For over 75 years the United States has issued stamps for Duck Hunting. To go hunting, each year a hunter must purchase a (now $15) Federal Duck hunting stamp and usually a state duck hunting stamp as well. The proceeds from the sale of the stamps are a user tax, going back to wetlands and […]
Broadly speaking, there are two types of philatelic items-those that are offered frequently and are readily available, even though their price may be substantial. And the second type of philatelic item is one that is rarely offered and of great rarity, even though the price may be quite modest. An example of the first would
Throughout philatelic history, writers have been predicting the next great philatelic area-the next specialty that will take off in price. Predictions are usually founded on one of two criteria that predict the supposed increase in the popularity that the stamps will undergo. Either the economy of the country will take off creating a pool of
Before it became the holiday that commemorated Americans who have defended their country in war, Memorial Day celebrated the end of the Civil War. It was felt by many of the former Confederate States that Memorial day was a Northern holiday that commemorated the North’s victory in the Civil War and for many years Memorial
When I was first coming into organized philately some 40 years ago there was a charming older woman named Wendy Williams. Wendy was about sixty then, worked in one the records offices in Philadelphia, had been married, was now divorced and had no children. Whatever club meeting you went to in the Philadelphia area in
I have spent a life time around stamp collectors. My father and grandfather were both stamp collectors, and I got my first album at the age of six. I have belonged to over ten clubs and have been a professional philatelist for over forty years. There is a little known secret about stamp collectors that
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There is an unfortunate hobby arc that goes like this. A wealthy person decides that he wishes to be an enthusiast, buys an enormous amount of gear, and loses interest before he has gotten any of the real enjoyment out of his new whim. This is the fly fisher who has all the latest Orvis gear or
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One of the greatest difficulties in our hobby is passing specialized information from one generation to the next. Philatelic books are often indexed and catalogs exist of book titles, but the vast majority of philatelic writing is (and was) for periodicals, and no adequate philatelic periodical index exists. During the later years of the Nineteenth Century,
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Historians mark two types of dates in history. There are dates like 1066, the Norman Conquest of Britain, which are known at the time to the players involved to be significant dates in which vast changes have occurred. And there are dates such as 1054, which marks the Great Schism between the Roman Catholic church and the Eastern church