One of the ways that the Internet has changed stamp collecting is that it has added a great deal of transparency and equality in the pricing of more esoteric items. By example, about 1975, I began to collect Mozambique Company postal history. I was always fascinated by the Portuguese African Colonies and their exploitive character, especially […]
Philatelic Specialization is Easier Now Read More »
Life us a series of developmental stages and how we progress through them has a great deal to do with how happy we are with our lives. Philately too has developmental stages and how collectors progress through them is important in increasing the joy that we derive from our hobby. The earliest stage in stamp
Collectors Gravitate to Parts of the Hobby that Suit Their Personalities Read More »
Two hundred thirty-eight years ago, the thirteen American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain and began a seven year war that would result in the the founding of the United States of America. Before our Revolutionary War, Great Britain thought of her American Colonies as a whole and lumped the thirteen colonies in with
The Fourth of July Read More »
Broadly speaking, there are two types of rarities-rarities that were available to anyone who walked up to the postal counter and wanted to mail a letter, and rarities that are the result of some printing error or limited sales availability of a stamp. Rarities of the second class are items like the Airmail Invert of
Two Very Rare Stamps Read More »
The Arab spring which started out so peacefully with the change of the governments of Egypt and Tunisia took a turn for the more violent this summer when NATO was involved in the overthrow of the Libyan government. Libyan stamps have now begun their fourth phase. First, there were the issues of the Italian Colony
Benghazi is part of Libya Read More »
Indonesia was such a massive colony and so enormously profitable to the Netherlands that colonies in the new world were more of an afterthought than official government policy. Most of the colonies in North America that the Dutch did establish were taken away by the British (who seemed to take up the Portuguese interest that was
We tend to think of Philately as one hobby when it is really three separate and distinct endeavors, each with its own goals, problems, future and marketplace. The three are Mainstream Philately, High-end Philately and Aspirational Philately. Mainstream Philately is what most of us engage in from the youngster enjoying his first packet to the
The Future of Philately Read More »
5 5A 6 7 8 8A 9 The question of which stamps should have major catalog number status and which should be delegated to small “a” and “b”s as varieties occupied a great deal of catalog makers time in the early decades of the last century. The solutions that were adopted were really compromises that
Major and Minor Varieties Read More »
Most special stamps relate to postal use and postal purposes. Stamps such as Airmails are higher denominated stamps and the extra revenue is used to defray the cost of the class of service that is being used. But War Tax stamps are a different animal entirely-they are a country using its postal service to generate revenue for another