Earlier this year, on Tuesday April 24, the town of Fish Hoek turned 100. To celebrate the centenary, the South African Post Office commissioned the manufacture of a date stamp to be used exclusively on that day at Fish Hoek Post Office in Main Road.
This commemorated the date when the first plots on former Fish Hoek farm were auctioned to create the village of Fish Hoek in 1918. The Fish Hoek date stamp is the first commemorative date stamp issued for 2018.
A postage stamp is cancelled with a date stamp to show that it has gone through the post and it may thereafter not be reused. When commemorative stamps are issued, they are issued with a canceller of a similar theme. Some collectors collect cancellers or stamps that have been cancelled with special cancellers. Such stamps are called “Cancelled to Order Stamps”.
To complement the special date stamp, a commemorative envelope was produced locally, with an appropriate image. The postage stamps affixed are either local at R4.20 or international at R9.85 and cancelled or franked with the special date stamp. The stamped and cancelled envelopes retail for R40 and R30 respectively. There is limited stock available of both envelopes at the Fish Hoek Post Office in Main Road.
Funds generated by this project accrue to the Fish Hoek Valley Historical Association and, the Fish Hoek Valley Museum. The envelope is a great piece of memorabilia and most suitable as a gift for family, relatives, friends, customers and employees. The envelope was designed by Schalk Uys of The Bookworm, Sally Britten of the museum, Les Pearce of Lamitall and Dominique Gould, our local postMaster).
* Alan Linder is part of the Fish Hoek Valley Historical Association.