistic, believers in high standards. They love to classify things in their lives, but see only two categories: bad and good. They carry on a continuing correspondence with Scott, Unitrade, Gibbons, Facit, Michel and all the rest, insisting that the January Volume XXXVII, No. 5 THE BUFFALO $1 00 PUBLICATION OF THE WINNIPEG PHILATELIC SOCIETY Western Canada's Oldest Stamp Club Website: sure most of you have taken home a place mat from a Chinese restaurant (and if your year of birth is not shown on the chart you have, add 12 to your year of birth until it coincides with a date on the chart). A number of months ago Bert Brady showed me a copy of the Zodiac chart with the appropriate stamps of Canada each in their proper places. The idea interested me, and I later looked for web sites that described the characteristics of people born under the twelve different signs. There are many of them, but none aimed specifically at philatelists. So, in order to correct the situation I have taken some of the information I have found and related it to stamp collectors. I am sure you catalogues standardize their colour descriptions. Tigers always strive to be in the lead and will fight to the bitter end for what they know is right. They have a natural air of authority and are always confident, at times too confident for their own good. They were the first to collect Framas and now have big collections of self-adhesives. Rabbits are famous for artistic sense and good taste. They are always well-dressed and keep all in their homes in immaculate condition They are cautious and perhaps even timid. They collect mint only; it pains them to have to mail a letter. Favourite country: Nevis-St. Kitts. continued on page 4 INSIDE THIS ISSUE A Philatelic Zodiac 1, 4 Member's Adlets 2, 6 Editor Notes... 3 Spot the Variety 11 3 Buffalo Chips 5 Dear Phil 6 Web World 6

2 THE WINNIPEG PHILATELIC SOCIETY Box 1425, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 2Z1 R.P.S.C. Chapter 86 A.P.S. Chapter 813 BOARD OF DIRECTORS President Clark Grierson 1st Vice-President Des Connor 2nd Vice-President Bob Stanley Past President Gordon Turnbull Directors-at-Large (02) Len Kruczynski Forbes Sharpe Robert Zacharias (03) Ken Kristjanson Treasurer Mike Zacharias Recording Secretary Judy Lipsey Membership Secretary Don Fraser DUTY OFFICERS Auctioneers Ken Kristjanson Sid Kroker Buffalo Editor Alf Brooks Buffalo Publisher Rick Penko Buffalo Mailing List Rick Penko Buffalo Mailing Ron DeWit Librarian Robert Zacharias Programme Chairman Bob Stanley Exhibition Chairman Des Connor Property Manager Terry Shestko Sales Circuit Managers Len Kruczynski Gerry Babij Name Badges Rick Penko Annual Dues Payable July 1st Each Year: Regular- $20.00 Senior- $15.00 Spouse - $15.00 Junior- $15.00 A spouse of a member may become a member with all the rights, privileges and responsibilities of membership, but does not receive The Buffalo. Application filed July to April Admission Fee Dues Total Regular $2.00 $20.00 $22.00 Others $2.00 $15.00 $17.00 Application filed April, May, June Regular $2.00 $25.00 $27.00* Others $2.00 $18.50 $20.50* * includes dues for following year LIFE MEMBERSHIPS $ RENEWALS Lapsed memberships or late renewals (paid after September 30th of each year) are charged a $1.00 reinstatement fee. All new applicants must undergo a 60-day orientation before receiving full membership privileges The Buffalo is published monthly except in July and August. Deadline for article submissions and advertising copy is the 15th of each month preceding the month of issue WEBSITE: 2 / January / The Buffalo COMING EVENTS 7:00 p.m. 1st & 3rd Thursdays (except Jul. & Aug.). Visitors always welcome. Main Floor, Deaf Centre Manitoba, located at the corner of 285 Pembina Hwy. & Nassau St Jan. 2 Jan. 16 Feb. 6 Feb. 20 March 6 March 20 April 03 April 17 - Presentation - Large Queens of Canada Dr. H. Duckworth - Presentation - Current Canadian Varieties Robin Harris - Presentation - Presentation The first meetings of each month reserved for Auctions. The second meetings of each month reserved for formal programs. MEMBERS' ADLETS Red River Stamp Bourse Charterhouse Hotel January 12 10:00am - 4:30pm PLEASE SUPPORT OUR MEMBER ADVERTISERS ADVERTISEMENTS Post Cards Buy Sell Trade Call (204) kards@ escape.ca P.O. Box 21090, RPO Charleswood, Winnipeg, MB R3R 3R2 Tel/Fax (204) Travel Agent Forbes Sharpe Member WPS WANTED Old Asian Covers Quality Faulty Stamps & Stamps applied to album pages Contact: THE W.P.S. IS ONLINE Buffalo Advertising Rates -1/10 page [approximately 2 1/4" x 2 3/4"] at $30 per year [10 issues]. Member s Adlet -up to 30 words [counting an average of 5 characters per word]: 1 issue - $ issues - $ issues - $3.00 CHECK US Terms of Payment -payable to Winnipeg Philatelic Society in one sum at time of agreement.

3 EDITOR NOTES... Well done, WPSers! Our Charity auction last month raised $616, all of which was given to the Salvation Army. Or, more exactly, we gave that amount and also bought some good items. And thanks to all for the varied items you contributed, with a special thanks to Canada Post for the items it contributed. And I am sure we all are awaiting that invitation from MZ to see his newly-decorated philatelic site centred around his big purchase. Speaking of auctions, arrangements are not finished for our next big one, but mark March 15 on your calendar as a tentative date. For our last auction 337 lots were offered; by my count, 164 lots did not sell, so approximately 51% of the lots did. You never can make an absolute conclusion about auctions, they can vary according to who is there to buy and the mood of the day. However, as you ready lots for our next effort, have a look and see what did sell as you select material to offer. Des Connor and his Exhibition Committee are at work organizing for our annual spring show; there are two things we as members can do to help make it a success: Say Yes when asked to help and be ready to contribute your time when the list is circulated asking for volunteers Organize an exhibit. RZ says there will be a workshop to give help as needed late in January or early in February, the exact date will be announced in due time. Bravo, Canada Post! The 2003 program is out, with Details describing the first issues of the year. Another sheet of hockey greats appears, and now you can buy a booklet of self-adhesives to make your collection complete. And then there are the stamps to honour John James Audubon. The USA issued one last year; Canada Post offers us five, with more to come in the years ahead. Thanks for the opportunity to spend. SPOT THE VARIETY 11 Attention all you flyspeckers!! Get your magnifying glasses out and compare the two stamp images above. Find eight different changes on the right stamp compared to the left. Good Luck!! 3 / January / The Buffalo

4 A PHILATELIC ZODIAC continued from page 1 Dragons are idealistic, inflexible, and tend to be snobs. They lose their temper easily, know they are right, and tend to be tyrannical. They collect only classics, Penny Blacks in particular. Favourite country: no surprise, Great Britain of the nineteenth century. Snakes rely heavily on first impressions, on their own feelings, on their sympathies, rather than on facts, on the advice and opinions on others. They will lie when they think they can get away with it. Exercise caution if you think they have submitted lots to an auction. Horses are more cunning than intelligent. They love to be in a crowd, but dislike being pressured to act for the good of the group. They start collecting a new country every year and are constantly buying and selling philatelic material. Favourite country: East Timor Rams are creative and fond of nature. They are insecure, shy away from confrontations, and will not take unpopular stands in conflicts. Not surprisingly, they are topical collectors, concentrating on flora and fauna, but do not expect them to discuss the relative merits of collecting in different ways. Favourite country: any that issue flower stamps and now some of them smell nice! Monkeys have a great thirst for knowledge. They are indifferent to the opinions of others. They are subject to changing food fetishes, but one constant is their love of bananas. Their favourite philatelic activity is detailed study of stamps of Central America. Roosters are neither complicated nor profound. They are cautious, skeptical, dreamers. But they live a philatelic nightmare: when the Ukraine became a dead country they sold their collections of stamps issued during the Russian Revolution, and now are trying to buy them back. Favourite country: Ukraine. Dogs are honest, faithful and sincere, and respect tradition. They are very righteous and can be judgmental; they take everything very seriously. As philatelists they like being judges. Pigs are models of sincerity, purity, tolerance and honour. They can always be trusted. They are born to give, and sometimes people take advantage of them, as they are usually naïve. If you have philatelic material for sale that is of questionable value, find a Pig. 4 / January / The Buffalo

5 BUFFALO CHIPS To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the issue of the first Luxembourg postage stamp in September 1852, P&TLuxembourg launched, in spring 2002, a design contest for young people between the ages of 8 and 23. They were invited to create stamp designs reflecting their ideas and visions of the Post in the year 2052 on the occasion of the bicentenary of the first Luxembourg stamp. The public was invited to chose the winners; they chose: 0.22 value: Claire Nothumb, 11 years old. A value: Christine Hengen, 19 years old. Water, a natural treasure stamp, won the Most Beautiful Stamp of 2001 competition of Finland. The stamp depicts the Haapavitja rapids in the Ruunaa hiking area in Lieksa. I am also a painter! So said a young Leonardo da Vinci as he stood before a painting of Raphaël. He was born in 1452, a Renaissance man who lived during the Renaissance. In 2002 a number of countries issued postage stamps to commemorate the 550 th anniversary of his birth. The one illustrated here is outstanding among many.

6 What is FIP? The editor last month used this acronym when referring readers to a prizewinning Slania site, but did not tell us what FIP stood for. I was puzzled, so I did what I often do in such circumstances fired up the computer and asked Google to find the answer for me. And what did I get? Federazione Italiana Pallacanestro was the first site listed, followed by Fédération Internationale Pharmaceutique, then a site for Fujitsu, then the Federation of International Polo, the Forum on International Physics, Formateurs en Informatique Pédagogique, Forestry Incentive Program, Foundation for Inner Peace, Family Incentive Program, Fuzzy Image Processing you get the idea (by the way: many sites are devoted to something I had never heard of before: Feline Infectious Peritonitis. Wow! After reading some of the information you can bet I took my cat to a vet right away! And I will never ask my wife to purr again!). Anyway, after ten Google pages I gave up, never did find anything that was related to philately. What is FIP? I can guess that the P stands for Philately, but why use puzzling abbreviations, they are of no help to those like me who are not inthe-know. WEB WORLD Collector offers unused stamps from DDR and West Germany, all new issues from Germany, used stamps from Scandinavian countries, used and unused stamps from Poland. He would like used stamps of Canada. hpfannkuchen@freenet.de Confused. Dear Confused, 2003 Had you persisted in your search, gone to a few more Google pages, I am sure you would have found the appropriate web site, for the Fédération Internationale de Philatélie. Its aims (reprinted from its website) are: -to promote stamp collecting and philately -to maintain friendly relations and friendship among peoples -to establish and maintain close relations with the philatelic trade and postal administrations -to promote philatelic exhibitions by granting Patronage and Auspices. Among other items on their site, I found the following comment interesting: A recent survey revealed that interest in stamp collecting exists in emerging markets and that the hobby is steadily gaining momentum in Asia. However, there is a discrepancy in industrialised countries where the hobby is stagnating and even declining. Food for thought. BLANK ALBUM PAGES 8½" x 11" ACID FREE WHITE 100 LB. STOCK IDEAL FOR FREE HAND OR COMPUTER PRINTERS 6 / January / The Buffalo 100 PAGES FOR ONLY $10.50 TO ORDER CALL: (204)