Before 1940 everyone who collected stamps had a World Wide collection. They may have specialized in US or Great Britain but they maintained a general foreign collection that had been their starter collection and which, for most collectors, was still the major appeal that philately had for them. And there were many different types of […]
A Great Collection Read More »
Emotions are running pretty high over this election. Partisans on both sides are convinced that it will be the end of the world if the other side wins. Perhaps the reason so few Americans actually vote, though, is that beyond the partisan rancor most people have seen how much the parties are in agreement and
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There is famous story about a savvy investor in early 1929 who was getting his hair cut. Hearing his barber go on and on about how much money he (the barber) was making in the stock market and getting tips on what the barber thought were the best investments, the broker came back to his
John Mars was already an older man when I began working on stamps. He, as his father before him, had been a lifelong collector and loved his stamps. He collected France, just France, and collected the way the French do, by the Yvert and Tellier catalog. He collected classics in multiples and Twentieth century with
For stamp dealers coming of age in the 1960s the stamp world was replete with Europeans who had escaped from Hitler and Stalin. Most were Jews, though looking back through the less opaque lens of our time, I know several were political escapees and at least one was fortunate enough to get out or he would have
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Souvenir sheets are one of the more interesting philatelic evolutions. Originally, they were issued for philatelic exhibitions, usually given away, sometimes sold at a small premium. The first souvenir sheets were usually just single sheet stamps with borders around them. Later, souvenir sheets became mini-sheets of stamps. Only in about 1930 did marginal markings on
Considering their rarity and value, Stradivarius violins seem to be the most carelessly handled items in the world. There are about 600 of them and in the last three years, one was left in a cab, and two on trains (the latest story of lost and found is here ). The stories follow a pattern-someone
Another Stradivarius Left on a Train Read More »
Tom and Ray Magliozzi are the brother mechanics who have run the radio talk show “Car Talk” for the last twenty-five years. The show is broadcast weekly on NPR and has a listenership of about three million each week. The Magliozzi brothers intersperse car advice and solving callers car repair problems with wit and charm.