John Apfelbaum

Much as Canadian culture and economic development has been influenced by the United States, so too has the collecting of Canadian stamps. This is interesting too, because Canada is a part of the British Commonwealth and as such retains the philatelic influence of the Stanley Gibbons catalog. But over the years, the way Canadian stamps […]

          Communication has gone from being first bound by the voice, that is oral communication, to being completely electronic. Before four or five thousand years ago, communication was all oral, with histories and stories passed down from generation to generation. Writing changed human development and made communication possible with people you

It is hard to overstate the importance of the Civil War—its causes and effects—to American history. The War occurred over slavery and over a series of compromises (made to unite thirteen diverse Colonies into a single nation) that unraveled as the country grew. We live today with the same political alignments that were present for the Founding

One of the most interesting philatelic areas is Danzig, now called Gedansk. Danzig is a city or rather city state on the shores of the Baltic Sea between Germany and Poland (which was long ruled by Russia) and part of its philatelic charm is in the many issues that were created as political control bounced

The first stamp dealing Apfelbaum was Maurice Apfelbaum who listed his occupation in the 1910 US census as “Stamp Dealer.” He began dealing when his son Earl was only four years old, and by the time Earl was ten, he had begun collecting stamps and was going around to dealer shops and bourses with his

The desire to collect is innate and probably relates to the gatherer instinct that differs humans from other primates. But in a world in which one can collect everything from antique barbed wire to Victorian pocketbooks, why do people collect stamps? The answer I think comes down to three factors- community, size and orderliness. First,

Political and social scientists study stamp issues for clues to how governments view their history and evolution as societies. United States stamp issues are replete with historical themes and make much of our founders. Benjamin Franklin, because of his role as our first Postmaster, is on nearly a hundred different US stamp designs, and Washington, Jefferson, and other Founding

One of the more glamorous aspects of the old West was the Pony Express. Beginning for about eighteen months in 1860 the Pony Express raced letters across the American frontier from California to St. Joseph, MO where the letters entered the mail stream to their final destination. Their service was expensive, but it cut as

I first met Max Margolies in the mid 1960’s. At the time, I used to help out showing Auction lots at my father’s office on Saturdays. Stamp professionals didn’t specialize to the degree that they do today. There were a few US only dealers or British Commonwealth dealers but the majority of stamp sellers tried