On Dec 7, 2023, the Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL) announced the list of members who had been approved as Fellows of the Society this year. Our own Jannie Hofmeyr was on the list. Two other Canadians, Ed Kroft and David McLaughlin, were also admitted.
A Fellowship is awarded by the RPSL to those members who have demonstrated service to the Society, made noteworthy contributions to philately in general, or has published an article in The London Philatelist or other philatelic journal, or published a philatelic book.
Jannie has just written a book about U.S. “grills”. A grill on a postage stamp is an embossed pattern of small indentations intended to discourage its reuse. In 2022 he won the Single-Frame “Champion of Champions” Award from the American Philatelic Society after numerous Gold Medal and Grand Awards for specialized studies in this area of U.S. philately.
This self-published book – “Understanding the Grill Stamps of the United States” (164 pages; many colour illustrations) – is now available from Amazon.ca.
The Victoria Stamp Club now boasts three members who are Fellows of the RPSL. In addition to Jannie, Neil Donen and Peter Newroth have also received this recognition.
Congratulations to all the new Fellows.