Leeds Philatelic Society

Founded 31st May 1890

The Elizabethan Competition

In 2015 the Leeds Philatelic Society inaugurated "THE ELIZABETHAN COMPETITION" to commemorate 60 years of the stamp issues of Queen Elizabeth II. A set of rules were drawn up which are set out below. The Competition is intended to be all embracing and will cover studies of the stamps, postal history, thematic, Cinderella, aero-philately issues of the stamps issued within the United Kingdom during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

The first year was run as an experiment, but the aim is that for future years the Competition shall be open to members of societies affiliated to the Yorkshire Philatelic Association.

The Rules

Purpose of the Competition

  1. To commemorate and celebrate (sixty years of) the reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, and the diversity of postage stamps and postal history produced in the British Isles during her reign.

Entrants to the Competition

  1. Members of the Leeds Philatelic Society shall be allowed to submit one entry to the competition. One entry each may also be accepted from non-members who are members of societies affiliated to the Yorkshire Philatelic Association subject to verification of that membership and at the discretion of the Competition Secretary, who will have discretion to refuse any entry not in compliance with these Rules.

Geographical Area, Period and Content for Entries

  1. Material shall be restricted to British stamps and postal history, and the development of the postal system, usually bearing stamps or imprints issued during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II(1) by recognised postal authorities including postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail within the British Isles; Guernsey; Jersey; Alderney; the Isle of Man and regional issues, but shall exclude privately operated and emergency postal services. Entries may be studies of stamps or postal routes and rates, or on a theme. Some ephemeral material, such as Post Office Notices, postcards etc, relevant to the subject of the entry may be included, but at least 50% of the material should be stamps or postal history items.
  2. Entries may include those definitive issues popularly known as ‘Wildings’ and ‘Machins’ and commemoratives issued during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II(1). Entries should be on standard sized sheets, including A4 size sheets, and consist of 16 pages with the pages numbered consecutively in the order to be shown.

Submission and Judging of the Entries

  1. The submission of entries and the date of judging shall be at a time and place determined by the Council of the Leeds Philatelic Society. All entries should bear a covering sheet showing the title of the entry with the name and address of the owner.
  2. The Leeds Philatelic Society reserves the right to levy an entry fee upon entrants not exceeding £5.00 to cover any expenses of the judges, hire of a room for judging and organising the competition.
  3. Rarity and value of material included in the entries will not be a strong consideration in the judging of the entries. The judging will be carried out by one or two independent judges.
  4. The judge(s) will be looking for originality, knowledge and good presentation in the systematic study of stamps, postal history, ephemera or development of postal services and practices issued by and within the postal authorities allowed under these Rules.
  5. Entries will be marked on the following criteria:
    Explanation of the Material    25%
    Presentation    25%
    Knowledge    25%
    Content    25%
  6. Under each of the criteria the entry is marked as follows to provide a profile of the entry and the standard achieved:

    A = Excellent
    B = Very Good
    C = Good
    D = Fair
    E = Weak
  7. The standards based on these marks will determine the medal standard achieved, and result in a profile which may range from AAAA (Gold Standard) to EEEE (Below Bronze Standard and warranting only a Certificate of Participation). However the judges have flexibility in deciding the standard achieved. For example a criterion receiving an ‘A’ marking for Knowledge might be considered as being of such exceptional merit under that heading to deserve disregarding lower criteria markings of ‘Ds’ and ‘Es’ that would otherwise lead to it being given a lower medal standard.

Awards

  1. The winner of the Competition shall receive ‘The Leeds Elizabethan Trophy’ to hold for one year, surrendering the Trophy to the following winner. Each entrant will receive a certificate appropriate to the standard achieved by their entry.

Disclaimer

  1. The Leeds Philatelic Society will take every care to ensure the safety of entries entrusted to them, but take no responsibility for any loss or damage arising during the time entries are in their possession, and entrants are recommended to make arrangements to insure valuable material.

1: Defined as the date of accession to the throne.