AS a child growing up in the 1970s Jazad N. Ali enjoyed collecting stamps. Fast forward to the present day, and his book chronicling the history of Trinidad and Tobago's stamp cancelling machine slogan postmarks has won him two international medals.
Ali's book, The Stamp Cancelling Machine Slogan Postmarks of Trinidad and Tobago 1923 – 2023, won a large gold medal at the Chicagopex Philatelic show held from November 17-19. Chicagopex is the annual exhibition of the Chicago Philatelic Society, one of the oldest philatelic organisations in the US and has been operating since 1886 (philatelic means the collection and study of postage and imprinted stamps).
[caption id="attachment_1052855" align="alignnone" width="806"] Author Jazad N Ali with his arge gold medal from the Chicagopex exhibition and his winning book The Stamp Cancelling Machine Slogan Postmarks of Trinidad and Tobago 1923 – 2023. - Photo courtesy Jazad N Ali[/caption]
The book, released in July, is the latest publication of the Philatelic Society of TT (PSTT) of which Ali is a former vice president and a member since 1982.
Nigel Mohammed, a PSTT member for the past 18 years, was present at Chicagopex when Ali's award was announced. He explained to Newsday via a video call that because he lives in Chicago, he was the "Trinidad liaison" for the book.
He said that philatelic international competitions are held throughout the year and people who write books on the subject can enter. The books are judged based on the content, context and of what is researched.
"(Ali) has researched it for decades by studying thousands and thousands of examples. At Chicagopex, the judges felt like it had a lot of value and was worthy of winning the gold medal."
Mohammed reported this was the first competition the book was entered. The second was the World Stamp Championship Exhibition on December 2 where it won a Large Vermeil award (silver medal).
Ali, speaking to Newsday in a telephone interview, said it felt great to win the large gold medal.
"To be internationally recognised for the work. It is the equivalent of landing on the moon or winning a gold medal in the Olympics."
He said in the Thailand competition the book was judged out of 2,500 exhibits while in the Chicago competition, it was judged out of 3,500 exhibits.
Inspired by Gandhi statue
But what exactly are "stamp cancelling machine slogan postmarks" and what inspired the author to spend more than 25 years researching them?
For those answers, we travel back to the early 1970s and a young Ali growing up in Gasparillo next to the oil refinery.
"Back then most people collected anything and everything without much direction."
He recalled his mother was interested in reading and history and their home always had a lot of reading material. As a child, Ali knew about the British monarchy and he collected British, US and Trinidad stamps.
In 1972 or 1973, when he was in Form One or Two, he had an experience that would forever inspire a passion for local history. At that time his father work
