When the Penny Black was first issued in 1840, it was part of what collectors have come to accept as a six item set. There was the Penny Black which prepaid the postage for any letter sent throughout Great Britain under 1/2 ounce. There were four different items of postal stationary called the Mulready envelopes […]
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The United States Post Office is losing money at a pace that would drive any business into bankruptcy. Their business model is unsustainable and their cost structure makes solvency under the current model impossible. If the USPS were a private company it would be dismantled but because it is a quasi governmental agency politics has kept it
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Most of us grew up collecting stamps that were sent to us from the H. E. Harris company. Henry Harris founded his business in the 1920’s and was a tireless promoter of philately. During the Great Depression, he sponsored radio shows and advertised extensively, introducing a generation of collectors to his approval method of buying
Most collectors collect in albums and most of the albums used are preprinted specialty albums. There are several main publishers of albums. The largest American publisher is Scott and American albums are also published by Minkus, White Ace, and Mystic. Three German album manufacturers make a broad group of specialty albums. They are Lighthouse, Schaubeck
If the European imperialist designs for Africa that occurred in the late Nineteenth Century are called, because of its frenzied quality, the scramble for Africa, then the colonization of the West Indies that occurred in the early Seventeenth Century could be called the scramble for sugar. Sugar cane and beet are not native to Europe
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There is a rule in determining philatelic popularity and it states that countries are collected in proportion to the popularity of stamp collecting in the home country. This accounts for the widespread philatelic popularity of say the United States or Great Britain or Germany. And it accounts for the relative philatelic unimportance of say Haiti
One of the most attractive sets ever produced is the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Postal Union set issued by Sweden in 1924. This set is attractively designed and engraved and has been on most collector’s short list of favorite stamps. But, there is another reason to acquire a set if you don’t already have
Some countries have small populations, stable domestic politics and little international impact but yet are philatelically very popular and important. Two countries that fit this model are Liechtenstein and Iceland. Both are part of a larger philatelic collecting group (in the case of Liechtenstein it is the Swiss-German area and for Iceland it is the
About twenty years ago an old customer of ours Walter Schwarz wanted to sell his stamps. Walter was a good friend of mine despite the fact that he was 80 and I was in my early thirties. His story was compelling. Walter was an Austrian Jew living in Vienna when the Anschluss made it obvious
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