No doubt many of you who use the web also go into the largest online auction company Ebay where you
can bid for virtually anything under the sun.  My attention was drawn to a "so called" Colour Proof of the 1925
Scout Stamp of Hungary, the first stamp to show a Scout.  I had known for some time that colour proofs existed and I had recorded that George Alevizos of Santa Monica, CA, USA had a green and red/brown copy for sale in March 1995 with an estimate of $800 - 1000.  The Philatelic Museum in Budapest has three examples of the proof in its archives - green, grey, and brown and violet.  However the one on offer showed a normal reddish brown stamp as well as the "so called" colour proof in light brown.  In my opinion this was a faded stamp, which would happen to such a stamp if left in sunlight.  I guess most people realised that it was a fake as it only made US$26.10 (£17.30).  Hallvard Slettebø, our member from Norway drew to my attention that colour proofs of the complete sports set were also for sale, but all of these were in similar colours to the original.  Do any of you have a genuine perforated colour proof and if so what colour are they?

Still on the subject of Proofs, I guess many of you are like me and tell nobody when you see something coming up for auction that is of interest.  This happened to me in January when I read in the Philatelic Exporter that Van Dieten Auctions of the Netherlands were going to sell the stamps proofs of the Royal Dutch Mail.  The article states "The financially flourishing Royal Dutch Mail is selling off more of its valuable assets.  This time it is its stock of thousands and thousands of stamp proofs accumulated since 1872 up until the 1980's.  The immense task to sell these proofs through auction would be spread over three years".  Knowing that proofs of the 1937 Netherlands Indies had been sold in the past, I contacted the company who informed me that in their second sale in May, there would be 8 different colour proofs of the 12½ cent value.  I had made arrangements for an auction agent to bid on my behalf, but two weeks before the sale, I received an email from Van Dieten Auctions stating that the Post Office were withdrawing all the proofs being sold, as it turned out that they did not belong to the Post Office, but to the Dutch Government.  The Ministry ordered the auction to be stopped because "the proofs are the archives of the State". In the August issue of the Philatelic Exporter an article states "The Dutch Public Record Office has successfully objected to the sale by Van Dieten Auctions to the sale of the huge amount of unique proofs and designs of stamps from the Dutch Royal Mail.  The minister responsible has been ordered to halt the 'illegal' sale of the state's property.  The minister responsible is considering ways and means of recovering material that has already been sold at an earlier sale".  I had heard that later this year they would also be selling the proofs of the three 1937 Jamboree stamps, but of course this will not now happen.

I know that many of our members do not only collect Scout Stamps and Covers, but also Scout ephemera. For those interested in Scout cigarette cards and postcards, I have recently acquired a copy of a new loose-leaf book "A notebook of Boy Scout and Girl Guides on Cards".  This is in two parts with Cigarette Cards followed by Postcards.  This 86 page book has colour reproductions on virtually every page and shows some of the rare Scout cigarette cards. For those interested the cost is £12.50 plus £3.00 postage in the U.K.  It is available from Eric Marsh, 16, Myatt Road, Offenham, Evesham, Worcs. WR11 8SD.

Stanley Gibbons seems to be reducing the catalogue prices for many QEII stamps and I understand that the 1957 Scout set which last year dropped from £5 to £3.50 mint, has in this years Concise GB catalogue slipped a further 25p to £3.25.  This is surprising especially as it is now 45 years since it was issued.  However, First Day Covers seem to keep their prices and are still collectable.

Finally, a quick last reminder that the 4th Euro-Scout meeting will be held in Gent, Belgium over the weekend of 25-27 October.  The 11th European Scout Collectors Meeting will also be held at the same time in the main Congress Centre when the National Scouting Museum from Leuven will organise an important exhibition.  We have a number of our U.K. members attending Euro-Scout, some of which will be displaying, which is non-competitive.  For further details email: Info@euroscout2002.com or at its own web site