Day three at the Europhilex in London brought a serendipitious encounter.

I was standing in front of the five frames of an exhibit of the £5 orange Queen Victoria telegraph and postage high value when who should appear but the exhibitor himself, John Horsey.

I introduced myself, and John began pointing out some significant items in his exhibit, including the three examples of the £5 postage version of the stamp that were beyond a doubt used to pay postage.

All other examples of used postage versions were likely used internally by the post office for accounting purposes.

I told John that I intended to review his book about the £5 orange in my Great Britain Philately column in Linn's Stamp News.

We chatted cordially for 20 minutes and then said farewell.

I never expected to meet the author of such an important philatelic work as his recent (2013) book about the classic £5 British stamp.