Let's get started!
The official start time of the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix will be Sunday, May 28th, at 3 PM local time, which is, 2 PM in London and 11 PM in Sydney. No guesses will be accepted after that time.
So pick up a(nother) glass of Cristal champagne (or Pastis), and let's play for another round!
First here are the rules:
You need to be a Stampboards member - joining up is free -
Register here!
To qualify for winning a prize here, all you need to do after you join up is to make sure you contribute at least 5 (on topic) posts to philatelic threads, not including requests to receive freebies, before the start of the GP.
I will check your posts in the event you have a winning guess in order to verify this qualification.
If you did not quality for any reason, the prize will go to the next eligible post.
To participate, you must name five different drivers, in the order you believe they will be officially classified, from the winner, to the fifth finisher.
One guess per Stampboarder, and it cannot be changed once it has been made. Editing in the same post will also no longer be permitted.
You will get one point per driver who finishes in the same position as your guess, so a maximum of 5 points at each race.
- Prize 1: the winner is the person who gets the most points at that race. If there is a tie, the earlier guess wins.
- Prize 2: the winner is the person who gets the most points at the end of a four race sprint. In case of a tie, the earlier guess on the fourth race of the sprint wins.
The winner of Prize 2 then has a choice: he or she can go for the default Prize 2, which will always be a four margin penny black, or he or she can choose to accumulate more points to ‘purchase’ an alternative Prize 2. Once you have chosen to accumulate, there is no going back until you have 'bought' an alternative Prize 2. The accumulation can only go until the end of Season 2024.
The list of Prize 2's along with how many points you need to purchase them, is shown below.
Once you have won a 4 race sprint, if you do not elect to take the Penny Black on offer, you will continue to accumulate points for Prize 2 as long as you wish (but not past the end of Season 2024) in order to ‘purchase’ an alternative Prize 2.
You can do so at any time once you have accumulated enough points to ‘purchase’ the Prize 2 of your choosing.
Once you have chosen a Prize 2, whether the Penny Black or an alternative Prize, your Prize 2 points count will be reset to 0.
If you do not choose the penny black, it will be on offer for the next four race sprint.
This is designed so that anyone who wins a four race sprint will at some point be able to claim a Prize 2, whether a four margin penny black or an alternative Prize.
Everyone else will have their Prize 2 points reset to 0 to restart the four race sprint, except the Prize 2 points 'accumulators'.
There can be several Prize 2 points 'accumulators' at the same time, as long as they have not 'purchased' their Prize 2.
- Prize 3: the points are counted and accumulated in the same way: 1 point per correctly placed pilot at each race, but everyone gets to keep their Prize 3 points until the season's last race, where the highest point accumulator wins.
Prize 3 will be attributed on the occasion of the last Grand Prix of the 2023 season.
If there is a tie, the contest continues only among the Stampboarders with the highest score, until the tie is broken.
Anti-shadowing rule for Prize 3:
- This rule applies to the top three Prize 3 points accumulators at any race: the #1 accumulator will have to post their guess at least three hours before the official start of the race, the #2 accumulator two hours before the official start, and the #3 accumulator one hour. Everyone else has to put in their guess before the official start time of the Grand Prix.
- There will be zero tolerance for any time 'overshoot', even if it is one second, and any editing for all contestants, and no excuses accepted: my computer slowed down, Stampboards loaded too slowly, my cat stepped on my keyboard…so please note this carefully as I want to avoid any unpleasantness or ambiguities.
And here are the Prizes:
- Prize 1 comes from Belgium. It is a Souvenir Sheet (MNH) issued in 1957 to commemorate the 1957-58 Expedition to Antartica. The engraving is by Henri Decuyper and the compass in the margin was designed by Herge, who was the author of the Tintin comic strips.
- And here is the list of Prize 2's
First, the penny black plate 4, lettered QF, that will be attributed in Canada, on June 18th:
The first Alternative Prize 2, costing 10 Prize 2 points, is the iconic 'Pont du Gard', here in MH condition, issued by France in 1930, and engraved by Henri Cheffer:
The second alternative Prize 3, costing 14 Prize 2 points, is the 'large beard' set of Belgium, issued in 1905, offered here in MH condition:
The third alternative Prize 2, costing 16 Prize 2 points, is the Cardinal Mercier set of Belgium, issued in 1932, also MH:
The fourth Alternative Prize 2, also costing 18 Prize 2 points, is the Leopold II 'fine beard' set (MH) issued in 1893. The set includes the dominical tabs which were used to placate the deeply catholic population of Belgium by giving people the option not to have mail delivered on Sunday. The sender just needed to use the stamp with tab to allow this, or tear off the tab to signify that they were agreeable for the mail to be delivered on Sunday.
The fifth Alternative Prize 2, costing 18 Prize 2 points, is the 'Banknote' Airmail stamp issued by France in 1936, and engraved by Gustave Gandon:
The sixth Alternative Prize 2, costing 18 Prize 2 points, is the classic Posthorn set (MH) from Germany, issued in 1951:
The seventh Alternative Prize 2, costing 18 Prize 2 points, is pretty exceptional: it consists of all the Buzin bird stamps, ie all formats, face values and of course all birds, issued over the past 30 years. There are 113 stamps and one Souvenir Sheet, all MNH of course:
And Prize 3 for the 2022 Season is the iconic 1884 £1 Brown with the Three Crowns watermark:
And now it's all up to you!
Cheers,
Joel.
Since 2012. Hard to believe), Jon (line engraving rules! 
, Pratyush, Marty, John, Arianto (welcome back! 
