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Stamps proved to be such a wonderful invention that most countries began to issue stamps designed for special uses beyond first class mail. The Scott catalog makes it easy to determine what special use a stamp was designed for as it gives alpha character prefixes to special service stamps. Thus “B” numbers are for Semi […]

Postage stamps proved to be a vital technological innovation. In a world where most innovations are beyond the ability of most of us to understand let alone initiate ourselves, the obviousness of most technological innovations before 1900 is shocking. Look at the variations of plough technology and agricultural yields (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plow). throughout history. These simple changes

Very few things have changed as little during their lifespan as has the Postage Stamp. With the exception of perforations (added about 1850) and self adhesive gum (added about 1970) the actual appearance of stamps (printed pictures on small adhesives representing proof of payment for a service) and their use is virtually unchanged since their

As details of Hilary Clinton’s private email account have become public, I have been struck by how easy it appears to hack into someone’s email account. Governor Palin’s email was hacked last year and it appears that the sanctity of private correspondence is another casualty of the high tech age. One hundred fifty years ago

I’ve always divided US philately into seven subsections, largely for ease of study and because the characteristics of the stamps from section to section are so different. The divisions are stamps to 1869, the Banknotes(1870- 1893), Bureau Issues period (1893-1912), Washington Franklins, modern, Back of the book and Revenues. Each of these sections has various

Revenue Stamp collecting has a long history in the United States. The “Boston “Revenue book (so called because it was published by the Boston Philatelic Society in 1899) was the culmination of years of research on the Civil War revenue stamps and the private die revenue stamps of the Match and Medicine companies of the

One could write a good history of Iran simply by studying its stamps for the last 150 years. The first issues, called the Lions, were issued in 1870. They are crudely printed typographed stamps featuring the coat of arms of Iran. What strikes one about the early Iranian issues is that despite Iran’s relative poverty

The latest monthly edition of the American Philatelist, the magazine of the American Philatelic Society, shows that after the last round of dues that the society membership has slipped to about 36000. When I first started in this hobby the APS had over 60000 members. In 1975 membership in the American Philatelic Society was required

Forty years ago when I started in the stamp business there were twenty stamp auction houses in the United States holding several hundred auctions per year. Today there are only ten holding not many more than fifty auctions. Even before the Internet and the sales platform of EBay (where everyone can participate in auctions all