1.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
2.
Zeppelin mail
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Zeppelin mail was mail carried on zeppelins, the German airships that saw civilian use from 1908 to 1939. The first zeppelin to carry mail was LZ4, in July 1908, followed shortly by LZ3. The early flights did not use any special markings, the first was an oval reading LUFTSCHIFF / SIGNALPOST around the edge and Z III in the center, used on LZ6 from August to October 1909. By 1911 a number of different postmarks were in use, an example was a circle reading AN BORD DES / ZEPPELIN / LUFTSCHIFFES, with a date in the center. These were actually applied on board the zeppelin while in flight, the zeppelins were taken into military service in 1914, and thereafter did not carry civilian mail, although military commanders had special handstamps applied to their mail. In late 1919, LZ120 Bodensee resumed flights and mail carriage, using postmarks much as before the war, LZ126 carried mail briefly in 1924 before it was delivered to the United States and renamed the Los Angeles. The Los Angeles carried mail between Lakehurst, New Jersey, Bermuda, and Mayagüez, Puerto Rico several times, LZ127 Graf Zeppelin had a long and celebrated career. Within weeks of its first flight in September 1928, the Graf Zeppelin carried the first airmail to go directly from Germany to the US, Germany issued special 2-mark and 4-mark stamps for the occasion. On the return trip, the zeppelin carried almost 52,000 postcards and 50,000 letters, in 1929, Graf Zeppelin circled the globe, with stops in Tokyo and Los Angeles. By the time it was out of service in June 1937. Although LZ129 Hindenburg is most famous for its end, for the 14 months of its existence, it carried considerable amounts of mail overseas. Most of the 17,609 pieces of mail on the last flight were destroyed in the fire, but a handful were recovered, some stamps were regular issues overprinted while other were specially designed. 1930 Graf Zeppelin stamps of the United States LZ127 Graf Zeppelin Airship Zeppelin Notes References Sources Zeppelinpost Spezial-Katalog eZEP
3.
Gibraltar
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Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula. It has an area of 6.7 km2 and shares its border with Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the landmark of the region. At its foot is a populated city area, home to over 30,000 Gibraltarians. An Anglo-Dutch force captured Gibraltar from Spain in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession on behalf of the Habsburg claim to the Spanish throne, the territory was subsequently ceded to Great Britain in perpetuity under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Today Gibraltars economy is based largely on tourism, online gambling, financial services, the sovereignty of Gibraltar is a major point of contention in Anglo-Spanish relations as Spain asserts a claim to the territory. Gibraltarians overwhelmingly rejected proposals for Spanish sovereignty in a 1967 referendum, under the Gibraltar constitution of 2006, Gibraltar governs its own affairs, though some powers, such as defence and foreign relations, remain the responsibility of the British government. The name Gibraltar is the Spanish derivation of the Arabic name Jabal Ṭāriq, earlier, it was known as Mons Calpe, a name of Phoenician origin and one of the Pillars of Hercules. The pronunciation of the name in modern Spanish is, evidence of Neanderthal habitation in Gibraltar between 28,000 and 24,000 BP has been discovered at Gorhams Cave, making Gibraltar possibly the last known holdout of the Neanderthals. Within recorded history, the first inhabitants were the Phoenicians, around 950 BC, subsequently, Gibraltar became known as one of the Pillars of Hercules, after the Greek legend of the creation of the Strait of Gibraltar by Heracles. The Carthaginians and Romans also established semi-permanent settlements, after the collapse of the Roman Empire, Gibraltar came briefly under the control of the Vandals. The area later formed part of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania from 414 AD until the Islamic conquest of Iberia in 711 AD, in 1160, the Almohad Sultan Abd al-Mumin ordered that a permanent settlement, including a castle, be built. It received the name of Medinat al-Fath, on completion of the works in the town, the Sultan crossed the Strait to look at the works and stayed in Gibraltar for two months. The Tower of Homage of the Moorish Castle remains standing today, from 1274 onwards, the town was fought over and captured by the Nasrids of Granada, the Marinids of Morocco and the kings of Castile. In 1462, Gibraltar was finally captured by Juan Alonso de Guzmán, after the conquest, King Henry IV of Castile assumed the additional title of King of Gibraltar, establishing it as part of the comarca of the Campo Llano de Gibraltar. In 1501, Gibraltar passed back to the Spanish Crown, the occupation of the town by Alliance forces caused the exodus of the population to the surrounding area of the Campo de Gibraltar. As the Alliances campaign faltered, the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht was negotiated and ceded control of Gibraltar to Britain to secure Britains withdrawal from the war. Unsuccessful attempts by Spanish monarchs to regain Gibraltar were made with the siege of 1727 and again with the Great Siege of Gibraltar, during the American War of Independence
4.
Rio de Janeiro
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Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the second-most populous municipality in Brazil and the sixth-most populous in the Americas. The metropolis is anchor to the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, Rio de Janeiro is the capital of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazils third-most populous state. Part of the city has designated as a World Heritage Site, named Rio de Janeiro. Founded in 1565 by the Portuguese, the city was initially the seat of the Captaincy of Rio de Janeiro, later, in 1763, it became the capital of the State of Brazil, a state of the Portuguese Empire. Rio stayed the capital of the pluricontinental Lusitanian monarchy until 1822 and this is one of the few instances in history that the capital of a colonising country officially shifted to a city in one of its colonies. Rio de Janeiro has the second largest municipal GDP in the country, the home of many universities and institutes, it is the second-largest center of research and development in Brazil, accounting for 17% of national scientific output according to 2005 data. The Maracanã Stadium held the finals of the 1950 and 2014 FIFA World Cups, the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, the city is divided into 33 administrative regions. Europeans first encountered Guanabara Bay on 1 January 1502, by a Portuguese expedition under explorer Gaspar de Lemos captain of a ship in Pedro Álvares Cabrals fleet, allegedly the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci participated as observer at the invitation of King Manuel I in the same expedition. The region of Rio was inhabited by the Tupi, Puri, Botocudo, in 1555, one of the islands of Guanabara Bay, now called Villegagnon Island, was occupied by 500 French colonists under the French admiral Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon. Consequently, Villegagnon built Fort Coligny on the island when attempting to establish the France Antarctique colony, Rio de Janeiro was the name of Guanabara Bay. Until early in the 18th century, the city was threatened or invaded by several, mostly French, pirates and buccaneers, such as Jean-François Duclerc, on 27 January 1763, the colonial administration in Portuguese America was moved from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro. The kingdoms capital was transferred to the city, which, thus, as there was no physical space or urban structure to accommodate hundreds of noblemen who arrived suddenly, many inhabitants were simply evicted from their homes. The first printed newspaper in Brazil, the Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro, from the colonial period until the first independent decades, Rio de Janeiro was a city of slaves. There was an influx of African slaves to Rio de Janeiro, in 1819. In 1840, the number of slaves reached 220,000 people, the Port of Rio de Janeiro was the largest port of slaves in America. As a political center of the country, Rio concentrated the political-partisan life of the Empire and it was the main stage of the abolitionist and republican movements in the last half of the 19th century. Rio continued as the capital of Brazil after 1889, when the monarchy was replaced by a republic, until the early years of the 20th century, the city was largely limited to the neighbourhood now known as the historic city centre, on the mouth of Guanabara Bay. Expansion of the city to the north and south was facilitated by the consolidation and electrification of Rios streetcar transit system after 1905, though many thought that it was just campaign rhetoric, Kubitschek managed to have Brasília built, at great cost, by 1960
5.
Postage stamp
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Postage stamp may also refer to a formatting artifact in the display of film or video, Windowbox. A postage stamp is a piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are printed on special paper, show a national designation and a denomination on the front. They are sometimes a source of net profit to the issuing agency, stamps are usually rectangular, but triangles or other shapes are occasionally used. The stamp is affixed to an envelope or other postal cover the customer wishes to send, the item is then processed by the postal system, where a postmark, sometimes known as a cancellation mark, is usually applied in overlapping manner to stamp and cover. This procedure marks the stamp as used to prevent its reuse, in modern usage, postmarks generally indicate the date and point of origin of the mailing. The mailed item is delivered to the address the customer has applied to the envelope or parcel. Postage stamps have facilitated the delivery of mail since the 1840s, before then, ink and hand-stamps, usually made from wood or cork, were often used to frank the mail and confirm the payment of postage. The first adhesive postage stamp, commonly referred to as the Penny Black, was issued in the United Kingdom in 1840, there are varying accounts of the inventor or inventors of the stamp. The postage stamp resolved this issue in a simple and elegant manner, concurrently with the first stamps, the UK offered wrappers for mail. S. Postal service for priority or express mailing, the postage stamp afforded convenience for both the mailer and postal officials, more effectively recovered costs for the postal service, and ultimately resulted in a better, faster postal system. With the conveniences stamps offered, their use resulted in greatly increased mailings during the 19th and 20th centuries, as postage stamps with their engraved imagery began to appear on a widespread basis, historians and collectors began to take notice. The study of stamps and their use is referred to as philately. Stamp collecting can be both a hobby and a form of study and reference, as government-issued postage stamps. The postage for the item was prepaid by the use of a hand-stamp to frank the mailed item. Though this stamp was applied to a letter instead of a piece of paper it is considered by many historians as the worlds first postage stamp. Rowland Hill The Englishman Sir Rowland Hill began interest in postal reform in 1835, in 1836, a Member of Parliament, Robert Wallace, provided Hill with numerous books and documents, which Hill described as a half hundred weight of material. Hill commenced a study of these documents, leading him to the 1837 publication of a pamphlet entitled Post Office Reform its Importance
6.
Postal history
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More precisely, philatelists describe postal history as the study of rates, routes, markings, and means. Postal history has become a philatelic collecting speciality in its own right, the specialized area of philatelic history defines postal history as the study of rates charged for postal services provided, routes followed and special handling of letters. Areas of special interest include disrupted or transitional periods, such as wars and military occupations, the philatelic-based definition of the term developed as the discipline developed. Philatelic students discovered that understanding and authentication of stamps depended on knowing why postal authorities issued particular stamps, where they were used and how. For instance, a stamp apparently used before any other stamp of its type could be proved a forgery if it was postmarked at a location known not to have received any stamps until a later date. Much information is not known about the workings of postal systems. The postal history topics described below are some of the better known, regional studies are typically based on a geographical area, such as countries of origin, native districts, cities, towns or villages, places associated with family roots, or workplaces. It is best to select a topic to study that is broad enough because narrow geographical boundaries will likely bring frustration due to the lack of material available, examples are, Postal History of Brünn 1638-1875, and Private and Foreign Post Offices in St. Thomas. Postal routes are alternate geographical based study areas that provide great variety due to the places and services available along a route. The era for a geographical based study can add dimension depending on the available or the changes that took place. The period should seek to tell a story and not limit the chosen topic. Aerophilately specialises in the study of airmail, crash covers, Imperial Airways Empire route mail to Australia and South Africa, CAM or FAM routes to and from the United States are a few topics. Balloon mail was employed during the Siege of Paris to get out of the city during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Balloons can be manned and unmanned but balloon mail is not a common form of mail transport. Maritime mail is a theme that offers a variety of possibilities. Many ships applied their own endorsements so collecting examples of all ships of a shipping line can be aspired to. Maiden voyages and wreck covers are very desirable, naval mail can also fall in the Military mail category and are also known to apply identifying endorsements or postmarks. Rocket mail is the delivery of mail by rocket or missile and is a collecting area of aerophilately called Astrophilately
7.
Stamp collecting
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Stamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps and related objects. It is related to philately which is the study of stamps and it has been one of the worlds most popular hobbies since the late nineteenth century with the rapid growth of the postal service. Stamp collecting proved to be an almost perfect hobby for collectors because there was a never ending stream of new stamps as each sought to advertise its distinctiveness through its stamps. Because some stamps became rare, a international trade in stamps was created. While stamp collectors are of all ages, it has been particularly popular hobby among children, Stamp collecting is generally accepted as one of the areas that make up the wider subject of philately, which is the study of stamps. A philatelist may, but does not have to, collect stamps and it is not uncommon for the term philatelist to be used to mean a stamp collector. Many casual stamp collectors accumulate stamps for sheer enjoyment and relaxation without worrying about the tiny details, the creation of a large or comprehensive collection, however, generally requires some philatelic knowledge and will usually contain areas of philatelic studies. Stamp collectors are an important source of income for countries who create limited runs of elaborate stamps designed mainly to be bought by stamp collectors. The stamps produced by these countries may exceed their postal needs and it has been suggested that John Bourke, Receiver General of Stamp Dues in Ireland was the first collector. In 1774 he assembled a book of the existing embossed revenue stamps, ranging in value from 6 pounds to half a penny and his collection is preserved in Dublin. The first postage stamp, the Penny Black, was issued by Britain in 1840 and it was produced without perforations and consequently had to be cut from the sheet with scissors in order to be used. While unused examples of the Penny Black are quite scarce, used examples are quite common, people started to collect stamps almost immediately. One of the earliest and most notable was John Edward Gray, in 1862, Gray stated that he began to collect postage stamps shortly after the system was established and before it had become a rage. As the hobby and study of stamps began to grow, stamp albums and stamp related literature began to surface, children and teenagers were early collectors of stamps in the 1860s and 1870s. Many adults dismissed it as a pursuit but later many of those same collectors, as adults, began to systematically study the available postage stamps. Some stamps, such as the issues of the Cape of Good Hope, have become legendary. Stamp collecting is a popular hobby in the early 21st century than it was a hundred years ago. In 2013, the Wall Street Journal estimated the number of stamp collectors was around 60 million
8.
Overprint
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An overprint is an additional layer of text or graphics added to the face of a postage stamp, banknote or postal stationery after it has been printed. Post offices most often use overprints for internal administrative purposes such as accounting, the most well-recognized varieties are commemorative overprints which are produced for their public appeal and command significant interest in the field of philately. The term surcharge in philately describes any type of overprint that alters the price of a stamp, surcharges raise or lower the face value of existing stamps when prices have changed too quickly to produce an appropriate new issue, or simply to use up surplus stocks. Any overprint which restates a stamps value in a new currency is also described as a surcharge. Stamps have occasionally been overprinted multiple times, a famous example of repeated surcharging happened during the German hyperinflation of 1921–1923. Prices rose so fast and dramatically that postage stamps which cost five or ten pfennigs in 1920 were overprinted for sale in the values of thousands, millions, Overprints have often been used as commemoratives, providing a faster and lower-cost alternative to designing and issuing special stamps or postmarks. The United States, which historically has issued relatively few commemorative overprints, did this in 1928 for issues celebrating Molly Pitcher, British stamps heralding the 1966 FIFA World Cup were reissued after Englands victory with the overprint England Winners. In some rare cases, commemorative overprints have been applied to souvenir sheets, when these postal commodities are overprinted, they are always very carefully positioned for aesthetic appeal, usually on the blank outer border of the paper. The opposite occurs as well, in this special function stamps are overprinted to serve as regular stamps. Overprints have been used as security measures to deter misuse and theft, in the nineteenth century, Mexico was plagued by thefts of stamps on their way to remote post offices. To address this, stamps were shipped from Mexico City to the districts where they were overprinted with the district name – they were not valid for postage without the overprint. Nations overprinted stamps for use in their colonies mainly for the reasons as for their domestic use. Due to poor planning, supply problems, faster than anticipated changing postal rates, changes in currency or other reasons they ran out of stamps, some overprints were used to establish the first stage of postal service in a new territorial possession or colony however. If preparations had not been made, the controlling nations regular homeland stamps would be overprinted with a local name, in a similar fashion a nations domestic stamps may be overprinted for use in foreign post offices under that powers control. For example, from 1919-22 the United States overprinted 18 postage stamps at double value and marked for its office in Shanghai, provisional stamps are postage issue made for temporary ad hoc usage to meet demands until regular issues are reintroduced. New states or states in transition have sometimes found it necessary to recirculate stocks of stamps printed by a previous government, during times of war, many nations have issued war tax stamps. Before new stamps could be printed, older stamps were overprinted with surcharges or a simple inscription such as War Tax. In actual combat zones, the replenishment of stamp stocks is generally low on a militarys list of priorities, in contested or occupied areas, captured local stamps are often expediently overprinted by the occupying forces
9.
Underprint
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An underprint is anything printed underneath the main design of a stamp, banknote or similar item. Underprinting is used as a security measure to prevent forgery, or the cleaning of a postmark from a used stamp, the most common form of underprinting is burelage which takes the form of a faint pattern of lines or dots. Underprinting may also take the form of single or repeating words, the term has also been used in philately to refer to advertising or other wording printed on the back of postage stamps. However, this is thought to be a use of the term
10.
Perfin
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In philately, a perfin is a stamp that has had initials or a name perforated across it to discourage theft. The name is a contraction of perforated initials or perforated insignia and they are also sometimes called SPIFS. Great Britain was the first country to use perfins, beginning in 1868, the practice spread quickly to Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany and Switzerland, and Austria, the U. S. finally allowed perfins in 1908. In Britain unused postage stamps could be redeemed for cash at the post office, by agreement with postal authorities, a perfin stamp on a letter could be used only by the owner of the perfin. Therefore, a stolen perforated stamp would be of no value to the unauthorized bearer, thus the use of perfins gave organizations better security over their postage. The demise of the perfin came about by the use of postage meter machines which obviated the need for perfins. A number of countries have perforated stamps to denote official mail, Denmark punctured stamps for use by the Danish Home Guard. The United States has punctured stamps for use by various Federal organisations and Australian states such as Victoria, formerly considered damaged and not worth collecting, perforated postage stamps are now highly sought after by specialist collectors. In addition to stamps, postal stationery envelopes, postcards, perfinned British postal orders were used to pay out winning bets on the football pools and these postal orders are very sought after by collectors. Specimen stamps have often been perfinned with the specimen to denote their status
11.
Philatelic fakes and forgeries
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In general, philatelic fakes and forgeries refers to labels that look like postage stamps but are not. Most have been produced to deceive or defraud, learning to identify these can be a challenging branch of philately. To a large extent the definitions below are consistent with those given in the introduction to recent editions of the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue. We use the term forgery to indicate stamps produced to defraud collectors, fake is used to indicate the alteration of a genuine stamp to make it appear as something else. Fakes might refer to cancellations, overprints, added or clipped perforations, stamp design alterations, although some philatelists stick to precise definitions of these terms, one should not assume that this is the case with every writer. Questions are often raised about when a stamp is produced for postage. Jean de Sperati is among the master forgers in the history of philately, the Vancouver Island forgery refers to a stamp that was originally issued in 1865. To produce his forgery, de Sperati bleached a real, cheaper stamp of the same vintage and he then used a process called photolithography to make an almost perfect copy of the stamp. In his lifetime, Jean de Sperati forged over 500 stamps and he sometimes signed his work in pencil on the back. His forged stamps are now worth more than the originals. Stamp-like objects, not all of which are really fakes and forgeries, are described below for the sake of developing an understanding of such claims. Those who produce counterfeits appeal to a different market from philatelists. They depend on their stamps being produced in quantities in order to be able to recover their outlay. The person who would use them must feel that he can purchase them for a price that is lower than what he would pay at a legitimate post office. This makes the most common current stamp used for mailing a prime target for counterfeiting activity. The earliest forgeries are all postal, and the Penny Black was the first stamp to be copied in 1840, partial forgery consists of changing colors or changing the face values of stamps to imitate a higher value stamp. Other tricks consisted of methods to make the cancellation disappear, the Spanish Post Office had to change its stamps almost annually between 1850 to 1879 to stay ahead of the forgers. Postal services developed, early on, measures to protect the integrity of their stamps, some of these steps are similar to those used to protect against forged currency
12.
Postmark
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A postmark is a postal marking made on a letter, package, postcard or the like indicating the date and time that the item was delivered into the care of the postal service. Modern postmarks are often applied simultaneously with the cancellation or killer that marks the stamp as having been used. Postmarks may be applied by hand or by machines, using such as rollers or inkjets. The local post Hawaii Post had a postmark, parts of which were hand-painted. At Hideaway Island, Vanuatu, the Underwater Post Office has an embossed postmark, the first postmark was introduced by English Postmaster General Henry Bishop in 1661 and showed only the day and month of mailing in order to prevent the delay of the mail by carriers. In England during the part of the 17th century several postmarks were devised for use with the London Penny Post. The postmarks bore the initial of the particular post office or handling house it was sent from along with a time stamp. Postage was prepaid and the postmark was applied to the item by means of an inked hand-stamp. Some historians also consider these postmarks to be the worlds first postage stamps, in Great Britain the first postmark employed for the cancellation of the then new adhesive postage stamps was the Maltese Cross, so named because of its shape and appearance. This was used in conjunction with a stamp which was applied, usually to the rear of the letter. Different types of postmarks include railway post offices and maritime postmarks, similar to this is the censored postmark, overprinted with a black obliteration of the time and place of mailing for similar reasons. The Pony Express used a variety of different postmarks on the mail it carried across the Western United States, there are only 250 known examples of surviving Pony Express mail/postmarks in various collections today bearing one of more than a dozen different types of postmarks. Hawaii post once had a surfboard mail postmark, for covers that traveled by surfboard, a colour postmark is on the United States Postal Service-issued collectible envelope commemorating the 2004 inauguration of George W. Bush. Unofficial entities that issue artistamps may use postmark-like markings as well, marcophily is the study of postmarks and there are many published work on postmarks covering the topic from before 1900, such as the fancy cancels, until the present day. These include the so-called fancy cancels of United States to modern machine postmarks, fewer postmarks are used now than previously, with the advent of meter labels, some types of computer vended postage, and computerized postage that people can print from their own PCs. These indicia are not always postmarked by the Post Office but if put into the later than the date listed on them. Because of this, it is a bad idea to try, an official example relating a numismatic item to postmarks occurred on April 13,1976 when the U. S. issued a new two-dollar bill. People could buy the bills at face value, add a first class stamp, large numbers of these were produced and they remain common
