Five Hundredth Posting

When I began this blog a couple a years ago the purpose was to tell a few stories about our hobby, to talk about the way the hobby used to be and identify some of the the changes that have occurred in Philately. Little did I think that within two short years there would be 500 topics to explore and that this number would only scratch the surface of subjects that our vast hobby affords. Philatelic writing has three main strains. There is writing in the tradition of Herman Herst Jr and Earl Apfelbaum, writing that tells the history of our hobby and the personalities who have collected and dealt stamps. There is writing in the tradition of the Collector’s Club Philatelist and the Journal of the London Philatelic Society (now the Royal) that treats our hobby as a serious academic discipline. And there is writing in the tradition of Linns and the American Philatelist, informative but not exhaustive-an overview of many subjects so that the reader can further investigate subjects he finds interesting. As this blog has progressed I have tried to do all three of these types of writing and have been amazed at how many topics there still are to write about. As I write my five hundredth article, thanks for reading. Over 900 readers a month enjoy these articles and it is growing by about a hundred readers a month. Since philatelic writing is usually more informative than timely it doesn’t get dated so if you go back and read some of the older posts sometime, I think you’ll like them.