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- An international stamp exhibition will take place in Cape Town this month.
- The exhibition aims to tell South Africa's history through stamp displays.
- There will be thousands of rare and valuable stamps on display, free for the public to view.
The irreplaceable reminders of South Africa's postal history, some of them worth staggering amounts, will be on display at an international stamp exhibition in Cape Town.
Thousands of stamps from around the world, mounted on 25 600 A4 pages and 1 600 display frames, will be on display at the Cape Town International Stamp Exhibition.
The stamps will be sectioned into categories, with South Africa's heritage featuring prominently.
André du Plessis, chief operating officer of the Philatelic Federation of South Africa, said many stamp collectors are historians and stamps are often historical records themselves.
"Stamps are normally commissioned to commemorate important events, and when you display them, you're bringing history and stamp collecting together," he said.
He added:
Many displays include photographs, paperclipping and letters to provide historical context for the stamps, Du Plessis added.
Letters on display include one addressed to Jan van Riebeeck, commending him on beer that was brewed in the Cape, and one Nelson Mandela had written from prison.
Mandela's letter from Pollsmoor Prison was written to Kaiser Matanzima on the homelands policy.
Also on display will be the award-winning exhibit by Gerhard Kamffer entitled "The Road to Democracy" in which important philatelic artefacts tell the tale of South Africa's road to democracy.
Built up over the past 30 years, the exhibition includes items reflecting the early border wars between the colonists and the Xhosa with a letter that refers to the 8th war in 1851.
Despite much of our communication now relying on digital mediums, the South African Post Office (SAPO) still delivers around a million items each work day, many of them with a stamp on it to prove that postage was paid, SAPO spokesperson Johan Kruger said.
And as stamps become less commonplace, they become more valuable, he added.
The SAPO will display its philately collection showcasing the history of the country's stamps, from the first stamp issued to today's stamps.
Among those on display are commemorative stamps, such as the flowers of Namaqualand with stamps that emitted a perfume when scratched; stamps depicting some of the dinosaurs that had been discovered locally, which glowed in the dark; and a stamp depicting "hello" in the 11 official languages of South Africa, as well as braille.
There is also a series depicting taxi signs, which are highly sought-after collector's items.
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The SAPO will also announce a new stamp issue entitled "The Road to Democracy". The limited edition stamp will see five unique date stamps used on each day of the event to celebrate Nobel Peace Prize laureates Albert Luthuli, Desmond Tutu, Nadine Gordimer, Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk.
Among the displays will be a rare and valuable collection of philatelic artefacts assembled by the SAPO and Iziko museum.
This will include a post office stone, which tells the story of early Cape history where letters addressed to, or conveyed by, passing ships were placed under the rocks. The earliest inscription on the stone dates back to 1618.
Jan Hofmeyr, spokesperson for the Philatelic Federation of South Africa, added:
"From the Africans who were already here when colonists took their territory, to the Boer War, which was about the Afrikaner attempt to oppose British rule, stamps carried messages of the struggle. This is a rare opportunity to see the documents that testify to their need to communicate and affect change," he added.
The exhibition will take place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre 2 from 8 to 12 November. Entry is free for the public.
