I wrote in my last "John's Jottings" about an unused 1920 Siam/Thailand printed postcard with the 3stg green stamp making Euro 1450 (about £1200, US$ 1860) at Gartner's September Auction.  It has since been pointed out to me by Frederick Lawrence that this was a fake, and that the overprint is on the wrong postal card.  All "Scout's Fund" overprints were on postal cards without a vertical line dividing the front side of the card, as those with the dividing line were a later printing.  He also mentions that the overprint is forged, with numerous differences between itself and the genuine Type II overprint.  It appears in the image in the online auction catalogue to be in shiny black ink, not the dull grey black ink of the genuine overprints.

In Jan/Feb 2000, I mentioned and illustrated a rare Scout postcard showing "Miss Soames B-P's fiancée, chatting with a Scout on board the Mirror" yacht.  Recently I purchased another card from this set and although in poor condition, my main postcard collecting friends had never seen this one before.  As Olave and Robert Baden-Powell were only engaged for six weeks before they married at Parkstone, Dorset on 30 October 1912, the cards would have been in circulation only for a short time.  This card is titled "B-P and his fiancée, Miss Soames being rowed out to the Mirror".  The newspaper "Daily Mirror" presented London Sea Scouts with the 52 ton yacht named "Mirror".  Tragically after only a year of use, the boat was run down in the Thames by a steamer.

In the last SGSC Bulletin, Colin Walker wrote about the scarce Scout Headquarters meter mark advertising the 1929 World Jamboree held at Arrowe Park, Birkenhead.  At the end of November another cover has been sold in auction by Corbitt Stamps.  This one is dated 14th May 1929, two days before the previous earliest recorded example of this scarce meter mark.  Despite being badly creased this sold for £880 (Euro€1040 US$1345).  At the same auction, a registered cover sent from the Jamboree to Worcester, was sold for £1150 (Euro€1360, US$ 1750), despite having a heavy and minor creases.  Although it has very weak cancels, I believe this was posted on 31 July 1929 with the correct postage rate of 4½ pence.  I understand that Grosvenor Auctions of London will be selling a 1929 Jamboree registered cover in good condition and Mafeking stamps at their sale on 6th March.