FRANCE - PHIL'AMIENS 2013
86th CONGRÈS DE LA FÉDÉRATION FRANÇAISE DES ASSOCIATIONS PHILATÉLIQUES |
Until 2003, the Fédération Française des Associations Philatéliques organized its annual conference and the national championship of philately, every year in a different city. Then from 2004, they decided to hold them, on even years, in the Paris Parc Floral, coinciding with the Salon du Timbre, whilst on odd years elsewhere. In 2013, the city chosen was Amiens, the capital of the region of Picardy, in northern France. Amiens is a city that has a special relationship with philately, as it is where the well known Yvert et Tellier company was founded and has its headquarters.
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This major annual philatelic event in France was held from May 17th to 20th 2013, at the Centre des Expositions - Mégacité of Amiens. It was jointly organized by the Fédération Française des Associations Philatéliques and the local philatelic association, the Groupement Philatélique Picard.
During those four days, PHIL'AMIENS 2013 met a significant representation of those prominent in French philately. About 200 exhibitors participated in the Championnat de France, with over 1,000 frames on display. The volunteers of the Compagnie des Guides de la Philatélie offered free guided tours around the exhibition, to visitors. On Sunday 19th, the conference brought together the representatives of 623 philatelic associations comprising the federation, with over 600 participants. The organization arranged stands for 50 philatelic dealers, as well as other philatelic associations related to the event, and the main national specialized philatelic organizations. Among them, the l'Art du Timbre Gravé, which organized the usual signing sessions with stamp designers. The T.A.A.F. postal administration, the guest of honour, proposed a small polar-themed exhibition, and released a special souvenir sheet. |
The exhibition 'Revivez la France, la collection réinventée' ('Relive France, the reinvented collection') was installed in the large access hall (image below, right). This is an unusual idea coordinated by Philippe Lesage, who has participated since 2009 in the major philatelic events throughout the country. In 2013, those following 'the route of ATM issues' already met the exhibition at the Mâcon Salon de Printemps, and also in the Philaouest of Rezé, the weekend after PHIL'AMIENS. The collection is made up of 122 glass cases representing the different regions of France, and showing representative elements of each region along with postal and philatelic material and, in some cases, complemented with music and tastings.
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The organization scheduled various activities, games, and sightseeing. Local and regional institutions, as well as various local companies, also had their space to raise awareness of the region and its products to thousands of visitors and guests who attended the Amiens philatelic event.
As we would have expected, many new philatelic releases were produced for the occasion. Phil@poste released different postal and philatelic products, including the Amiens stamp, a new vignette LISA, and up to three special postmarks.
All this could be obtained on the large stand of La Poste. |
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| The special postmark for the 86th congress is illustrated with a picture of the tower of the 'maison de Jules Verne', the house where the famous writer lived between 1882 and 1900. On the right, the PHIL'AMIENS 2013 postmark is a design by Roland Irolla, and includes references to the floating gardens or 'hortillonnages', with the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in the background. |
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For its part, the F.F.A.P. produced the usual block including a personalized stamp or 'MonTimbraMoi', and the organization prepared many philatelic souvenirs with the different special issues.
The Amiens stamp is a design by Yves Beaujard. The cathedral is depicted in the foreground, and the cirque Jules Verne in the background. The attached commemorative label or vignette with no postal value is dedicated to the 'Marie sans chemise', a bronze sculpture by local artist Albert Roze.
The first day postmark is designed by Sophie Beaujard. It is illustrated with a representation of the 'portail du Beau Dieu', the tympanum of the cathedral central west portal. |
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The design of the vignette LISA is by Stéphane Humbert-Basset, who also designed the recent ATM issue for Mâcon. It is a composition which comprises various landscapes and picturesque elements of the city, such as the Somme river, the 'hortillonnages' and the traditional boats, the tour Perret, and the cathedral of Notre-Dame. |
Fortunately for collectors, Phil@poste decided to release the new vignette LISA using Monétel LISA 1 vending machines, which use a mechanical - dot matrix impression. The rolls of self-adhesive labels on plain non thermal paper are printed, in 4-colour offset. The label size is 80 x 30 mm., and incorporates a phosphorescent vertical strip at each edge of the design. The total production was 35,000 labels.
Visitors were able to buy the ATM issue from the three distributors installed for the occasion, and perfectly maintained by the La Poste staff.
| Considering the distributor used, its programmed prefixes, and the current postal rates on the date of issue, the basic set for this design is made up of 4 values - E 0.56 EUR - 0.63 EUR - P 0.80 EUR - LETTRE 1.05 EUR, corresponding to the basic rates for economic domestic mail (E - Ecopli), priority domestic mail (without prefix), priority international mail (P), and priority domestic mail for letters above 20 g. (LETTRE). The minimum face value programmed in the distributors was 0.56 EUR, the current national rate for economic mail. |
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| Interior of the Monétel LISA 1 vending machine |
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| E - Inland post Economique / Ecopli |
Inland post Prioritaire |
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| P - International Priority mail - Prioritaire |
LETTRE - Inland letters above 20 g. |
Depending on the language selected by the user during the purchase, the text on receipts appears in either French, English, Spanish or German.
| Some of the ATMs of this issue have a general bluish tonality, which even invades the white frame surrounding the design. On these ATMs the usual cyclical printing marks, such as the blue horizontal line crossing the lower edge of the stamp at the right are more visible. |
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ATM Web - Spain and Latin American Postal Services: http://www.ateeme.net
© J. Jove - ATEEME. Variable value stamps study group. All rights reserved
This page was created in June 2013 and last updated:
05.07.13
. English edition rewritten by S. Goodman (04.07.2013)
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