ANTARCTICA - Stanley Gibbons Antarctica 2010

Published by Stanley Gibbons. 68pp. Colour. English

Inc Australian Antarctic Territory, British Antarctic Territory, French Southern and Antarctic Territories, Ross Dependency, Falkland Islands Dependencies, Antarctic expeditions, research stations in Antarctica, polar post offices, miniature sheets, booklets, stamps on cover, major colour errors, major perforation, watermark, and printing errors and varieties, overprints, design index, English/French/German/Spanish/Italian glossary

Philatelic Exporter review, courtesy of David Rennie (August 2010): 

This is a new title in the Gibbons programme, and includes Australian Antarctic Territory, British Antarctic Territory, French Southern and Antarctic Territories, and Ross Dependency.  Also included are Victoria Land, Graham Land, South Orkney and South Shetlands Islands, and the Falkland Islands Dependencies up to 1963. It is the only English language catalogue to cover the stamps from this vast continent.

In addition to the usual introductory notes, there is an excellent article by Steve Pendleton "A Centenary of Shackleton" which takes a close look at the King Edward VII Land overprint on New Zealand 1d, and the expedition when it was used, and some more modern issues.  There is a useful map, albeit without any longitude numerals.

There is a new index for the French Territory issues, and a detailed list of Polar Post Offices, and also the Research Stations in Antarctica. The latter do not of course issue stamps, but are administered by a range of different nations including Argentina, Chile, China, Norway, Russia to name just a few.

Although described as "Antarctica", I think SG has missed an opportunity of selling this to thematic collectors, by not including all the thematically relevant stamps issued by such countries as Argentina and others.

The listings follow the usual SG style, and are taken from the latest individual countries' entries in the main catalogues. Most show issues to about January 2009, (however please note that in the France volume reviewed elsewhere, FSAAT issues are listed to January 2010).

Full colour throughout the 108 pages (68 are catalogue pages), in the "Concise" paperback format.