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Rules & Guidance

National Junior Competition

Entries can be on any single subject, theme, country or topic.

a) Entries will be judged as follows:

Presentation 45%
Treatment of Subject 25%
Type and Condition of Material Shown 20%
Philatelic Knowledge 10%

b) Presentation

i)Writing up

- the entry must have a title.

- writing can be by hand, typewriter, computer or stencil but should be clean and neat

- black ink is preferred. Avoid coloured inks.

- use capitals and small letters (upper and lower case) as in a book. Do not use only capital letters.

- more marks will be awarded to entries where the information is written or typed direct on to the page rather than ’cut and pasted’.

ii) Balance

- do not have too many or too few stamps or philatelic items on a page.

- keep a balance between stamps and writing up.

- try to maintain a balance between each page in your entry.

iii) Mounting

- mount the stamps neatly with hinges or stamp mounts with regular spaces between them.

- never use glue, staples or adhesive tape.

- make sure the stamps are in line. If they are of different heights, keep the bottom line level.

iv) General Impression

- set the sheets out in rows of four (as the judges will be looking at them) and decide:

Does your entry look right? Is all the spelling and grammar correct? Is the overall balance right?

c) Treatment of the subject

i) Development and knowledge

- make sure the title fits the entry.

- try to select a subject that can be shown properly within the number of sheets used.

- decide how you can best show the subject with the material you have before you start attaching anything to the paper.

ii) Appropriate material

- make sure the material and information you use relate to the subject.

- display the material in a logical manner.

iii) Difficulty

- Entrants who choose subjects which require extra thought, additional work or who show greater effort in obtaining the right material may gain extra points.

d) Material

i) Condition

- condition is a relative matter and the availability of the material will be taken into account.

- never use damaged stamps unless they are very rare and are very difficult to find in good condition.

- modern mint stamps must be perfect but this does not guarantee full points.

ii) Selection

- if relevant, try to show items other than stamps

eg appropriate covers; maximum cards; slogan postmarks; special handstamps on piece or cover; miniature sheets; stamp booklets

e) Philatelic knowledge

- as well as marks awarded for knowledge of the topic, additional marks are given for philatelic knowledge – that is knowing something about the stamps themselves.

- this can be partly gained from catalogues but more marks can be gained by extra information from other sources. This will show that the entrant understands about the material being entered.

eg: stamps for special events; changes in postal rates; reason for special cancels; information on how stamps were printed

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This page was last modified on 14th September 2020


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