Everest anniversary

I see this 1978 Nepalese cover, marking the 25th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest, once or twice a year, but I was excited this time as

I did not recognise the signatures, writes Brian Austin.

The signatures I would have expected to see are Sir Edmund

Hillary and/or Tenzing Norgay, and thought maybe I had discovered some members of the 1953 expedition team

I had not seen before.

As you can see, neither signature is very clear, but as I am fully qualified with my own bad handwriting, I thought one of them could be Greg Mortimer. A quick Google search, with mountaineer at the end, confirmed this was correct. This then led me to discover that the signature in red was Tim Macartney Snape, and the reason for them signing the cover was that in 1984 they became the first Australians to climb Everest. I think this cover would retail for around £75, with a double signed by Hillary and Tenzing around £400–£500.

Covers for the 2003 50th anniversary of the conquest exist multisigned by five or six of the original expedition members. This meant sending the covers to the four corners of the world, but if you can find one, it is a fantastic item and a real piece of history.

I am also a big fan of the commemorative postcards produced for many mountaineering expeditions. Many have extra cachets added, and they are generally signed by the people who took part. With some it is impossible to work out who signed these but well worth trying, I have one at the moment from 1964, which includes, I assume, a Sherpa’s thumb print. Pricing is tricky, but generally, they sell for between £20-£50. To confirm the ‘trickiness’, I have seen the same postcard priced at both £6 and £65, so make sure you do some research before pressing the buy button!