Acknowledgements
Recognising the people whose knowledge, collections and support have made PHILCOSA possible.
Jan van Milligen
Founder, Compiler and Custodian of PHILCOSA
PHILCOSA began during the 2020–2021 COVID-19 lockdown, when Jan started scanning his collection and indexing covers by area and cancellation date. The project grew through continued research and contributions from fellow collectors.
Jan compiles, verifies and maintains the catalogue, coordinates new material and corrections, and keeps PHILCOSA freely available.
Compiler, webmaster, grandfather, and “main bottlewasher”.
Contributors
Collectors who have shared material, records and research with the catalogue. Select Read more to see the full acknowledgement.
Terry Devine
Flight-cover knowledge and cover images.
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When I started to search for flight covers on the internet, I was lucky to be referred to Terry for information. Terry has moved in recent years to his children in Australia, and although I have not met him personally, we have become good friends.
I am amazed by his knowledge of flight covers and the general history of flight covers of South Africa. Terry was involved with the design and production of various flight covers through his involvement with the Kempton Park Philatelic Society and the Aerophilatelic Society.
His collection of rugby and cricket covers, most of them signed by famous players, is unsurpassed, and I am grateful that I can include this treasure as part of this project. Over the past year Terry took hundreds of photographs of his covers and sent them to me electronically, so that they could all be included in this database.
Albert Borgstein
Railway research and the Borgstein Index.
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If you start researching railway covers, it does not take long before someone refers you to Albert Borgstein. When I contacted him, I was able to obtain a copy of his book South African Railway Thematic Covers: 1910 to 2003.
When you read this publication you are amazed by the thoroughness and detail that Albert put into it. I tried to see whether I could collect any images of railway covers not included in his book, but to no avail.
Albert was very generous in allowing me to copy images of covers from his book. I also decided to create an extra field in the database that cross-references covers to the index in his publication where applicable. I have named this the Borgstein Index.
Mark Boekstein
Antarctic research and cover images.
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I do not think there is anyone in South Africa with a better knowledge of Antarctic philately than Mark Boekstein. He lectures in tourism, and one of his research interests is Antarctic tourism.
Mark undertook various Antarctic trips to Marion Island and SANAE, during which he became involved in the design and production of South African Antarctic philatelic covers. If it was not for his determination, the production of Antarctic covers would have ended a few years ago.
Mark provided useful background information on Antarctic covers and supplied images of covers not yet included in the database. He also gave permission to include his article, Antarctic philately and its role in preserving the history of South Africa's involvement in Antarctica, as a downloadable article in the Research Library.
Danie van Zyl
Flight and Fight, and the Atlas listing.
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Any internet researcher of philatelic flight covers and military covers will have read Flight and Fight, a listing by Danie van Zyl. This publication includes all covers issued by South African military units up to 2006, and also covers South African Airways official covers up to 1994.
Danie was also involved in another publication, the Atlas Listing of Commemorative and Special Date Stamps, which lists all special commemorative date stamps issued from 1910 to 2006. The covers included in the PHILCOSA database are all cross-referenced to this Atlas publication.
I am grateful that Danie gave permission to include both these publications as part of the free research material that can be downloaded by visitors to this website.
Danny Khoury
Gold-cover scans and missing images.
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I am grateful towards Danny for his contribution in ensuring that all gold covers could be included in the database. Danny scanned a large part of his collection and sent good quality images of the covers that were still missing.
Andrew Sheldon
Rhodesia and Zimbabwe cover scans.
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After the website was launched in March 2022, Andrew made contact and offered to scan his collection of Rhodesia and Zimbabwe covers. This made it possible to upload his quality images and extend the database to include Rhodesia and Zimbabwe.
Morne Oosthuizen
Original website development.
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At the beginning of 2022 I made contact with Morne to enquire whether he could assist in creating the PHILCOSA database website. I was immediately impressed with the easy way in which he accommodated my wishes and ideas.
He made an effort to include all my proposals and finished the project in the shortest of time. If any of you are looking for a website developer, I can sincerely recommend him.
Sources
Catalogue entries draw on published references where these exist, including the Atlas and Borgstein numbering systems, which are recorded against individual covers wherever they are known. The society also gratefully acknowledges the many collectors who have supplied covers, corrections and research over the years.